QUEENS
QUEENS, NEW YORK
Two Months Earlier
When Flor accidentally dropped the glass bottle of sofrito on the hardwood floor causing it to shatter, she was even more upset. In her eyes, the dinner was ruined without it because most of the Puerto Rican recipes that Flor knew how to cook required sofrito. She thought about going out for some Chinese fast food instead of cooking dinner but quickly dismissed that. Eating a home-cooked meal was always important to her.
Flor knew that accidents like this happened frequently because there was little room to cook adequately. Their kitchen in the small studio apartment in Elmhurst was cramped when she first moved in by herself after leaving her parents’ house. When Roland moved in with her three years ago, it made things worse. They were living
