Food in Cuba

Food sells tours. My colleagues talk about pasta and I want to pull up stakes and emigrate again, even if every hamlet on Earth has multiple Italian restaurants. (I keep wandering into likely spots here in Chile and seeing “pizza, pasta, tiramisu.”) But when people asked me about the food in Cuba, I wasn’t sure what to say.

Cuba has great food. Best yucca I’ve ever had, though that’s a hard sell for Americans. I normally don’t eat beef but always want another portion of savory ropa vieja. And ice cream never tasted as good as it did in Havana’s legendary Coppelia, the “cathedral of ice cream” opened in 1966 to showcase Communist success, and where they filmed the movie that launched the country another step forward in social justice.A

However, Cuba has also has Uncle Sam’s hands around its throat for almost 70 years. I remember menus where the question was “well then, what DO you have” and hoping it was beans and rice. Learning that cream sauces aren’t a great idea in a country that loses power regularly. Wondering if the pizza was produced in the Soviet Union. Can we expect a country to have gourmet menus when we don’t even let them have gas to deliver it?

Turns out…kind of yes.

On the first night they loaded the table with sumptuous appetizers, my neighbor’s piece of pork looked marvelous (Cubans really know how to cook a pig) and my fish was absolutely divine. A great change of pace from the repetitive salmon/trout we usually get, this was almost like a steak in its savory heartiness. But that’s a famous restaurant that Obama loves. Maybe a one-off.

The next day had the first of many delicious squash soups, winter’s seasonal specialty, each spiced per the cook’s inspiration. The pork tacos around the corner were to die for (plus the best hot sauce I’ve had in a long time, courtesy of a Mexican chef). And the farm-to-table gave us a feast that even included lobster.

Sure, it became a running joke that every meal was “You have three choices: pork, chicken, or fish” except isn’t that pretty much always the case? These are the things people have chosen to eat in the last century, we just dress them up for you in sexy adjectives and foreign vocabulary. More importantly, being surrounded by people unaccustomed to easy opulence reminds us that we assume it, and not to take pork, chicken, or fish for granted.

Food is not the main reason to go to Cuba. On that island, the heart and mind come before the stomach, and besides, there’s plenty of time for pizza, pasta, and tiramisu when you get home. But all told, all devoured, the food this year was another iteration of the lesson that Cuba is not what US media portrays it to be. It is a place of resilience, ingenuity, and vibrant culture. It is a land of generosity, hospitality, and hands inviting you to sit and eat together. We did, and we enjoyed every meal both for the food itself but also for the experience of being there to eat it.

Now that’s good travel. Buen provecho!