Cuba

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. Thus Cuban cuisines developed locally, from the influences and demographics specific to each area.

Cuban cuisine has almost nothing in common with Mexican cuisine, which is a surprise for many visitors from the United States or Europe. It also differs from other Latin American cuisines and food traditions of the United States.

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, although they are sometimes served separately with the beans in a dark, rich soup known as ‘frijoles colorado’ on the side), a main course (mainly pork or beef), some sort of vianda (not to be confused with the French viande which stands for “meat”, this term encompasses several types of tubers, such as yuca, malanga, and potato, as well as plantains, unripe bananas and even corn), a salad (usually simply composed of tomato, lettuce and avocado, though cucumber, carrots, cabbage and radish are not uncommon). Curiously, typical criollo meals largely ignore fruit, except ripe plantains, 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 at once, except maybe for desserts and fruit.

Rice and beans are a culinary element found throughout Cuba, although it varies by region. In the eastern part of the island, “arroz congri oriental” is the predominant rice and bean dish. White rice and red kidney beans are cooked together with a sofrito and then baked in the oven. The same procedure is used for the above mentioned Moros y Cristianos, literally “Moors and Christians” which uses black beans. Although the process of preparing the black bean soup contains basics (onion, garlic, bay leaf, salt) each region has their tradition of preparing it.

Meat, when available on ration book is usually served in light sauces. The most popular sauce, used to accompany not only roasted pork, but also the viandas, is Mojo or Mojito (not to be confused with the Mojito cocktail), made with oil, garlic, onion, spices such as oregano and bitter orange or lime juice. Boliche is a beef roast, stuffed with chorizo sausage. Ropa vieja is shredded beef (usually shank) simmered in tomato-based criollo sauce until it falls apart, resembling “old clothes, that came from the Canary Islands.”

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 pot. Tamales as well as Black Bean soup, are among the few indigenous foods that have remained part of the modern Cuban cuisine.

Stews and soups are common, especially 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, corn soup (guiso), caldosa (a soup made with a variety of tubers and meats), are popular dishes as well. Also common when available are the popular white bean Spanish stews, such as Caldo Gallego (Galician Stew), Fabada Asturiana (Asturian Stew) and Cocido de Garbanzos (Chickpea Stew).

Western Cuba cuisine

Although Western Cuba’s cooking is technically criollo as well (as this term signifies the existence of Spanish roots), its style can be separated from mainstream criollo, particularly in 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 (an egg and onion soup) and arroz salteado (salted rice), 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). Some Havana dishes make frequent use of alcaparrado, a mix of olives, raisins and caper which provide the sweet-and-sour-inspired flavour that is typical of this cuisine. Alcaparrado is used as an ingredient in several recipes, usually as part of sauces to accompany meats. It is also cooked together with ground beef to provide the meat stuffing for a variety of Cuban pastries, or finger food, very popular with Cubans.

Other common finger foods and dishes of Havana are croquetas (small cylinders of paste, made with a heavy bechamel sauce and ground beef, ham, chicken, fish, or cheese, covered with breadcrumbs and deep fried), papas rellenas (fried potato balls filled with ground beef), picadillo a la Habanera (ground beef with alcaparrado, served with white rice, black beans and fried plantains) and ninos envueltos (beef filled with alcaparrado and served in pepper sauce).

Western cuisine also makes wider use of eggs, particularly omelettes (such as tortilla de papa) and fried eggs (huevos a la habanera, fried eggs served over white rice and fried plantains). Fish dishes are also common, especially in coastal areas, and although Cuba has a well-developed lobster fishing industry, it is used very sparsely. Aside from Cuba’s present economic condition, which makes lobster an unreachable food for most families, Cuban cuisine was always of inland origin, therefore fish and sea products are as commonly used as in coastal areas, where crab is another common food staple. Popular fish recipes are enchilado (shrimp, fish, crab or lobster in a sauce that, despite its name, contains no chili), and a la vizcaina, a tomato-based sauce of Basque origin used to cook bacalao (salted cod).

Other Spanish dishes can be found in Cuba, such as the paella, arroz con pollo (chicken cooked with yellow rice much like a paella), and the empanada gallega (which is similar to an English meat pie). Due to heavy Galician and Asturian migration during the early 20th century, many northern Spanish dishes made their way to Cuba and influenced the cooking of many families, like the pulpo a la gallega.

Eastern Cuba cuisine

While western Cuba is heavily influenced by its European roots, eastern Cuba (the old Oriente province) is influenced by African and Caribbean cuisines. Perhaps the biggest contribution is the Congri oriental, which is cooked red beans and rice. This is due to the close proximity to the other Spanish-speaking islands, where red beans are more prevalent than black beans. Black beans are mainly synonymous with Cuban cuisine is because of the specific African tribe that brought that influence. Perhaps only Brazil (where that tribe was also perhaps sent to) is the only country in Latin America where black beans are more used. Cuban and Brazilian cuisine (and even culture) share a lot of similarities. Many foods from the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico can be found in eastern Cuba with their own twists. One example would be the mofongo (called fou-fou in Cuba), which is mashed plantains stuffed with pork, chicken, or seafood.

Desserts

In a country where sugar has historically represented both the main agricultural and industrial endeavour, 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.

Another dessert imported from Spain is the churro, a sweet, fried-dough pastry-based snack. Cuban churros are typically small, curved and covered in sugar (as opposed to Mexican churros, which are straight, thicker, longer, and covered in cinnamon), much how they originated in Spain. They are commonly enjoyed with Spanish style hot chocolate, which is made with a small amount of corn meal for a slight thickness.

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). Plantain-based desserts are also common, platanos en tentacion being a classic example (sweet plantains cooked with cinnamon, sugar, lime juice, white wine or rum).

Western Cuba cuisine offers more elaborate desserts, especially puddings, pastries and cakes. Most of these desserts are of Spanish origin, such as flan (Creme caramel), tocino del cielo (“Angel’s Bacon”), which is an egg yolk custard, brazo gitano (literally “Gypsy Arm”, a rolled cake base with several toppings), panetela borracha (“drunken cake”), small funnel shaped cakes soaked in liquor, 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 origins.

There are also a wide variety of Cuban ice creams, prepared with local fruit such as mamey, guanabana, anon, guayaba, and mantecado, an ice cream resembling french vanilla but with its own peculiar characteristics. Coconut ice cream, packed into half a coconut shell, is also popular.