Upon returning to the United States, one of the things I will be most interested in asking about will be tourists’ experience of Cuban food. Before coming, Elliott told me that the food in Cuba is shit. This is true. The food in Cuba is shit. On the other hand, it’s extremely cheap. I can get a full plate of good quality comida tipica for $0.75. This plate usually includes a fried egg or two, arroz congris (rice and beans), cabbage, a couple tomato slices and a piece or two of malanga. It fills your stomach and although not particularly nutritionally useful, tastes good! If I’m feeling creative, I can walk to the agromercado and buy some vegetables, then head to the bakery and get a baguette (we finally found fresh baked bread!!!) and make a sandwich. A few times, Kate, Sarah, Tyler and I have cooked enormous pasta dishes at home.
I was having an interesting talk with Sarah and Tyler today about how our standards have dropped in terms of food. We were eating some Nestle ice cream, which we eat whenever we can get our hands on (it’s just now occurring to me that the ice cream itself was kind of disgustinag). During the first couple weeks of the program I was appalled by a lot of the food that was put in front of me, sick of the same eggs, bread, guyaba and juice for breakfast, bored of the same arroz congris, cabbage, yucca and pathetic tomato for lunch, and annoyed by the peso pizza. But then I began to go off in smaller groups in search of food, take chances, and my Spanish improved enough as to where I could negotiate the menu and customize my order. So a tired “espaguetti napolitana” became “espaguetti con espinaca, berenjena, cebolla y aceite” and the food got so much better.
I also attribute this to my tastes changing…or compromising. They have two kinds of cheese here. One is cheddar and one is this indescribable plasticine white thing with holes in it. I am growing to really like the stuff. I’m also getting really into eggplant, cabbage and tomatoes (which I think are all vine ripened), and feeling very enthusiastic about cilantro. The agromercado sells vegetables, beans, and flowers. It’s also a space for people to sell their small culinary creations. This one booth I love sells garlic paste, lime juice, and tomato past all in used Heineken bottles for dirt cheap prices. They also sell single use seasoning packets and peanut paste sticks.
Food here is cooked with whichever ingredients are available on a daily or weekly basis. This means that if you want to serve international tasting food, you either need to pay an arm and a leg for supplies smuggled in from somewhere (like the restaurant next door has truffles, this confounds me), or you need to get creative. This one delicious restaurant called Isla de la Pasta does this fantastically. Owned by an Italian man, the food is as close to authentic Italian as you can get here. They make their own pasta, they offer foccacia, a complimentary piece of bruschetta to start each meal, they have delicious calzones, and make delicious pesto. But because there are no pine nuts here, they use peanuts. So the pesto is delicious but tastes kind of Thai because of the peanut flavor. I personally love it.
What this has all taught me is to be thankful for the flavors of capitalism. At home, I can literally have whatever food I want, whenever I want it. There are stories of Cubans entering American grocery stores and falling to their knees with tears in their eyes because they have never seen such immense variety. I’m not sure if this will happen to me in the grocery store. It will most likely happen in the beer section of a Whole Foods. By the time I will return I will be 21, and for the first time be able to legally purchase delicious craft beer. Here there is Bucanero, Cristal, Heineken, Bavaria, and Cacique. Most places only have Cristal and Bucanero. You see the point.