Grains and Beans

There are not that many grains used in Puerto Rico they are rice and corn. But there are lots of beans used in the cuisine. They may include black beans, coffee, white bean (or to us navy beans), lima beans, garbanzo beans, green beans, green peas, kidney beans, lentils. pink beans, pinto beans.  

Herbs

Herbs are a big part of the cuisine some of the many may be as follws: basil, bay leaves, cilantro, marjoram, mint, oregano brujo. Puerto Rican wild oregano. This oregano, with its distinctive  aroma, grows wild on the island.  parsley, culanto, sage, tarragon, caribbean thyme (which is 10 times stronger then the thyme used here)

Vegetables

Puerto Rico has an amazing amout of vegetables that they have acess to. You may see some of these on your plate is you ever visit. Ajicitos, aij caballero (a very hot pepper that is distictive to Puerto Rico), asparagus, bell pepper, cabbage, calabash, carrot, cauliflower, cubanelle peppers, chayotes, cuccumber, eggplant, green onions, lettuce, onion, shallet, watercress, west Indian pumpkin. Alot of these you may see on your plate in the US as well.

Meats and Poultry

Puerto Ricos diet consist of lots of different kinds of meats and poultrys. Beef, butifarra( PR sausage), chicken. chorizo, corned beef, duck, goat, geese, guinea hen, ham, lamb, longaniza, oxtail, pigeon, pork, rabbit, salchichon(PR salami), turkey.

Seafood and Shellfish

As do meat and poultry, seafood and shellfish play a big part in the Puerto Rico diet. Chapín (Trunkfish), chillo, clams, cod, conch, dried and salt cod, marlin, mahi-mahi, mussel, octopus, oysters, salmon, shimp, spiney lobster, squid, tuna fish, and West Indian Great Land Crab.

Fruits

This is the biggest catogory that I have listed. Acerola cherry, anon (sugar apples), avacodo, bananas, bitter orange, caimito, chironja, coconut, corazon, cucumber, frambuesas (Puerto Rican raspberries), grapefruit, guanabana, guava, jackfruit, jobo, key lime, lemons, lime, mamey, mandarin orange, mango, nance, okra, orange, papaya, passion fruits, pineapple, pomegrante, red banana, sea grape, soursop, starfruit, tamarind, tomatoes, watermellon.