The Internet Travel Guide "Getting to Know Cuba"

Current issue dated

Eating

Cuban food is very starchy, high in calories, and rich and sweet. Due to the development of their own meat and dairy production, a fishing industry and the completion of an island-wide refrigeration system, Cuban eating habits have changed to some extent over the last 20 years. All the same, Cubans have not entirely broken with their old eating traditions. Eating fish is still not very popular. Along the coast, fish has always been a poor man's dish and in the interior of the country, cooling facilities were lacking. However, excellent fish dishes are served in good restaurants today.

Influences

Cuban cuisine has been influenced by Spanish, African, Chinese and North American cultures. All ingredients are put in one huge pot and cooked on a low heat until they have the favorite consistency: Cuban food has to be soft. Bread has to be soft and spongy, spaghetti is overcooked and pizza is a rubbery flat loaf with some mushy cheese and a great deal of ketchup. Chinese food, that is, sliced vegetables with sauce and rice, has to be so soft, that one can eat it without teeth and it should not be spicy. Even the pink sausage in the usual hot dog (perro caliente), which is usually cold, must have the consistency of pudding.

A traditional meal usually consists of grilled suckling pig or chicken stewed in orange juice, fried bananas, steamed yucca with sweet onions and butter, rice with black beans, sweet milk pudding and a strong, sweet coffee to finish. In times of economic plight, Cubans can afford such a dinner only once a year. An everyday dish consists of the local products of rice, beans, sugar and coffee which Cubans, who have no access to US dollars, buy with ration coupons.



Restaurants

In the normal restaurants or the privately run "paladares," we recommend the creole cuisine mentioned above. Cubans, who can afford to spend more than an average month's salary for a meal, visit these paladares with only 2-4 tables. They are run by family members on the side to avoid high taxation. In restaurants and hotels, one waits to be seated by the waiter. In addition, it is a custom in Cuba that one person pays the bill for the whole table.




Fast Food

Pizza parlors can be found all over Cuba, but the food that is served there is not reminiscent of Italian food. Pizzas are thick flat loaves with a tomato-cheese sauce on top and the spaghetti is overcooked and sticky. Still, those restaurants are popular because of their low prices. The fast food chain, El Rapido, can be found in all large cities. You can try Bocaditos (sandwich with ham and cheese), pizza and chicken with very moderate prices ($1.50 - $2).

Rapido, the fast-food chain

Moros y christianos ("Moors and Christians")
Rice with black beans is Cuba's national dish. It is very filling, but it is not served as hot as tourists might expect.

Tamales
Corn meal wraps filled with meat or vegetables.

Malanga
This starchy root was already one of the main foodstuffs for the Indian inhabitants. In times of food shortage this filling, although not very tasty side dish is still served.

Platanos (bananas fritas)
The green bananas are cut in long slices, squashed between two pieces of wood, dipped in spices and scrambled egg and then fried.

Pollo (chicken)
Chicken is served in many different ways, but there is not much difference between them.

Picadillo habanero
Stewed ground beef with tomatoes and olives.



Desserts
- flan: very sweet creme caramel
- natilla: vanilla pudding

A fancy cake

- casquito de guayaba con queso: guava jam with a slice of mild cheese
- coco rayado: a sticky, sweet paste made of grated coconut
- helado: ice cream
- churros: type of greasy, old-fashioned doughnut, originally a Spanish specialty