As someone who experienced a solid portion of my life in the Bronx, where plenty Latinos (Puerto Ricans mostly in my experience) inhabited and where you can catch a Chinese takeout spot on just about every street, I think I was always tuned into finding the similarities between the two “food groups” or at least identifying reasons why I’d be attracted to a particular Chinese food dish. Initially this could just be me grabbing at thin air, however, not too long ago I came across the term “Chino Latino”. This term has been used to identify people of mixed race (Chino means Chinese but colloquially it has been used to identify Asians in general. Thanks cultural insensitivity) and to identify food with mixed influences. I think my first experience with Chino Latino, prior to me ever knowing of this term, was eating Tostones and Chicharron de Pollo from Boe Sun, which you can read about on my blog. I also think another moment like this, although this would be more akin to culture shock, was seeing a presumably Chinese person cooking at a Chinese restaurant in Puerto Rico; there are plenty of Chinese takeout spots there but I was so used to Puerto Rican looking people cooking the food. From what I can tell, Chino-Puertorriqueño is more of cooking Puerto Rican food with Chinese techniques or a mix match style of eating (i.e Chicken and Broccoli w/ Mofongo). However, Chino Latino is far more integrated within Peruvian cuisine. Here’s a fun video to describe what some of that food looks like in a bit more depth.

Now I gotta ask my titi Isabelle where I can get some Chaufa and Lomo Saltado. Lomo Saltado looks like something that I would identify as comfort food: I love onions and peppers as garnishes, french fries are one of my top comfort foods on its own and I think bistec, when cooked to be really tender, can be a lovely moment between me and my food. I also just love rice in most forms and frying makes everything taste good so pass me some Chaufa!

Here are some more faces of the Chino Latino community present in NYC.:

If you’ve read this far, I’d love to hear what your take on this is. I’d be even more excited to hear you talk about your own narrative of being Chino Latino, experiencing the cuisine or if you’re like Chef “Ninja”, who’s Japanese and Dominican, and has a interesting narrative that the world should listen to.