La vida moda

Latin-style entertaining doesn't have to mean serving tacos from a box, plopping rice and beans in aluminum pans, pouring tequila shots, and cranking up Mr. Living La Vida Loca on the stereo.

For more stylish Latin soirees, you can take ''mantequilla de los pobres," poor man's butter -- better known as avocado butter -- and smear the greenish fruity spread on Cuban crackers or baguettes. Or add kumquats to the traditional minty Cuban mojito for a sweeter taste and brighter color.

These twists to entertaining and serving are among dozens of suggestions from a new encyclopedia-thick book to help people add some Latin flavor and style to their dish, drinks, and decor.

''Latin Chic: Entertaining with Style and Sass," by Carolina Buia, a former writer for Time magazine, and Isabel Gonzalez, an editor for Hearst magazines, offers fairly simple and inexpensive suggestions for entertaining that highlight the Hispanic influence on American culture.

As these chic chicas entertained guests over the years in their New York pads with their native Latin sensibilities, they came up with the idea for a cook-book-meets-entertaining-manual for others who want to add a Latin touch to their party.

''In bookstores, there [were] entertaining books but there was nothing with a Latin twist on it," says Buia, a Venezuelan who lived in Miami and is considered the foodie of the two. ''How can we be the largest minority group in the US and . . . there be no guidebook?"

''We like to nurture and entertain, if it's our friends or family. Everyone who comes over is a guest," added Gonzalez, who is Cuban and grew up in Miami and is more of the cocktail chica. ''It's about being sophisticated, elegant, and entertaining."

They dived into their family recipes and researched other pan-Latin traditions and tried to explain their origins. (One example: some Dominicans believe that merengue music got its name because it's the kind of fast-moving music women played while beating eggs.)

Need a natural stirrer for that fruity cocktail? Cut raw sugar cane into thin strips so partiers can use them in those new and improved mojitos.

And ice? Freeze fresh mint leaves and berries in ice cubes to give glasses of water or whatever you serve a subtle hint of flavor, something that Back Bay resident Nellie Yacoubian plans to do at her next gathering.

''That gives it a nice appearance," she said. She's already tried out the recipe for cilantro soup, which is a creamy popular Mexican starter garnished with almonds. Her husband liked it, and she has bookmarked other tips for future parties such as the one suggesting corn husks to serve salsa.

''It's more about presentation," says Yacoubian, a projects manager at Brigham and Women's Hospital. ''The book explains how to put a theme together and how to put the food together and what kind of background music to put against the food."

If your gathering has many guests with diverse drinking tastes, one Latin Chic idea is to stock the ice tub with bottled drinks that represent various Latin American labels. From Puerto Rico, there's Malta India, a nonalcoholic drink found in most ethnic markets; or Presidente beers from Mexico and the Dominican Republic. During those hot Boston summer days, the chicas suggest serving a ''guava cooler," a pitcher filled with four cups of cranberry juice and four cups of guava juice and ice.

Johnny Diaz can be reached at jodiaz@globe.com