Navidades Boricuas!!! Puerto Rican Christmas!!

The best season for me to write a post is Christmas Season, beacause in Puerto Rico you have the longest Christmas you can imagen. We begin our Christmas right after Thanksgiving Day, after you eat the turkey all the decorations and the tree is set up. In Puerto Rico we have something call Parrandas or Trullas Navideñas, which could be compare to the Carolers but with an up beat  music and a lot of spirit. The Parrandas are made by a group of people with traditional instruments, being the percussion instruments a very important part of the great sound that comes out.

With the music you can't let out the food! First we have lechón, which is roosted pork on a metal stick under the fair. Then the traditional arroz con gandules, combination of rice with pigeons peas, and of course the morcilla, which is like a sausage made with pork blood and cooked rice. Also there is the pasteles, green bananas mass with pork or chicken inside made with different ingredients like chickpeas, olives, bell pepper, and other recipes, all this wrapped with the plantain leave and wax paper.

Arroz con gandules and pasteles, all the rights of the picture to its respected owner.

Morcilla, all the rights of the pictures to its respected owner.

But you need to drink something with that incredible food! Not a problem, you want something sweet with a little alcohol on it, well we have Puerto Rican eggnog...Coquito!! Without the egg is better, some people do it with different kinds of ice cream (vanilla, chocolate, pistachio, etc.) and now some also use Nutella, but the traditional is with coconut milk or cream, sweetened condensed milk, evaporated milk, and of curse Rum, some people use Ron Caña or Pitorro. Oh, you don't know what is Ron Caña? Well, let me tell you about it. This strong alcoholic beverage is a traditional drink made with molasses, water, and yeast. People who makes this kind of rum tend to mixed it with fruits and curated it by burying the bottles in the ground for a long period of time.    

Pitorro or Ron Caña, all the rights of the picture to its respected owner.

All the rights to its respected owner.

Well all this food, drinks, and music are part of our Puerto Rican culture. But our Christmas don't end on this particular day, it goes till eight days after Three Kings Day on January 6. And right after this the Fiestas de la Calle San Sebastian on Old San Juan, three days with all the Puerto Rican Culture you can get on one place. With this our festivities end, and we came back to our normal agendas. I hope you like the post and come to visit Puerto Rico on its best season, our temperature is the same all year ^.~ Comment and share, Merry Christmas!!!