CUBA III.

More German happiness.
In our days in Cuba we were able to enjoy few times some German items thanks to Horst and Osly.
They shared with us some can German pork prepared with spices (Sülze), we accompanied this with German bread made by Osly.



They also had us for dinner: a good piece of pork steak, German sausage, fried potato patties, tomato salad, German beer and German chocolate cake…
Thanks Guys!!!



Car Show meal- Thanks Julio!!!
Julio, our good buddy in La Habana took us to the Car Show celebrated the first weekend of each month. In the show food is offered and we were Julio’s guests for chicharrones and pork ribs. The total for this meal was 90 Cuban Pesos which is equivalent to 3.75 CUC (10 Cuban pesos for the chicharrones and 40 Cuban Pesos for each meal Brian and I had).
Good deal, a bit greasy but enjoyable. Julio said his meal was better, it consisted of a mixed of different pork cuts in a skewer for almost double of the price, but worth it.





Banana bread, thanks Brian.
Brian should have been a scientist or something similar; he is always testing and creating. I like that. In Cuba it is hard to get stuff, think of anything and imagine it hard to be found. It is the case of anything, ingredients for baking are not the exception and if you find them they are of poor quality and/or really expensive.
However, we were able to find somewhat good flour and made it into banana bread; of course in order to get the eggs we had to spend days looking until they were available. Brian made nice looking banana bread, tasty and enjoyable for about 0.70 CUC being the butter the most expensive cost (0.40 CUC), which could have been 1/3 of that price if we had bought the real Cuban butter but then you get this mushy watery butter good for nothing.
Thanks Brian for the happiness you bring into my life!!!

We shared this banana bread with few people to the point that Brian was wondering why we were visiting the neighbourhood and he was getting nothing… I think people who got a piece enjoyed it, they even asked us to open a business to sell this bread that for sure you cannot get anywhere in Cuba.
We used Nutella from Germany (compliments of Osly and Horst) on the bread and discovered that by using butter under the Nutella you get a tasty Ferrero Rocher Banana Bread.
The recipe? It was not really develop by us so you can look for a simple banana bread recipe in the Internet and you will find lots, our addition to the recipe is the Ferrero Rocher discovery.
Enjoy!!!



Los chicharos de Victoria.
Chicharos = peas.
Victoria is the lady who we stayed with in our first arrival to La Habana, very nice lady. I have been meeting her once per week to learn a different Cuban recipe each time.
I am trying to use very little meat or no meat mainly because I am not a meat lover, although I enjoy it when it is available but also because pretty soon I will be meeting a friend who is vegetarian and I would like to be able to make couple of good meals for her and her husband.
This recipe is very tasty and contains no meat, it can be done with any kind of bean but we chose peas.
The total cost was 45 Cuban Pesos, about 1.9 CUC and the pot lasted for 4 meals for two people.

Ingredients:
2 Cups of peas
2 or more Cups of water
Potatoes
Pumpkin
Onion
Garlic
“Acelgas”
Bell pepper
Carrots
Culantro
Salt
Spices
Sugar
Oil
Wine vinegar

Preparation:
Important to mention that pressure cooker is fantastic and necessary to cook beans.
1) Cook the peas in the pressure cooker for about 50-70 minutes depending on the type of peas acquired.
2) Cut all veggies in medium size squared pieces and cook them with oil adding a bit of wine vinegar and water. Add the spices you may like e.g. cumin, pepper. Remember to start by cooking the hardest vegetables first i.e. potatoes and ending with acelgas.
3) Once the peas are cooked add the seasoned vegetables, salt, culantro, a bit of sugar and oil; cook without pressure for another 30 minutes.
4) Serve on top of rice or on its own…



Huevos con vegetales.
Vicky, Victoria’s daughter does not like to cook but she creates once in a while something that seems to be practical.
Here it is one of those recipes that I enjoy very much.

Ingredients:
Boiled eggs (as many as you desire)
Onion
Garlic
Carrots
Green peas
Potatoes
Vinegar
Seasoning salt
Salt
Tomato sauce
Oil

Preparation:
1) Cut the boiled eggs in wedges.
2) Sauté all available veggies, preferably the ones I mentioned above with oil and seasoning salt.
3) Place the eggs wedges in a frying pan (after adding a bit of oil to the pan) and add the veggies on top.
4) Add a little bit of oil on top, wine vinegar, tomato sauce and salt.
5) Cook for about 10 minutes and serve on top of rice or on its own.
6) Enjoy!!!



Berenjenas.
In other words eggplants. Eggplant is not an easy veggie to cook but Victoria’s recipe is able to bring together flavour with presentation very well.
The total cost was not calculated but take in consideration that I spent about 5.875 CUC for veggies and fruits for an entire week…

Ingredients:
1 Eggplant (more if you desire, for us we can share one)
“Acelgas”
Celery
Onion
Green onions
Broccoli
Bell pepper
Green peas
Carrots
Potatoes
Oil
Wine vinegar
Seasoning salt
Butter
Cheese if available

Preparation:
1) Cut the eggplant in half and scoop out the insides.
2) Cook all veggies along with the insides of the eggplant with a little bit of oil, once cook add a little bit of butter for flavour along with seasoning salt and wine vinegar.
3) Add this mix inside of each half of the eggplant. If cheese is available add it on top.
4) Place in oven until the skin of the eggplant is tender.
5) Once cooked served with some pasta (use any recipe that you may wish but it can simply be pasta with garlic and onions).
Note: I would recommend soaking the shelf of the eggplant in hot water to make it more tender before placing in the oven otherwise it comes out of the oven a bit hard even after cooking for a while which makes it impossible to eat the shelf.



Brian’s Pan Bakery.
This may remind you of Tom’s Pan Bakery in Costa Rica but nope, this is just Brian and Deya. Brian, like I said, never stops testing and he made some bread with Cuban flour!!!
He followed a recipe from the Internet for Simple Whole Wheat Bread which really calls for more white flour than whole wheat flour. In our modified version we used 2 cups of white flour and 3 cups of whole wheat flour which had been in the freezer for years but it worked.
Total cost of 1.175 for three loaves of bread. Good job Brian!!!

We ate this bread with some Leberwurst (liver paté) also compliments from Osly and Horst. Delicious.

CUBA II.

Cuba continues to be an interesting experience, like any other country except for in this country the black market of ingredients for cooking is huge; did you ever imagine that buying potatoes could be illegal? I did not…


Notes for cooking beans.
I continue in my search for recipes to cook beans and although the recipes are alike some of the suggestions or recommendations may make the difference in the original recipe written in VIVA LA REVOLUCION...

Olguita for example, a lady who we met at a rental room in Artemisa, told me that:
-By adding “vino seco/dry wine” the flavour of the beans is enhanced. This addition occurs after the “sofrito” is added to the beans. I tried it and it works well.
-By pressing on the beans with a strong spoon after adding the “sofrito” you can get a better consistency, better flavour since it is extracted from the beans as well as they become softer.
-By adding a bit of sugar the bitterness of the beans (if any) will go away. I think Cubans simply like sugar but oh well, I tried and it adds some flavour.
-By frying the garlic and onions to a brown colour more flavour is added. It works!!!

Another lady, Mayda Rodriguez Lafita who works at the Campismo Dos Hermanas in Vinales, added bell peppers in the sofrito. She recommended adding anything you may want, also any spices you may like e.g. oregano or pepper.


Papaya candy-Vinales.
This is a fantastic way of cooking papaya if you do not like the flavour of it, like Brian. At a Casa Particular called Villa Noel in Vinales, the best so far in our stay in Cuba, Mercedes cooked this dish.
It is basically papaya previously peeled and without the seeds, cut in squared pieces and cooked for 15 minutes in a pressure pot with the addition of sugar; how much sugar? It depends on the amount of sugar you like to have in this mix and the amount of syrup you want to end up with. Mercedes recommended equal portions of papaya and sugar which means a cup of papaya for a cup of sugar.
Later on when I had the opportunity I tried reproducing this recipe but I used half papaya, some fresh grated coconut and about ¼ cup of sugar, almost nothing and of course it was not as tasty but healthier. We then ate this mix in our morning hot cereal breakfast.
She cooked many other things that were delicious but for this recipe thanks Mercedes!!!




Green tomatoes.
I never imagined that green tomatoes could be eaten until someone on the road approached us and gave us three tomatoes for a salad to which I said: -Thanks, I will use them when they are ready; the gentleman told me that I did not have to wait at the same time that he took a bite.
I made a wonderful salad with the three tomatoes and from now on I am able to eat green tomatoes. It is easier to find green tomatoes in Cuba than red tomatoes… Problem solved!!!



Guava candy, Peanut bar and Coconut…
Three sweet wonderful things. The first one, guava candy, is a bit too sweet but good if you have a little piece as a dessert on its own or in a piece of bread with melted cheese (common in Cuba, this is called Timba de guayaba or Bocadito de guayaba or simply Pan con guayaba y queso, price = 5 Cuban Pesos or 0.20 CUC). The price of a bar of guava ranges from 12-18 Cuban Pesos = 0.83 CUC. I could not tell by the package how much in one bar but I would say about 250 grams.
A peanut bar is 3 Cuban Pesos = 0.15 CUC. Delicious snack although it has a lot of sugar.
Fresh grated coconut is great with hot cereal, it adds natural sweet flavour. For 0.42 CUC you can get a pound.



Cacique Beer.
Tasty and refreshing in the middle of the day. For 0.83 CUC you can get one and enjoy it at a bench in La Habana Vieja.



Coccinia Indica or Goccinia Grande or Papasan.
This strange fruit that we found in Cuba, originally from India, grows wild and apparently it reduces the glucose levels by 50%.
I do not have more information about it since I have limited access to Internet but you can find out more about it and let me know…
What I can tell you is that it tastes good, not very flavourful but good.



Thank Goodness for the Germans.
Germans are a positive addition to this world in many ways. When we are talking about food I am thankful to meet Germans because they know how to eat, they appreciate food and they share with us this appreciation.
In Cuba we met Horst and Osly, a nice German-Cuban couple, who shared with us real German beer (from Germany), a nice meal including potato salad and real German mustard.
It was a fantastic evening, our first real meal in Cuba. Thanks to both of you…





Products of crime.
I am not very proud of this discovery but also not ashamed since I did not put the dishes on the table and it is good to find out about these topics to be aware and make future choices. We went out with some people who took us for a “nice meal”. We had turtle soup (caguama) which I believe is illegal to capture and kill, I would not try it again for sure; it is tasty but not something worth a crime.
We also had crocodile which is legal and it was a good experience, it is soft and really tasty, almost like a mix of flavours between chicken and pork.
To finish this list of crimes, we had Cuban deer which is not a specie that exists in Cuba naturally but it was brought to feed the crocodiles in this island. I am not sure if I ate legal or illegal deer but I ate it and it was not as good as the Canadian deer I have had.

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.

VIVA LA REVOLUCION…

Our arrival to Cuba could not have been better, good weather and safe after 7 days of rough seas.
We had to wait a little bit before we were able to explore the food in this new country because we were delayed in Cienfuegos dealing with paperwork and in that time we did not even eat, I am not joking.

In Cuba there are two types of currency: Cuban Convertible Pesos used by tourists which are equivalent to approximately $0.92 Canadian dollars/1 CUC or $0.87 American dollars/1 CUC and Cuban Pesos used by Cubans which are 24 Cuban Pesos/1 CUC.
For the blog I will not confuse you and I will use CUC but I have bought most groceries with Cuban Pesos as if I was a Cuban, confusing eh!

Guayaba drink.
For 2 CUC you can get a refreshing drink in downtown La Habana. Quite expensive but it is always like that when you first arrive to a new world.
Guayaba=guava.



Cuban Pasta.
Yes, Cuban pasta. Our general pasta with the addition of Cuban cheese for $2.15 CUC (a big block that was good for 8 people). For the pasta I used tomato sauce that comes in a beer bottle; at the local shop where I got our veggies they only had green tomatoes or tomato sauce sold in recycle bottles, great idea!!!
We accompanied our pasta with Bucanero beer for $1/CUC each. Generally speaking there are two main beers: Bucanero and Cristal and they usually go for $1 CUC.




Fried chicken.
I had been craving roasted or fried chicken and the first time I tried it I felt like I was eating a piece of rubber. So, when in La Habana I found a tasty chicken for $96 Cuban Pesos equivalent to 4 CUC at LA PACHANGA, totally worth it.



HAVABA CLUB Rum Anejo Reserva & TUKOLA.
Tasting rum will be a task when in Cuba. Tasting tuKola is a most when in Cuba. If I translate that it means YOUR ASS (as it sounds, in writing would be “tu cola”). What it really means is your cola.
For 8 CUC you can get a bottle of Rum Anejo Reserva, tasty and soft, not too strong. Too early to make comparisons but as we learn we will share with you our findings as well as the use of each rum. This rum is good alone or with coke. You can also find diet coke tuKola but I do not recommend it like any other diet products.



Victoria’s Secret.
Victoria is a lady in La Habana who owns a B&B otherwise known in Cuba as Casa Particular to host tourists for a reasonable price, she also offers meals. We tried her breakfast for 5 CUC for two people and it included: guayaba juice, fruit, coffee, milk, bread and chicken burgers. It was a great experience.



Coppelia-Ensalada de helado (Ice cream salad).
This is the National Ice Cream Shop Cuban chain. You can go to the tourists’ side, likely what will happen or what you will be allowed to do or you can go to the Cuban side if you happen to have Cuban pesos and speak Spanish.
In the tourist side you will pay 4 CUC for an ice cream while in the Cuban side 3^rd Category (it goes from 1^st to 4^th depending on what is offered and quality of service, 1^st being the best) you will pay 0.2 CUC.
Guess where we had ice cream?, flavour of ice cream= mint plus rizado de guayaba (a mix of guava with vanilla), being this the first time we did not have to wait for a long time to make up our minds in what flavour to pick, the Government picked for us, no complaints about it, the opposite.



Snack.
If you will have a snack in Cuba I recommend ice cream, in the Cuban side. We tried this chips called Anillos de bacon (Rings of bacon) for 1 CUC, not very good.



Polar Bar Friday.
We were lucky to have been invited to the Polar Bar Friday at the Canadian Embassy before the year ended. Funny or not this gave us some kind of comfort. Burgers and fries were 8.5 CUC total plus a nice evening and excellent company. We got to meet the Ambassador for Canada in Cuba in this reunion as well as other Canadians who are able to put Canada’s name high.



Paella Cubana.
This is originally a Spanish meal but since Cuban was also conquered by Spanish this meal was adopted and modified. For 5.95 CUC you can get a huge plate to share at La Vicaria Restaurant in Varadero. What is this meal about? It is basically rice cooked mainly with saffron with the addition of sea food, chicken and pork. Very tasty.



Cuban coffee and cake.
Cuban coffee is usually strong and to my surprise people drink it sweet, yes, with the addition of sugar. Oh well. You will normally get a small cup of coffee half way filled up. Weird.
Now, you can get a Cuban chocolate cake for 3.85 CUC, yes an entire cake for this much. We got one and it lasted at least 3 days, of course I had to put a lock in the fridge and I had to hide the key from Brian.




Beans, beans, magical beans.
Beans are magical and getting groceries in Cuba even more. What I am going to share with you is a recipe to cook beans but before let me tell you a little bit about the groceries.
You can get all your groceries for few days for about 2.3 CUC, variety is limited but for this amount of money for sure you can get papaya, tomatoes, onions, yucca, bananas and plantains, rice and smoked bacon. In addition, pasta is about 0.85 CUC and cheese can range from 2.15 CUC for Cuban cheese (big block) or 2.85 Gouda cheese (small block). In reality the basics for few days will not go over 5 CUC for two people.
Five pounds of fresh picked beans cost 2 CUC.

When in Varadero the lady who rented an apartment to us taught me how to cook Cuban beans.

Ingredients:
Fresh black beans
Green bell pepper
Onions
Garlic
Aji
Culantro (a different kind of cilantro)
Salt
Cumin (if available)
Bay leaves
Bacon (if available)
Oil

Preparation:
1) Clean the beans to eliminate stones or bad beans. Then cook them in the pressure pot (in Cuban called Reyna) with water and the green bell pepper cut in half. We used two cups of beans and water to the indicated level.
2) Once the pressure was built we left the beans to cook for 45 minutes and in the mean time we cooked the sofrito (fried ingredients).
3) We cut and fried with oil the onions, garlic, aji, bacon and bay leave.
4) Once the beans were cooked and the pressure released we added the sofrito and continue to cook without pressure. To this mix we added the culantro and salt, we had no cumin.
5) We cooked for about 15 more minutes to obtain a good consistency and we serve on top of rice and accompanied with a tomato/cabbage salad.
6) The neighbours brought some bread for us and we left no marks on the plate.



Coco sweet life!!!
In Varadero we also tried some coconut sweet jam type. It is made with sugar boiled in water and the addition of coconut leaving a creamy paste that you can put on bread with cheese or simply eat by the spoon.
Fantastic.



HAVABA CLUB Rum Anejo 7 Años.
Another rum we tried and the one Brian has enjoyed the most so far. Cost = 11.90 CUC.



Compliments of Brian’s family.
Brian’s parents visited with us in Cuba. They arrived in Varadero and stayed at an All Inclusive Hotel. Due to the conditions of their stay and the fact that we could not visit with them at their hotel they invited us out few times.

***Cabaret Parisien at Hotel Nacional, La Habana- this is a place to enjoy dinner and watch a representative show of the African-Spanish-Cuban culture. For 58 CUC you can enjoy the dinner/show, worth it!!!




***Casa Nostra Cubana, Varadero- a little restaurant near the gas station on Street 54. They serve simple tasty dishes; Brian had lamb with rice & beans for 5.85 CUC and I had Fricase de pollo for 3.65 CUC. The only thing I disliked is that they added the tip in the bill, which I refused to pay as a mandatory fee.


***Arenas Blancas, Varadero- for the most part bad food. We were invited to spend time with the parents at a rate of 50 CUC per person for 8 hours, this gave us the right to use the facilities and eat. I will never recommend this hotel.

***La Barbacoa, Varadero- probably the best place out of all the places we ate at in Varadero. You can get a dish in a range of 7-18 CUC, the 18 CUC dish can be shared between 2-3 people.
I ordered chicken and really enjoyed it.


***La Fondue, Varadero- a place that seems interesting but it is not as good as it looks. You can get cheese fondue or chicken fondue among other dishes, for 7 CUC each. The cheese is ready to be enjoyed with bread but the chicken has to be cooked in hot oil by yourself. Do you want to cook your own dinner at a restaurant?