COCINA

New tastes of Portugal

Stretching from the Minho River on its mountainous northern frontier with Galicia to the dry Algarve in the south, Portugal occupies most of the western coast of the Iberian Peninsula. And though it once ruled half of the world, it has enjoyed far less of the culinary limelight than its neighbor, Spain.

Jackfruit: It's time to embrace this bounteous behemoth

The jackfruit is the largest fruit on earth, a wonder of nature. Seeing this native of India's sweltering rain forests growing strong and bountiful in South Florida makes our part of the world feel less tame and more tropical.

Sweet taste of mango stirs Cuban childhood memories

When I returned to Cuba in 1999 after 29 years, it took me days to gather the courage to drive up to Cuabitas, our old neighborhood in the mountains above Santiago, to see what had become of my mother's childhood home. Divided between two families, it was a shadow of the graceful, mustard-colored mansion I remembered, a happy place surrounded by fruit groves lovingly tended by my grandfather, Santiago Parladé, and his daughters.

COCINA

Onions define Latin flavor

''The fragrance of the earth is alive in your crystalline nature,'' Chilean poet Pablo Neruda wrote of the humble onion. And of all the seasoning ingredients we use, it is the onion, with its earthy sweetness and sharp pungency, that best defines Latin flavor.