Charting the variety of Hispanic cooking styles is difficult. A simple dish of rice and beans, for instance, varies widely depending on whether
it's made by a Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban or Peruvian. To meet divergent needs, Goya sells 1,600 products ranging from bags of rice to ready-to-eat, frozen empanadas, up from 1,100 five years ago.
The mix includes 38 varieties of beans alone.
Purchasing habits are also influenced by the length of time a shopper has lived here. New immigrants often buy a 99-cent bag of dried beans that need to soak for hours to make traditional dishes, while their children, who earn more money, may buy more expensive, ready-to-eat canned beans to save time, Unanue says. "As people assimilate, they go to the can."
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