Everything you need to celebrate Día de Los Reyes

Since 2019, I’ve played Día de Los Reyes holiday host — a source of merriment encompassing an all-Puerto Rican dinner party complete with a boisterous playlist and endless coquito. Distanced from my motherland, this Twelfth Night celebration has become uniquely mine, giving birth to new traditions with a community of friends and peers and where nostalgic memories become homey flavors.

With 16% of the city’s population being Hispanic and Latinx, I’m constantly pursuing culturally relevant places to buy traditional food and ingredients. Stocking up on provisions here in Philly for Los Reyes Magos is a comforting reminder that accessing foods I revere is within reach and allows for serious menu research and development. Here’s where I tap into Philadelphia’s network of Hispanic and Latinx shops, vendors, and merchants to recreate Three Kings Day at home, plus essential dishes from my favorite cookbooks (most available at Taller Puertorriqueño’s bookstore). Below, all of the essential ingredients for a Three Kings Day party.

The showstopper of my Reyes Magos meal is pernil (garlic-rubbed slow-roasted pork butt) which I’ve learned to perfect thanks to Von Diaz’s excellent recipe. Cappuccio’s Meats in the Italian Market is my butcher of choice: one bone-in pork butt (around eight pounds) costs around $25.

When rice can’t be outsourced to family friends (I refuse to risk making bad rice for a crowd), I tap Dairys Mayoral of Home Cuban Cafe in Old City for platters of arroz y habichuelas (yellow rice and beans), plus some Cuban antojitos like jamon croquetas and papa reyenas (ground-beef filled potato croquettes). I’ve also ordered Parada Maimon’s arroz con gandules (yellow rice with pigeon peas) in previous years as a pinch hitter.

At the Mexican-run South Philly Mini Market near my house, I gather ingredients for my menu starters like fried plantains served two ways: maduros (yellow-almost-black bananas are fried once resulting in softer, caramelized plantains) and tostones (firm green bananas are twice-fried and flattened to super crispy and salty plantains). I use the technique of soaking plantain slices in a garlic and salt water bath for 15 minutes to add extra flavor, as described in Puerto Rican Cookery by Carmen Aboy Valldejuli, who also explains the difference between the bananas and their resulting textures.

Coconuts & Collards by Von Diaz turned me onto using guava for barbecue sauce as a must-have marinade. Guava adds a touch of sweetness and body to savory proteins, especially pinchos. Amy Rivera-Nassar of Amy’s Pastelillos makes banger guava barbecue pork pastelillos which I buy several of whenever possible.

I also cut guava jelly into cubes for fried queso skewers, one of my favorite party snacks. Salty, sticky, sweet, savory. (Pro tip: Guava Katsu Sauce from Poi Dog is an excellent substitution.)

I return to the Philadelphia Christmas Village at Love Park this year to pick up FAIYA’s Dominican Mama Juana Hot Sauce. Their salsa verde is a household fixture, but I’m also a huge fan of La Parchita, a special edition hot sauce with passion fruit mango pepper sauce made in collaboration with Amy’s Pastelillos. It’s perfect for a sweet and spicy bite.

To be clear: Coquito is not eggnog. While both drinks overlap by using warm spices for flavor, coquito’s name implies a coconut drink, and traditionally in Puerto Rico, eggs are not used. So, we are an eggless coquito household. My husband leads our coquito concoctions, testing different recipes each year. Previous crowd favorites featured pepper rum from South Philly’s Cuban-inspired Otto Distilling. Diasporican by Illyanna Maisonet has an egg-less version (plus a historical explanation of the island’s rum punch) that’s super easy to make: Blend coconut milk, cream of coconut, condensed milk, Puerto Rican rum, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cardamom, cloves, ice, and salt on high then shake well before serving. And San Juan-based writer Alicia Kennedy’s vegan pumpkin-spiced coquito will convert any hater.

This year we’re mixing it up with LyAnna Sanabria’s coquito which offers a bit more depth with Angostura bitters and toasted spice coconut syrup. We’re also huge fans of using Tenango Rum, a Guatemalan rum founded by Philadelphia’s Sofia Deleon of El Merkury.

Yvonne Ortiz’s A Taste of Puerto Rico taught me about the varieties of mojito de ajo: the traditional version with tons of fresh garlic and olive oil; mojo isleño, heartier with yellow onion, tomato sauce, manzanilla olives, and bell peppers; chili-pepper based ajilimójili salsa, and mojito de mango with fresh ginger, cilantro, and a touch of sugar. I give the traditional version a bright spark with lime juice and white wine vinegar and smother it on everything. Warning: This super-charged garlic condiment is not for the faint of heart.

As my guest list grows each year, Three Kings Day offers a time to pause, share stories, and strengthen connections within my community. Seeing my home filled with dozens of friends across the diaspora, I think how lucky I am to be surrounded by such good people. Below, a few chime in with what it means to honor and affirm our respective national identities on this day.

“I give smaller gifts for Christmas to make Three Kings the season’s highlight,” says Marangeli Mejía-Rabell, cofounder and partner at Afrotaino and director of the Philadelphia Latino Film Festival. The Puerto Rico-born arts leader celebrates Gaspar, Melchor, y Baltasar (Los Reyes Magos) with specific Boricua treats bought at Cousin’s Supermarket, plus pasteles and other goodies from Amy’s Pastelillos.

Mole Street Baker’s Cote Tapia-Marmugi didn’t grow up celebrating Three Kings Day in Santiago, Chile but embraces the religious tradition with her husband’s family in Spain. “We eat the Roscón de Reyes (Spanish Kings’ Cake), have hot chocolate, watch the Madrid parade which is bonkers, and get our son little gifts that we leave by his shoes from Los Reyes,” says Tapia-Marmugi.

Sazon’s Judith Suzarra-Campbell of Venezuela reminisces on Three Kings Day past as “something little that always made us happy.” Her mom kept the Christmas tree up until Jan. 7 decorated with “El Nacimiento con Los Tres Reyes Magos” and presents for her and her siblings. “I remember Mami making arepitas dulce con anis, y para el desayuno queso y café con leche,” she says.

Middle Child Clubhouse Executive Chef Edwin De La Rosa plans to keep Three Kings Day going with his new wife and daughter, shopping for ingredients at Compare and Save Supermarket in North Philly.

“Growing up we would typically cook and eat the traditional Dominican dishes: arroz con habichuelas, pollo guisada, ensalada verde, tostones, maduros, and flan.”

For De La Rosa, Three Kings Day is a way to reconnect with his Dominican heritage and more recently, to other Latinos here in Philly whose work inspires him like Catherine Peña of Small Oven Pastry Shop, Sashia Gabrieli Liriano (former Chef de Cuisine at Friday, Saturday, Sunday), and chef Yun Josué Fuentes Morales at Bolo.

Gabrieli Liriano echoes that the Latinx restaurant community has prevented her from feeling super homesick especially now with her Dominican-inspired Saviñon popups. She thinks back fondly of eating her aunt Elina’s pudin de pan (bread pudding), her mother Angela’s pernil “con mucho oregano Dominicano,” and seeing adults dressed up as Los Reyes Magos giving presents to children.