CUBA I.

I feel like January 2012 is when we really started to explore Cuba. I hope you enjoy what we have discovered.

Café Bombon & Cappuccino-Varadero.
Terry, a Canadian Bellow we met in Varadero, invited us for coffee in our last day. We had two different styles:
**Bombon for 0.60 CUC – made with layers of condensed milk, coffee, chocolate, milk foam and cinnamon. Lovely.
**Cappuccino for 0.75 CUC – made with layers of coffee, milk foam and cinnamon. As well delicious…




Bocadito de Jamon – little bite of ham- La Palma.
This is a great option for a snack in the afternoon, a little bite from a Cafeteria. You can get it for 5 Cuban Pesos which equals to 0.21 CUC. If you then get 2 bites and 2 juices named Coral (not natural), you pay 0.54 CUC. Pretty tasty and excellent price.



Pizza at Pizzeria La Caliente- Vinales.
Pizza is not my thing but for sure a good snack especially if it is economical and well done. You can buy a small pizza to be shared by two people for 10 Cuban Pesos equivalent to 0.42 CUC. Jam and cheese is all what you need.




Dinner at Belkis- Vinales.
We had the opportunity to eat at a Casa Particular for 8 CUC for two people. The menu was pumpkin soup, rice and beans, lobster, fried plantains and salad. The best part of it: the beans. Cuban people try to impress us with lobster which is not what we most desire and on top of it lobster is an illegal specie to have (for Cubans since lobster is only for export purposes by the Government); so we ate illegal purchased lobster. Later on we met the fisherman who illegally brought this lobster to Belkis, of course we found this out after we ate it.





Lunch at the 15 Years Celebration- Puerto Esperanza.
We were invited to a birthday party of a girl who became 15. The same than in most Latin countries this is a big deal for a family. The young girl had a big party and we enjoyed the food.

The menu was:
**Crackers with some kind of meat in between.
**Main dish: grilled pork, rice with beans, fried plantains, salad, tamal. We witnessed the killing of the pig the day before and once more I realized that if I had to kill my own meat I would think more than twice to eat meat.
**Crudo de pescado: made with mashed lobster, bonito (a kind of fish), onions, garlic, oil, vinegar & salt.
**Cake and sweets: which were served before the main meal. I asked them to save it for us until we had our main dish. I can’t eat sweets before real food even if I am a grown up and even if I am in another country…
**Rum was offered but we had none since we had to ride therefore we had water and a juice with pieces of fruit.

Very enjoyable but we had to escape, if you want to know why you will have to wait to see us again!!!







Croutons.
Lovely pieces of baked bread coming from the leftovers of the bread that did not sell during the day. You can find a big bag for 10 Cuban Pesos equivalent to 0.42 CUC. At first Brian looked at them with disgust but when he added butter he enjoyed them.



Malanga.
For 5 Cuban Pesos (0.21 CUC) you can get a pound of malanga which is similar to a potato but drier, therefore you have to prepare something else to go on top. We fried some garlic with onions in olive oil and we poured this mix on top of the boiled malanga, of course you have to peel the malanga before you boil it.
Very tasty…
It can also be made into mashed malanga with milk, butter and salt after boiling the peeled malanga. Also very tasty.