Hi, I'm Analida – welcome to Ethnic Spoon!
I’m a passionate home cook, recipe developer, and food explorer. I started this blog in 2013 to inspire home cooks to bring global flavors into their kitchens through easy, affordable recipes made with fresh, accessible ingredients.
Ethnic Spoon is a family effort—our team is made up of enthusiastic home cooks with deep cultural roots and a shared love for authentic global cuisine. Whether you're cooking for your family or exploring new culinary traditions, I strive to make every recipe approachable, rewarding, and rich with tradition.
Our mission is to preserve and share authentic ethnic recipes so home cooks everywhere can experience the joy of global flavors in their own kitchens.
Will, a fan of our Mexican pork carnitas, says:
"I've made these about 10 times now since discovering this site last year. Amazing—everyone has loved them. Thank you! ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐"
Madre, who tried our Moroccan lamb tagine recipe, writes:
"I've used quite a few different lamb tagine recipes over the years trying to recreate that authentic flavor I once had in a restaurant. This is it! Even my husband—my toughest critic—went back for seconds and said the same! ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐"
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Meet the Ethnic Spoon Team
Analida Braeger: Originally from Panamá and now living in the United States, Analida also spent four years living in Europe. She began cooking as a child alongside her father, who was of French descent and a passionate home cook. He passed down his love of global cuisine, sparking her interest in exploring foods from around the world at an early age.
Her travels have taken her across the United States, Canada, Ireland, Spain, France, Russia, the UK, Latin America, and Southeast Asia—giving her firsthand experience with a wide range of culinary traditions and cultural influences.
Adam Braeger: Adam is a culinary professional and recipe developer, with a degree in Culinary Arts from Mercyhurst University. He has traveled throughout Panamá, Europe, Vietnam, Thailand, Laos, Myanmar, and Cambodia, immersing himself in local food cultures and ingredients to bring authentic flavors and inspiration to our readers.
Erika Braeger: Erika lived in China for one year and Vietnam for four, and has extensively traveled through Mexico, South America, and Southeast Asia, researching local cultures and cuisines through the many connections she built along the way. She currently works as an SEO strategist and recipe researcher.
Tom Braeger: Tom is our site administrator, food stylist, and photographer. His work has been featured in the Erie Times-News, Easia Travel Cambodia, Faith Magazine, Edible Western NY, and other publications. In his spare time, he hunts down locally published and hard-to-find ethnic cookbooks, researching their recipes to bring authentic global flavors to our readers.
Here are some cool features of my site
- Many of my recipes include easy to follow step by step photos to help you make the dish perfectly the first time.
- If you have a question just email me at [email protected] or leave a comment right below the recipe in the comment section. I read all comments and I try to reply to all questions on a daily basis. I want to be your personal culinary consultant. Let's do this!
- Most ingredients can be found at your local market.
- There are some more exotic ingredients in a few dishes and I will link out to those right in the recipe that will take you to Amazon. If you make an Amazon purchase I will make small commission, at no extra cost to you, that helps me cover the cost of running the site. (There is a full disclosure on this at the bottom.)
- Fun fact: I'm also an adjunct lecturer in architectural history at Mercyhurst University, so I love weaving historical context into my recipes—whether it’s about the dish, the culture, or the ingredients.
- All my recipes have a word count and read time. If you are in a hurry you can always click "Jump to Recipe" and get right to the ingredients and instructions of the dish.
- Each recipe includes a button to adjust the number of servings, and the ingredient quantities will update automatically.
- You can sign up for my email list and I will email you every new recipe I publish.
How Ethnic Spoon Began
About 35 years ago, my husband and I became friends with a French chef who had just opened a small bistro in our downtown. I suggested he offer cooking classes on Sundays—his only day off—and he agreed.
For the next four and a half years, a few friends and I took over the bistro’s tiny kitchen every Sunday. Under his guidance, we learned to master classic French sauces, perfect crème brûlée, and prepare coq au vin. We practiced knife skills, learned how to test cream sauces, and even how to properly tie a roast.
Each session was filled with laughter, learning, and of course, good wine. We always ended the day gathered around the table, enjoying the delicious results of our efforts.
As the years went by, I began to experiment with other ethnic dishes, Middle Eastern, Indian, and Italian just to name a few. In 2010 I took things a step further and began to research the history of food. I find this fascinating because there is such an intimate connection between food and culture.
The summer of 2013 I began teaching ethnic food classes at a local organic market. The place had a stunning studio kitchen and bar stools for all the “students” to gather around. I offered a series in Latin American cooking. The classes were small and offered ample opportunity for chatting, mingling, drinking wine and yes, cooking! It was after teaching and preparing recipe handouts for students that I decided to put my recipes online. Analida's Ethnic Spoon was launched in the fall of 2013. See our FAQ page for more details about our site activities. Analida's Ethnic Spoon recipes have been featured on Taste of Home, Parade Magazine, Business Insider, BuzzFeed, Food Gawker, PopSugar, Edible Western, NY and many other sites and publications.
I have many friends from every continent and hope to share some of their "sabor" with all of you.
Contact Us
I would love to hear from you or if you have a question on a recipe please contact me. You can also message me via Facebook.
(I speak Spanish, English and French so drop me a note.)
¡Buen provecho!
Analida
Charitable Work
A portion of our site revenue is used to fight world hunger as part of our Christian faith and mission. Please consider a sustaining gift to Mary's Meals and read their story of hope they bring. Matthew 25:40 "Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me."
Affiliate Links and Privacy Policy
Amazon affiliate links:
Our site contains affiliate links to help maintain our publishing activities. If you make a purchase from a link on our site, we may receive a small percentage of that sale, at no extra cost to you. Ethnicspoon.com is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.
View our privacy policy.