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Traditional
Cuban food is not as spicy as other cuisines in the region, such as
Jamaican or Mexican food. This is because of the Spanish influence in
which food is flavoured with garlic, onions, sweet peppers, and
cumin. You may find this Creole food quite high in fat.
Rice or rice
and beans accompany the main meat dish, a green salad and fried
banana chips together with the Cuban delicacies like Yuca con Mojo;
boiled cassava root soaked in hot garlic oil and Tamal;
ground maize sometimes with pork meat boiled in a packet made from
the leaf. Cerdo Asado; roasted pork, especially spit roasted
is famous in the countryside. Congris; rice cooked with black
beans and seasoning Tostones; platano (banana) in chips, must
be served hot! And for dessert do not forget the delicious Helado
(Ice cream) or Mermelada con Queso; guava marmalade with cheese!
Cuban cuisine
is the result of the mixing of Spanish, aboriginal, African and
Caribbean cuisines.
The
aboriginal cuisine still remains among Cubans. Columbus and his
sailors, for the first time tasted corn, cassava, peanuts, sweet
potatoes, pumpkins, peppers, "yautía" (a kind of
wild malanga) and other gifts of the flora, in Cuba. Here they ate
hutia (a kind of rodent) and knew of new fruits such as custard
apples, soursops, pineapples, star apples, mammees, anonas, icaco
plums, guavas, cashews, etc. Part of the aboriginal people's legacy
is the cassava bread and the "ajiaco".
The Cuban
Indians fished and hunted. There was a variety of fish and seafood in
the lagoons and rivers and a climate where people didn't need to
store food. Even if they had wanted to, the humidity and the heat
worked against it for the stored grain was quickly spoiled. The
Spaniards, when they arrived, on top of using the sources of proteins
they found locally, brought and reared poultry, cattle, pigs and
horses, all of which developed colossally well. Cuba became a
livestock producing giant and, in a few years, pork was the meat of
choice for the Cuban landlords who also obtained fat from it. To feed
the Africans, yams, malangas, several kinds of bananas and plantains
and the okra were acclimatized. Guinea fowls were also brought.
From Africa
they got the yam, the malanga, the banana and plantain, the okra, the
guinea fowl and dishes such as fufú (mashed plantains) and tostones
(green plantains smashed and twice-fried). From the African culture
they also received a preference for white rice eaten with all the
other foods, the fritters and the sauces.
The Spaniards
from the south of the peninsula, that came to the island during the
first centuries of the colony, also liked fried food. Andalusia is an
area where fried stuff is pervasive. The massive arrival of Spaniards
of Catalonian culture reinforced the intake of rice.
At the
beginning of the 20th century, the heavy Spanish immigration, now
made up mostly of northern Spaniards, made the Cuban gastronomy and
cuisine even more markedly Spanish. Spaniards took up posts as cooks
in restaurants and family homes. In the cuisine they introduced
chick-pea stew, bean stew, and sausages. The Cubans on their part
began to take fat, chorizo sausages, bacon and cabbages out of the
bean stew and the Galician bouillon. The Cuban bean soups ended up
just being made with brisket, potatoes and a sauce.top |