The typical Cuban
gastronomy is the result of the interaction of the Spanish,
African and Asian influences. The Spaniards took to the
island diet vegetables, rice, oranges, lemons and cattle.
The African incorporated foods like ñame -a kind
of tubercle-, to which were added the existing in the
island, like yucca, gumbo, sweet potato and maize. All
these elements were fused with time in what today we denominate
Cuban kitchen. By now, the basic products in the elaboration
of their dishes are rice, beans, yucca, corn, banana and
pig, as well as a rich variety of tropical fruits.
The typical Cuban dish is the ajiaco, a vianda and meat
soup. The calf and the pig are the meats of greater demand;
it’s traditional to cook the pig to the prong, roasted
to the whole furnace, gutted and shaved. Also much fish
is consumed, mainly in the cities. The most appreciated
is pargo, although also great amounts of shrimps, lobsters
and other varieties of seafood are consumed. The Cuban
kitchen has many creòle plates, like the rice with
chicken and the romeritos, prepared with white flour and
leavening.
In the rich and varied afro-Cuban kitchen, the plates
conserve their African name. The most traditional is congri.
This plate has two varieties: rice with red beans, called
Congo, or with black beans, known as "Moors and Christians".
Other specialities of this kitchen are zambrilla, based
on banana slices fried and kneaded; pig cracklings and
minced meat, known as picadillo habanero.
Among desserts the best is guenguel, candy done with ground
maize, sugar and cinnamon, and among drinks the champola,
with gunábana, sugar cane and milk. The cane juice
and the molasses serve to prepare sweet drinks. Between
the spirits the best are the rum and the beer, although
in the bars the absolute star is daiquiri, a drink made
of white and dry rum, lemon juice, sugar and pricked ice,
and that became famous by the fascination that felt by
it the American writer Ernest Hemingway.
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