Come join Miriam and dru’s book musings as we sit down for a Q&A session.

What is your full name?
Miriam Quiñones-Smith

How old are you?
33

What is your profession?
I have two culinary and culture shows—Cocina Caribeña is a weekly segment on La Tacita UnMundo’s morning show, Abuela Approved (in Spanglish) is a video channel. And I hold a Ph.D. in food anthropology. I never intended to be a culinary personality (Being on camera, especially live, is not my idea of fun.), but I’ve come to love it. It is a great way to share the food history of the Caribbean. I dreamed of being an academic and compiling my field studies and research into a cookbook. Maybe one day, I’ll return to academia.

Do you have a significant other?
Yes.

What is their name and profession?
Robert D. Smith. When I met him, he was an environmental engineering professor. (He’s older than me by five years.) That was when we were in New York. Now, he has his own consulting business.

Do you have any children?
One and one on the way. Manny turns five in May. He likes to help me in the kitchen and is excited to be a big brother. I call the one on the way la sirena /mermaid because, coño, this baby craves seafood.

Do you have any siblings?
No, but I have a prima that I’m close to. Her name is Yoli, and she is engaged to Bette. They run a cafeteria in Hialeah. I call it Tres Sillas (because it has only three stools at the counter), but its real name is Tres Palmas. She took over the restaurant from her parents.

Are your parents nearby?
My parents are in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic. They are property managers for some vacation villas. We video chat weekly, but I miss them terribly. They took the job a few months before Robert & I decided to move back to Miami. I wish we lived closer so Manny and La Sirena could grow up with their abuelos.

Who is your best friend?
Alma Diaz. We’ve been besties since childhood. She’s a successful real estate broker. She is very involved in the area’s social clubs and youth sports teams. She sponsors the town’s Little Cleats team, the Coral Shores Crabs. Alma knows almost everyone in town because she has either sold them a house or sold their house.

Do you have cats, dogs, or other pets?
Camo is my son’s calico cat. And our neighbor’s dog, a vizsla named Tom, stays with us when his owner has to go out of town.

What town do you live in?
Coral Shores, a municipality within Miami.

What type of dwelling do you own or rent?
We own a three-bedroom with a large backyard. The yard is big enough for a pool, but instead, we have a nice patio with an outdoor kitchen and a good-sized dining table. Manny has a play cottage beside a mango tree. We planted the tree about six months ago, so it will be another year before it bears fruit.

What is your favorite spot in your home?
I love my study. It is off of the living room. It’s not huge, but it holds all my books, has a small desk, and a comfy reading chair by a picture window.

What is your favorite meal and dessert?
That is a difficult question to answer! My career is all about food. Hmm. One of my favorite dishes is fricase de pollo/chicken fricassee. It has a rich golden sauce and goes well with white rice. I enjoy desserts like flan, but I don’t have a sweet tooth. I will never say no to a croqueta. Tia Elba (Yoli’s mom) makes the best. My friend Marie, who has a Haitian food truck, makes a delicious slaw called pikliz. I can’t get enough of it. I’m always collecting recipes, dish variations, and cooking techniques from friends. Patricia Campbell, who visits regularly from Jamaica, recently showed Manny how to make ackee and saltfish. Ooo, I could go for some ensalada de pulpo/octopus salad.

Do you have any hobbies?
Does collecting cookbooks count? I love a good cookbook. I read them like a history book. Open any cookbook in my study, and a slew of index cards and sticky notes will probably fall out.

What music do you listen to?
I love all kinds of music, from rock en español to salsa to Bad Bunny.

What is your favorite color?
I like citrusy colors—lime, orange, lemon yellow. Alma gifted me some new maternity clothes recently. One of the shirts is aqua, which might be my new favorite color. Alma has a better fashion sense than I do. Whenever I need to dress for an occasion, I call her.

What is your favorite vacation spot?
I live in a vacation spot! The Caribbean is my passion, and so I’m happiest there.

Are you a morning or night person?
I think being a parent has made me into a morning person.

What is your idea of a really fun time?
Fieldwork! I love hearing culinary history from the source. I want to go into the countryside and listen to the elders. Tell me about the recipe your grandmother taught you.

If you were to write a memoir, what would you call it?
Tell me what you eat (And I’ll tell you where you are from)

Amateur or professional sleuth and whom do you work with?
I am a reluctant sleuth, aka a crime magnet. Trust me, I do not want to be investigating crime. Detective Pullman likes to call me Veronica (Mars), but I think I’m more of a Jessica Fletcher.

What is a typical day in your life like?
I start my morning with a cortadito (like a café con leche but with less milk) and a tostada (toasted and buttered Cuban bread).) Manny gets dropped off at Agape Montessori. On Mondays, I go to the studio to tape my Cocina Caribeña cooking segment. I usually have lunch at Tres Sillas on my way home. Sometimes, Tia drags me to the botanica next door to the cafeteria to buy a candle or a despojo. I’m back in the studio on Wednesdays to record the Spanglish voiceover for Abuela Approved. Fridays are my test kitchen days. We’ve been doubling up on recording episodes in anticipation of my maternity leave. Sometimes, La Tacita’s host asks me to do a spotlight for a special event or a holiday. We did a few for Navidad, and I think she mentioned we might do one for Three Kings Day / Dia de los Reyes Magos in Puerto Rico. I should probably check my UnMundo email account in case they sent out a schedule update. Delvis, my director, usually sends me a text, though.

Barbacoa, Bomba, and Betrayal, A Caribbean Kitchen Mystery Book #3
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Release: November 2023
Format: Print, Digital, Audio
Purchase Link

In the third installment of the Caribbean Kitchen mysteries, for fans of Mia P. Manansala , Miriam Quiñones, cooking show sensation and amateur sleuth, has sand between her toes and a murderer nipping at her heels.

A surprise trip to Miriam’s parents in Punta Cana, which should be filled with arroz con pollo and breezy days under the tamarind tree, quickly becomes a hunt for a possible property saboteur. But before Miriam can begin to uncover the person damaging the vacation rentals her parents manage, she’s called away to Puerto Rico to film a Three Kings Day special. She’s welcomed to the blue ballast-stone streets of Old San Juan by crime scene tape, and things only get worse from there.

An anonymous personal gift on Miriam’s doorstep on New Year’s Eve screams stalker, and the 400-year-old guesthouse creaks and moans like there is something trapped in its walls. Luckily, her BFF, Alma, and their mutual friend Jorge are in town to keep her distracted between filming cultural segments for the network. But private chef tables and spa days come to an abrupt halt when Jorge’s telenovela heartthrob novio goes missing. And there is something worrisome about Alma’s too-perfect boyfriend–specifically, his duffle bag full of cash.

Will demon masks, African drumbeats, and dark alleys lead to Miriam’s demise? Or will the mysterious events come together like the delicious layers of a pastelón?

About the author
Raquel V. Reyes writes Latina protagonists. Her work has won a LEFTY award, an International Latino Book Award, been nominated for Anthony and Agatha Awards, and optioned for film. Her short stories appear in various anthologies, including The Best American Mystery and Suspense 2022. Find her across social media as @LatinaSleuths.