A refreshing take on the increasingly popular cookbook-memoir subgenre, My (Half) Latinx Kitchen: Half Recipes, Half Stories, All Latin American by Kiera Wright-Ruiz is a soul-searching journey that uses food as a navigating force. The daughter of an Ecuadorian man and Korean woman, Wright-Ruiz has dealt with the anxiety-provoking question “What are you?” her entire life. She notes that her food life isn’t the type you typically read about in cookbooks, where the author is taught recipes handed down through generations. Wright-Ruiz learned to cook from her parents, grandparents, foster parents and the bubbling cultures around her, and that’s how she has found her identity too. “This cookbook is a celebration of Latin American dishes and how the journey to embrace a culture isn’t always linear,” she writes.
The result is a cookbook of (mostly) Latin American dishes emphasizing the Mexican-, Cuban- and Ecuadorian-inspired recipes from those who raised and influenced her, such as menestra de lentejas (a deliciously flavorful lentil stew from Ecuador), ropa vieja (slowly stewed shredded beef and bell peppers from Cuba) and champurrado (a chocolaty corn-based Mexican drink). She includes recipes that are funny and personal, such as “3 Salsas You Must Know How to Make Before You Die” and “My Perfect Cuban Breakfast.” An intro to each recipe explains and clarifies the ingredients, cultural context and impact of that particular dish on Wright-Ruiz’s life. All are interspersed with witty stories and personal reflections, like her love letter to plantains and the culinary prowess of her “Aunt TT the Kitchen God.” An informative ingredient section lists interesting facts about Latin American foods used in her recipes, such as hominy (soaked corn kernels processed through nixtamalization, which was invented by Indigenous Mesoamericans), naranjilla (a small orange fruit that was enjoyed by the Incas) and Tajin (a Mexican seasoning that’s “a little salty, a little citrusy, and a little smoky”).
My (Half) Latinx Kitchen is richly imagined with fun, full-color illustrations by Zyan Méndez: Smiling plantains are suspended in outer space, and an amused woman with big hoop earrings lounges on an avocado slice in a pool of a stew. Coupled with enticing, full-bleed photos of the dishes and highly stylized spreads of ingredients, Wright-Ruiz’s cookbook is a pleasure to page through.
