The social network that celebrates Latin food
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Hi, everyone!
I'm writing an article about Hispanic Kitchen and would like to hear from a few members about why you like Hispanic Kitchen. Is it the delicious recipes, the new friends you are making? Perhaps your new contacts are bringing you fresh inspiration? Is the Kitchnen reminding you of home? Maybe it's something else altogether that keeps you coming back...
Drop me a line or comment right here.
I look forward to hearing from you!
Views: 6
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Amanda Lightfoot on -
Hi, Maydel.
I like HK, because the diversity gives me fresh ideas. I love learning about a new culture, and the stories that go along with the recipes. I also have become a follwer of a lot of the personal blogs listed here as well. If I had to choose it would be the recipes and pictures of the food that keeps me coming back. So thank you Jorge, for coming up with HK! I log in everyday. It's my"Latin Foodie Facebook"! LOL
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Permalink Reply by Maydel Santana-Bravo on -
Thank you, Amanda!
Sounds like you are having a lot of fun! I bet family and friends are enjoying too.
Did you group up in a Latin enviroment or did you come to appreciate all this wonderfully diverse food later in life?
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Permalink Reply by Amanda Lightfoot on
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Oh I am! Yes ma'am I did grow up with a Latin influence. I am of Mexican and Spanish descent. I grew up with tamales and turkey, Spanish rice and frijoles for thanksgiving. LOL It's been within the last 7 years that my love for Latin food has grown. It seems the more I learn, the more I feel a certain kindredship with my fellow Latinos. I like to say that "Food is the common denominator with everyone." I read cookbooks like a novel, from cover to cover. LOL To me food and history go hand in hand. I show my love through cooking for others. It goes back to my abuelita Sarita. There was never a time that you went to her house that she didn't try to stuff you with food. I now find myself doing that very same thing. Love this site! Keep rocking!!
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Permalink Reply by Carolyn Swaney on -
I love the new recipes, the inspiration to try new things, and of course, the photos! I might not necessarily print and follow the exact recipe every time, but I usually come up with new things after seeing dishes that other members have made.
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Permalink Reply by ladon hopkins on -
I would like to learn more about Hispanic grilling. I can cook Paella on the gas grill in a Paella pan but am wondering if there are other dishes anyone prepares on grills.
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Permalink Reply by Franz A Arango Jr on -
Always looking for old recipes and looking for cronies like me who actually love to cook. I'm new on HK and wish to invite my friends on FB and others who share my love for cooking. This site has the making of Food only FB network.So far only one comment and no responses. Recently was inspired by a old friend who sent me her grandma recipe and Recreated a old Cuban dish Carne Fria!!! It's all about the ingredients and how fresh they are!!!
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Permalink Reply by Maydel Santana-Bravo on
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Hello, Franz!
Thanks for your comment. I agree with you that a very intersting energy is developing around Hispanic Kitchen. Last week we were featured in the Miami Herald! Please see story below.
And when you have a chance, how about sharing that carne fria recipe?
Saludos.
Food website aims to be abuela's kitchen in cyberspace
BY ANA VECIANA-SUAREZ
aveciana@MiamiHerald.com
Growing up in Westchester, Miami's center of suburban cubanía, Jorge Bravo took for granted his maternal grandmother's picadillo (ground-beef hash) and harina de maiz (cornmeal porridge). He didn't fully appreciate the time and effort it took to fry up malanga chips, now a packaged staple at the supermarket.
``All my friends were gringos,'' recalls Bravo, 41, with a wry laugh. ``I wanted to eat hamburgers.''
No more. The Miami-born Cuban American has launched HispanicKitchen.com , a social networking site touted as the digital equivalent of abuela's kitchen table. It gathers the culinary traditions of Hispanic countries from Argentina to Cuba to Spain and serves up ideas and commentary along with rice and beans.
``I want to show people that Latin food is much broader than Mexican or Tex Mex food or whatever they're familiar with,'' Bravo says. ``This is a chance to explore.''
Hispanic Kitchen features recipes, of course, but also videos, blogs, interviews and a lot of sharing by Latin food aficionados, including a number of chefs. This is where you come to find a recipe (and a story) about tembleque de coco, a jiggly Puerto Rican dessert, as well as plantain-encrusted tilapia.
Another tab leads you to a list of specialty stores that stock a dizzying variety of hot peppers (the Albuquerque-based Chile Addict Store) and all things Spanish, from holiday sweets to clay cookware (Spanishtable.com).
``I like to think of this as a campfire,'' Bravo says. ``This is where you gather over the blog of the day, and the recipe is the driving force.''
INTERACTIVE SITE
When Bravo began toying with the idea of a Latin food site more than a year ago, he knew he wanted it to be interactive. Looking for your mother's old recipe for boliche (stuffed beef roast)? Somewhere, someone might have it. Dating a Salvadoran and hoping to win her heart through her stomach? Ask for help from your fellow Hispanic Kitchen members.
``The beauty of social networking is that you can share experiences and learn from each other,'' Bravo says. ``It's a targeted community. People are on the site because they're interested in the same things you are.''
Cindy Kennedy, who lives ``in the middle of nowhere'' in East Texas, became a member of Hispanic Kitchen soon after it was launched in June 2009. She found the site while searching for a red sauce for her tamales.
``We entertain frequently and we really like Mexican and Tex-Mex food,'' she says. ``I'm always looking for authentic Mexican cooking.''
She's found that and more at Hispanic Kitchen. ``The blogs are really incredible. They're full of energy and ideas,'' Kennedy says. ``There's a cheese ball recipe I can't wait to try.''
For many, it's a chance to recreate the tastes of their childhood -- or to discover the foods of the largest minority in the United States.
Kennedy grew up in Texas eating Tex-Mex food, but her travels have introduced her to a variety of cuisines. She hopes Hispanic Kitchen promotes the region's culinary traditions to people like her.
``From when I first started going on, I've seen the site grow and attract more people,'' she says. ``There are more cooks from abroad bringing their own stories and their own traditions to the site, and that's what makes it so interesting.''
Bravo won't say how many unique visitors the site gets, only that the numbers are growing though the business is not yet self-sustaining. In the past month, the number of fans on Hispanic Kitchen's Facebook page has nearly quadrupled (more than 5,500 at last count) and traffic to the website has doubled. ``We're moving in the right direction,'' he says.
Eighty-five percent of Hispanic Kitchen members are women. At 42, the average visitor is 15 years older than the average U.S. Hispanic. Bravo expects to attract younger visitors as Hispanics youngsters mature, marry -- and become nostalgic for home cooking.
``As people get older, they get more involved in family life and they get more into cooking,'' he says.
Members' interests and cultural backgrounds have surprised Bravo. For one thing, 30 percent are non-Hispanic.
``They want to learn,'' he says. ``They tell me, `My husband is Mexican and I want to figure out how to make this dish.' ''
Of the remainder, 38 percent are from the Caribbean, 15 percent from South America, 13 percent from Mexico and 5 percent from Spain.
Bravo has recruited bloggers and chefs from various culinary traditions. Cielito Rosado, for example, is a Puerto Rican TV cooking personality with her own website in Spanish. Denisse Oller is a former New York TV news anchor turned chef. Michael Flores, who recently contributed a recipe for grilled lamb atop Greek orzo salad with Texas watermelon, is a San Antonio chef.
HEALTHY FOCUS
Oller, who writes about food and nutrition for AARP's Viva magazine, focuses on healthy Latino recipes that ``are easy to put together and easy on the pocketbook.'' (A recent dish: chicken chipotle salad over fried plantains.)
Food, she says, ``ties you to your identity, to your family, to your childhood and to your culture. It's who you are. The website isn't just recipes. It links you to your past and opens up possibilities to connect with people from all over.''
New York personal chef Norma Torres, author of the Platanos, Mangoes and Me! blog, posts about six times a month. She decided to participate because she wanted to share her experience but also learn from others.
``I get to meet so many people online without leaving home, people who are interested in food and cooking,'' she says. A friend she made on the site, a fellow foodie from Argentina, is flying in for Torres' 60th birthday.
Hispanic Kitchen might not have come to be if the economy had not been in the doldrums. Bravo, who worked in the media and publishing industry (including a stint with The Miami Herald), took time off to pursue an M.B.A. at Florida International University. When he graduated in 2008, he spent six months looking for a job, but ``this entrepreneurial itch I've always had'' kept growing.
A Food Channel addict, he realized that, except for a handful of cable shows, there was nothing for born-again Latino foodies in English. It seemed a logical niche in which to scratch that itch.
His wife, Maydel Santana-Bravo, director of media relations at FIU, encouraged him to try, pointing out that there were probably thousands of people like her. Raised in a Cuban-American household of cooks who created elaborate dishes without recipes, Santana-Bravo wanted to reconnect with her food roots.
``My 92-year-old grandmother made the best carne asada in the world, but if we didn't write down the recipe it was going to be lost,'' she says. ``I'm trying to preserve it before it's gone.''
CUBAN POT ROAST
Santana-Bravo tried her hand at her grandmother's pot roast, serving it to her husband and their daughter, Karina, over white rice.
``What do you think?'' she asked.
Bravo gave it a thumbs up, but she was more critical. ``It's not 100 percent,'' she mused. ``It's not there yet, maybe 97 percent.''
That is the kind of exchange Bravo hopes to encourage among Hispanic Kitchen members.
``This is all about trying to explore, about learning,'' he says.
Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/08/26/v-print/1791329/a-food-websit...
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Permalink Reply by Lisa Cawley on -
Very cool! Congrats on the article and on the website growth. I just checked the Hispanic Kitchen page on Facebook, and there are more than 9,000 fans now. Incredible! Keep it up!
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