At Cafe Borinqueña, a Vegan Chef Cooks Puerto Rican Food Without the Pernil - Eater SF
"Casa Borinqueña is the Bay Area’s only vegan Puerto Rican food business. When Lourdes Marquez-Nau, the proprietor of the Oakland-based Puerto Rican catering business Casa Borinqueña, announced a little over a month ago that she would start serving only vegan dishes moving forward, the response from the local Puerto Rican community was mixed. 'That’s not real Puerto Rican food' was one typical response, Marquez-Nau says. 'How can you do it without the pernil?' was another. This idea that vegan Puerto Rican food might be seen as controversial wasn’t exactly surprising to the chef. After all, the island’s cuisine is famously meat-centric, and pork — including pernil, the beloved roast pork shoulder preparation — plays an especially central role. Still, Marquez-Nau thought to herself, 'I need to stay true to me, to stay true to my dishes.' And so she’s pressed forward with Casa Borinqueña’s new takeout menu of such Puerto Rican classics as shrimp mofongo, arroz con gandules, and pastellitos — all of them plant-based." - Luke Tsai
