L ifestyles /C ulture
Puerto Rican Chef Luis Liceaga
Learned Kosher Cooking in College
F O OD
KERI WHITE | JE FOOD COLUMNIST
LUIS LICEAGA, chef/owner
of Loco Lucho, the Puerto
Rican restaurant in the
Reading Terminal Market, is
not necessarily someone you’d
peg to have kept kosher for part
of his life.

“My friends called me
‘Liceagastein,’” he joked, “and I
loved every minute of it.”
It began when Liceaga
arrived at the University of
Pennsylvania from Puerto Rico
40 years ago. He did not know
a soul.

The first person he met was
David Alben, a fellow fresh-
man from Yonkers, N.Y. The
second person he met was
Michael Yasner, a junior from
Long Island. Both were Jewish
— a culture that Liceaga had
little exposure to growing up
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM coming and affectionate.

Food is a huge part of our
Catholic in Puerto Rico. They traditions. I was so far from
became instant, immediate, home, and both David and
Michael’s families sort of
lifelong friends.

“It was like we were long adopted me. I called David’s
lost brothers. David
and I even looked
alike. We didn’t think
about it at the time —
we just became friends
and hung out together
all the time, but I’ve
considered it a lot over
the years, and once
you take the religious
rituals out of our two
backgrounds, we are
very, very similar,”
he said.

“Bot h
Puer to
Ricans and Jews value
family above all. We
place such respect on
parents and grand-
parents. We are both
are very warm, wel-
Luis Liceaga, chef/owner of Loco Lucho
parents Mom and Dad. I went
to their homes for holidays; it
was wonderful.”
The friends added a fourth
to their trio, Jose Melendez,
another student from Puerto
Rico, and the quartet
decided to live together
the following year. The
first item of decoration
they acquired for their
pad was a sign the hung
over their door: “PRJB
Pleasure Palace” (PRJB
stood for Puerto Rican
Jewish Boys — which
they now attribute to
the folly of youth; they
were 19 after all).

Liceaga was the only
one who knew how to
cook, so the kitchen
became his domain.

He came by the skill
honestly; his mother,
grandmother and great-
aunt are the renowned
Photos provided cookbook authors of
the seminal work on
Puerto Rican cuisine:
Cucina Criolla.

Yasner was strictly
Orthodox, so they
had to create a kosher
kitchen. Liceaga learned
the rules from Yasner’s
and Alben’s mothers
and grandmothers.

“They taught me
Yiddish curses as well
was the recipes and the
rules! We got two sets
of dishes; we observed
Shabbos,” he said. “I
bought the chametz
during Passover. We did
seders. I still remember
the Four Questions
word for word.”
In addition to tra-
ditional Jewish recipes,
Liceaga adapted Puerto
Rican dishes to kosher
dietary laws. A favor-
ite of the group was
his arroz con pollo, or
chicken with rice.

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www.ristorantecastello.com 215.283.9500
ARROZ CON POLLO
Serves four hungry college boys,
or six regular appetites
1 chicken (2½-3 pounds),
cut up
Salt Adobo seasoning (can be
found in Latino section
of most grocery stores)
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 small onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1 can stewed tomatoes
(19 ounces)
⅓ cup cooking sherry
1 package sazon
(seasoning mix, available
in Latino section of most
grocery stores)
½ teaspoon paprika
1 bay leaf
1½ cups water
1½ cups uncooked white rice
Pimentos and/or green olives
to garnish.

Season the chicken gener-
ously with the salt and adobo.

In a large skillet with a cover,
heat the oil and brown the
chicken on all sides.

Add the onion and garlic
and brown the chicken for five
minutes more.

Add the remaining ingredi-
ents except the rice, cover and
simmer for 15 minutes.

Add the rice, cover and sim-
mer for 30 minutes.

Top with sliced pimentos,
and/or pitted green olives, if
desired, and serve. l
FEBRUARY 21, 2019
21