Cuban cuisine is a fusion of Spanish, African and Caribbean cuisines. Cuban recipes share spices and techniques with Spanish and African cooking, with some Caribbean influence in spice and flavor. A small, but noteworthy, Chinese influence can also be accounted for, mainly in the Havana area.

Due to historical reasons, the Cuban population was not equally distributed along the island. African slaves were a majority in the sugar cane plantations, but in most of the cities they constituted a minority. Tobacco plantations were inhabited mainly by poor Spanish peasants, mostly from the Canary Islands. The eastern part of the island also received massive quantities of French, Haitian and Caribbean immigrants, mainly during the Haitian Revolution, as well as seasonal workers for the sugar cane harvest, while the western part did not, receiving, instead, European, mostly Spanish, immigration well into the 1950s. This implied that Cuban cuisine developed locally, from the influences and demographics specific to each area.

Criollo Cuisine

Eastern Cuban cuisine forms the basis of criollo cooking (the term criollo stands for "creole"), which shares a great deal of recipes with other Caribbean cuisines, but has the distinctive difference of making almost no use of peppers. Other spices are however an important ingredient, the most dominant being garlic, cumin, onion, Cuban oregano and bay leaves.

A typical meal would consist of rice and beans (usually cooked together, in a recipe called Moros y cristianos), a main course (mainly pork or beef), some sort of vianda (such as yuca, malanga, and potato, as well as plantains, unripe bananas and even corn), a salad (usually composed of tomato and lettuce). Curiously, typical criollo meals largely ignore fruit, except ripe bananas, which are usually consumed together with the rice and beans. Tropical fruit could be served, however, depending on each family's preferences. Usually, all dishes are brought together to the table, except maybe for desserts, appetizers and fruit.

Meat is usually served in light sauces. The most popular sauce, used to accompany not only roasted pork, but also the viandas, is Mojo, made with oil, garlic, onion, and lime juice. Boliche is a beef roast, stuffed with chorizo sausage. Ropa Vieja is beef simmered in criollo sauce with peas until it falls apart, resembling "old clothes."

Equally popular are tamales, although not exactly similar to its Mexican counterpart. Made with corn flour, shortening and pieces of pork meat, tamales are wrapped in corn leaves and tied, boiled in salted water and served in a number of different ways. Tamales en cazuela is almost the same recipe, although it does not require the lengthy process of packing the tamales in the corn leaves before cooking, but rather is directly cooked in the pan.

Stews and soups are common, specially made from black and red beans. These are usually consumed along with white rice or gofio (a type of corn flour), or eaten alone. Corn stew, caldosa (a soup made with a variety of tubers and meats), are popular dishes as well.

Western Cuban Cuisine

Although technically speaking Western Cuba's cooking is criollo as well (as this term signifies the existence of spanish roots), its style can be separated from mainstream criollo, specially at Havana. This city, for a number of reasons, was more continental and closer to the European cuisine. There's also a notable Chinese influence, in dishes such as sopa china and arroz salteado, among others. Rice is usually consumed separately from beans, and flour is much more commonly used (it is almost completely ignored, in mainstream criollo cooking). Traditional Havana dishes make frequent use of alcaparrado, a mix of olives, raisins and caper, which provide the sweet-and-sour-inspired flavor that is typical of this cuisine. Alcaparrado is used as ingredient in several recipes, usually as part of sauces to accompany meats.

Other common Havana dishes are croquetas (croquettes, small cilinders of paste, made with a heavy bechamel sauce and ground beef, ham, chicken or fish, covered with breadcrumbs and deep fried), papas rellenas (fried potato balls filled with ground beef), picadillo a la Habanera (grinded beef with alcaparrado, served with white rice and fried banana) and niños envueltos (beef filled with alcaparrado and served in pepper sauce).

Western cuisine also makes wide use of eggs, especially omelettes (such as tortilla de papa) and fried eggs (huevos a la habanera, fried eggs served with white rice and fried bananas). Fish is also a common ingredient, especially in coastal areas. Cuba has a well developed lobster fishing industry; this ingredient is however used very sparsely. Aside from Cuba's present economic condition, which makes lobster an unreachable ingredient for most families, Cuban cuisine was always of inland origin, therefore fish and sea products are not so commonly used, except in coastal areas, where crab is another common ingredient. A popular fish recipe is enchilado (fish, crab or lobster in a sauce that, despite its name, seldom contains chili).

Desserts

In a country where sugar historically represented both the main agricultural and industrial endeavor, desserts are of course ubiquitous. The simplest sugar dessert is raspadura, which is pure solidified sugar cane molasses.

Criollo cooking usually resorts to very simple desserts made mainly with fruit and sugar, such as dulce de coco (ground coconut flesh boiled with sugar) or casquitos de guayaba (guava flesh boiled with sugar). Dulce de Guayaba, barra de guayaba or membrillo are names that describe one of Cuba's most ubiquitous dessert: Guava paste (made with guava, sugar and gelatine). Most criollo desserts are tremendously sweet (usually, fruits and sugar are used in equal quantities for the recipe), and this has established the custom of eating these desserts along with salted cheese or cream cheese, that help reduce the perceived sweetness of these dishes. Other common ingredients in criollo desserts are cinnamon, lime and vanilla.

Marmalade is very common, usually made with guava, mango or other tropical fruits. Marmalades are frequently used as a filling for other desserts, such as pasteles, masareal and empanadas (different types of marmalade-filled pastries). Banana-based desserts are also common, platanos en tentación being a classic example (bananas cooked with cinnamon, sugar, lime juice and white wine).

Western Cuba cuisine offers more elaborate desserts, specially puddings, pastries and cakes. Most of these desserts are of Spanish origin, as tocino del cielo ("Angel's Bacon"), brazo gitano (literally "Gipsy Arm", a rolled cake base with several toppings) and turrones (although Cuban nougats are usually made with peanuts, whereas Spanish nougats mainly use almonds). Other common desserts could have English, French or even Italian origin.

Drinks

Cuban meals are usually accompanied with beer or natural water. Wine is not usually served in meals, although it could be used to prepare sangría, which is however consumed before or after the meal, not along with it. Other popular non-alcoholic drinks are malta (a dark, unfermented wort with sugar molasses added as sweetener [1], which is popular in several Caribbean countries) and guarapo (the juice of the sugar cane, served with lime and ice).

Batidos (milkshakes) are very popular. Usually, they use tropical fruits as their base (mamey, mango, cherimoya and sugar-apple being the most appreciated). Chocolate and vanilla are common choices, as well.

Sandwiches

A Cuban sandwich is a popular export of Cuban cuisine to the United States, especially in Florida. It is a simple pressed sandwich traditionally made with sliced roast pork (cold), thinly sliced Serrano ham (cold), thinly sliced Swiss cheese, sweet pickles and yellow mustard on buttered Cuban bread, pressed in a grill called "la plancha", and cut in half diagonally.

Pan con lechón is a traditional sandwich which is frequently sold on the streets at Cuban Carnivals. Its ingredients are bread and roasted pork. Another common traditional sandwich is pan con timba (bread with dulce de guayaba and cream cheese).

Links

http://www.tasteofcuba.com/
http://www.cubanfoodrecipes.com/
http://www.cubanfoodmarket.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=TREC&Store_Code=CFM

Copyright (c)2006 Fernando Morales.

Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled "GNU Free Documentation License".

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