Food in Cuba can sometimes be quite the experience. There are two types of food here: “typical” creole food and non-typical, non-creole food.
Typical food is usually arroz con gris which is when black beans and rice are prepared in the same pot at the same time, so the result is a moist grey rice with black beans mixed in. Each dish has a choice of meat, usually some variety of pork – pulled pork, a cutlet or a steak-like piece. Sometimes there is also fried chicken, a fillet of fish or a whole fish. In restaurants there is also lobster and shrimp. You choose one meat to be served atop your rice. For the garnish there are usually three slices of cucumber and a few slices of tomato and a scoop of chopped cabbage, served with salt, oil and vinegar on the side to be added to taste.
This food is usually served in porcelain bowls with a spoon or a fork and a napkin – you eat before you pay and sit down if there is space and give back the bowl when you are finished.
A meal like this would cost around 30 moneda nacional, or about $1.20USD. For a cheaper lunch option, many people go for pan con tortilla where a piece of bread like a bun served with a one egg omelet and maybe some mayonaise for 2 or 3 moneda nacional (approximately 8 cents USD) or more for some ham added inside.
The second type of food Cubans make and eat on the street are peso pizzas, hot dogs with french fries and pasta. After heavy wheat subsidies in the 60s by the Soviet Union, the pizza industry took off in Cuba. Now an individually sized cheese pizza is about 13 moneda nacional or 50USD cents. The pizza tastes like doughy wonderbread with some Prego or spaghetti-Os sauce spread over it and some cheese on top, toasted in the microwave. Optional additional toppings include pineapple, onion, pepper, ham or extra cheese. Pizza is not served on plates, but on pieces of copy paper ripped in half and one pays after eating.
To eat this food, just look for various enclaves and cutouts in the wall with people gathered around a menu listing the items. However always ask what they have because usually a menu listing 40 things is only serving up three things that day.
Both types of food can be served at the same place, in addition to refreshing cups of soda or juice. The drinks are either refrescos – refreshers which are like diluted root beer for 5USD cents or a cup of juice – pinapple or guayaba – for 15USD cents. Additionally, a 4USD cent shot of espresso – the way Cubans take their coffee – is always being served.