This is yuca en escabeche, it is a traditional Puerto Rican dish. It is traditionally made with boiled yuca, onion, garlic, pimentos, a lot of vinegar, a little bit of honey, and then traditionally with olives. I chose this dish for my mother and my grandmother. Of all the dishes that they made for our family all day and everyday, this was the only one they made exclusively for themselves. It was because they were the only ones who liked it. I would often volunteer to help prepare this because it’s also very easy to prepare. You boil the yuca, you saute the onions. My grandmother and I used to make this in the kitchen. My mother had me when she was nineteen and a half. She married my father, a military man, when she was eighteen. He was stationed on the island Puerto Rico and immediately afterwards we became a transient family and we were moving everywhere. I think to compensate for their youth, my parents became very strict with me, the first child. And so my abuelita saw that, and I think she wanted to sort of temper and remedy it by being a fun grandma, which she had never done before. So her way of doing that, when I volunteered to make this salad, she would sort of teach me life lessons that my mom would never think of to teach me while we were cooking in the kitchen together. And this was everything from boys to bad words. And so I remember distinctly stirring the boiling yuca and having her whisper, “Cono carajo! So this dish takes on a lot of layers of self expression, and freedom, and doing things maybe my mom doesn’t really know about and a bonding activity with my grandma. As I pass this around I encourage you to channel her spirit. When I prepare this dish that is very strong flavored and very unique, I think of my grandparents who are also very unique individuals and have taught me to embrace a fierce individuality.