Hitch hiking, la botella.

This is a common way of traveling.

Cubans do a lot of walking everyday everywhere so I didn’t understand why here in Australia people wanted to walk or run. For us in Cuba, to get into a car is a big luxury, something that happens very rarely. So I can say people in Cuba are fit, most of them. In Cuba we travel to the university and to work by hitch hiking.

If it were necessary they would jump on a truck while it was moving to get a ride, scenes like you see on the movies. This type of action was not always a success, especially if you were not young. I remember doing it as a young woman on my way back from school, a sea of strong arms would offer to lift me into the truck. As I said this was not for fun, it was the product of necessity.

We travel like that, no matter the season of the year, raining in May, hot September, hurricanes in October or in the night, something you wish to avoid, but it may not depend on you. There is no reliable public transport in Cuba.

We would spend an entire day just to get home from one province to another. And you can see on the map of Cuba it is a small island. Some places would be more difficult at this task. My best friend used to travel from a town called Camajuani. She said that it was a very warm town because we could spend about 4 to 5 hours trying to get out of that place hitch hiking, sort of like the town wanted us to stay. My friend Ivan had to sleep one night on the road and wait until 6.00am, and then luckily a bus came along the road and he was able to get home. To me it was not nice to have lessons on Friday afternoon and then have to travel home hitch hiking, often in the night.

Many students would stay in the school and travel home once a month or so. But the majority would go home on the weekends to get clean clothes, home cooked meals and money to be able to survive at school, where the food provided was terrible. Also sometimes you were too far from your school doing some work experience at another school where you needed to buy your lunch, so it was not only a matter of that you wanted better quality food. Money was sometimes necessary too for traveling, in some places you were not able to move if you did not pay.


We depended on our parent’s money because at that time it was not possible for students to work, some boys would work during the two months vacation to be able to have some extra cash. Others would sell things illegally at school for this purpose.

I am not able to say if today things are better, but I know that you still can see a lot of people standing on the side of the road hitch hiking.

Pork, carne de puerco.

Roast suckling pig in Cuba

Asian pork belly

We Cubans crave for pork. It is part of our most traditional food: rice and beans, pork and tapioca (yuca) with mojo sauce. This is our dish for New Year’s Eve meal.

The tradition was that every family would keep a live pig until that day, up to the time of the animal’s sacrifice was due. So the day started with the animal’s screams, something that for animal lovers was horrible to hear, a bottle of rum would be at the scene of the crime.
I would be so upset about the killing that I did not want to know about eating meat in my childhood. I think my brother felt the same.

But times have changed since then and growing teenagers need protein, so I changed my mind about the meat, so pork now is my favourite food.

Here in Australia I do enjoy pork belly. This recipe is the one I prefer, it is my Australian version of the cuban feast. I could call it pork heaven, it is done in a crock pot, so it is really easy. It is great if you have visitors coming for supper as the house will be submerged in the spice’s aroma.

"Asian pork belly"

1kg pork belly
½ cup Chinese cooking wine
1/4 cup dark soy sauce
1 tablespoon tamarind concentrate
2 tablespoons honey
½ teaspoon sesame oil
4 cm piece fresh ginger chopped finely
3 cloves garlic, crushed
2 teaspoon five-spice powder
1 star anise
1 dried long red chili
1 teaspoon Sichuan pepper
3 cups water

*Combine ingredients in a large bowl, add pork, cover and refrigerate for 3 hours or overnight.
*Put the pork and marinade into the crockpot to cook for 6 hours.
* Serve pork with an avocado and coriander salad.

frogs, ranas

I think frogs are terribly ugly animals. I say so maybe because I am Cuban and I saw too many frogs in my life over there. They were like a pest.

The problem is that big ones have jumped on me when I least expected it, like when I just woke up in my school dormitory and went to have a wash, the animal was on the door and jumped on top of me and I went on running and screaming until I thought it jumped on somebody else, reality nightmare #1

Another time I woke up from my sleep thinking about a frog and straight away one huge monster frog jumped on my face, nightmare # 2

In Cuba frogs are seen as very ugly animals. In Australia most people have a ceramic or plastic one in their gardens, something that to me seemed odd.
Recently on a trip to St. George, Queensland, there were these beautiful small frogs, something I never thought I would say about this animal, only because they had a rich green colour and they were miniature. They look innocent.

Soap, jabon

In many cultures soap may not be an important item, something you never think about. In Cuba it is unbelievable how important it is. We did not think about it either until it disappeared from our houses in the early nineties when the Russian subsidies ceased. We now appreciate its value, it is common to hear somebody shouting “you are wasting the soap”, almost as worrying as wasting water. You have to understand how expensive soap is in Cuba and how using water without soap will not remove dirt in a humid tropical climate.

The thing in my country is that when the Soviet Union’s subsidies disappeared a lot of products disappeared too, but then when things improved again, some products were available and better presented in paper wrapping and better quality. The prices were now much higher. Quality soap could be borrowed like you would borrow a book, in case of emergency, like before being admitted to hospital.

The wrapping paper did impress us so much we did not want to throw it away. Children started collecting it, and compete. I think it was the beginning of a desperate hunger for material things, well, in a crowded room a door was open.

Before we saw perfumed soap being sold, women became very innovative, giving life to butter soap, which was deadly to our skin and clothes. This soap battle made us feel stronger, like we could handle any problem.

Black beans, frijoles Negros

This is the main source of protein for Cubans, so you can imagine how important the beans are. Of course we think we know everything about them because they are on our plate everyday. It was a pleasant surprise to know that we share the same black bean tradition with many other countries in South America, like Colombia and Brasil. It made me feel like they are my brothers and sisters.

No mater how rich or poor you were every household would cook their beans. There are different ways how to soften them but the quickest, easiest way is with a pressure cooker, if you do not have one you can use a normal saucepan, it would be a much slower process but achievable, either way your heat must be low until the beans are soft.

My recipe is a combination of my mother’s and my own experimentation.
When you buy beans, I think the younger the bean the better quality, a good sign is that they appear whole, not broken.

2 cups black beans
6 cups water

sofrito (or seasoning ingredients)
4 garlic cloves
1 small thyme bunch
1 bay leave
1 tsp rich brown sugar
1 tsp salt
1tbsp olive oil
70 g Spanish chorizo


coriander leaves
lime juice

* Wash the beans and put in the pressure cooker with the water, use your cooker according to the manufacter’s instructions.
* Let it cook slowly for a maximum 40 minutes
* Meanwhile crush the garlic.
* Cut the chorizo in coin size and put in the microwave for 30 seconds until you get the orange oil.
* After the beans are soft you can put the rest of the sofrito ingredients in.

* Put the cooker back on the medium heat (with the lid on but no pressure) to simmer for 5 to 10 minutes until you get the consistence you like best, they should not be too watery.
* Garnish with coriander leaves, serve with rice and lime juice to taste.

Coffee, café.

About coffee, oh God! Cubans are crazy, locos, about this beverage, they are like the addict that gets a headache if they can not drink it in the morning. Cubans think they are the connoisseurs of many things, especially coffee.

I remember my mother sent me to buy some beans and bring them back for her to inspect their quality, only she knew what she wanted.
Babies have their bottle with coffee added, some may say they need flavour, any excuse will do. I think we turned out to be ok. I hope. I would not drink my bottle until it had coffee, sugar, salt and milk, all in the right proportion

When somebody comes to visit your home, you put the cafetera ( coffee machine) on the stove. The truth is they do not have much else to offer the visitor. That said, they have great pride in their coffee, some like it very sweet, too sweet for my taste now.

For the last two years I have been enjoying a brand of coffee from Cuba, at times it is difficult to acquire and that is why I may have to try other varieties that Cubans love in Miami, Florida. Sometimes I have found very good ones here in Australia.
We call it espresso, but it is not the strong bitter short black coffee some may imagine. The first time I asked for a short black in Darwin NT, the girl on the shop asked me how could I drink something so strong. : )

Flavored coffee is not real coffee for me, it has become a very popular thing nowadays. It is like comparing chocolate and candy, you are reducing the quality, making it cheaper. Yes I am old fashioned about my cup of coffee, I don’t want any of those fancy flavour inventions in my cup, I want coffee coming from the plant and that is it.

corn, maiz, los tamales de olga...

Country cubans dry their coffee and corn on the public road.

I must be on my creative side this week, oh! I know, it is because of the beautiful days we are having before winter.
I was reading a Cuban blog from a family in California (My big fat Cuban family) and I got some inspiration.
I have a passion for good food, (well, Cubans are passionate about everything) : )
Baseball, coffee, pork, politics, rum, the list goes on. Of course I love Cuban food too, I must say it is rather challenging to enjoy Cuban food in Australia, you must cook it yourself and find variations to the real recipe, for example tamales, Australian corn is super sweet, as sweet as sugar, that is something that is not good for tamal, so you have to get creative.

After many failures I tried a Nigella Lawson recipe with corn and this one made me happy, it was easy, quick, and the ingredients of this recipe are normally in your pantry.
This recipe is from the book “Nigella Christmas”

The recipe is called spoon bread
¾ stick (6 tablespoons) soft butter
3 cups drained canned corn
4 scallions roughly chopped
1 1/4cups grated sharp cheddar cheese
4 eggs
2 cups yellow cornmeal
2 tsp baking powder
4 cups whole milk

* Preheat the oven to 425 F. Grease your ovenproof pan, melt ¾ stick butter in a saucepan over a low heat.
* Put the corn, scallions and cheddar into a food processor with the eggs
* Process to shop the vegetables and cheese, then add cornmeal and baking powder.
* Process until the mixture becomes paste like, then, with the motor running, add the milk and melted butter.
* Pour into the greased pan and bake for 1 hour until just set.
* Remove the spoon bread from the oven and let it stand for 10 minutes -it will continue cooking as it stands –before taking to table.

Sugar, azucar

Sugar was and still is an important part of people’s lives in Cuba. They still get it as a subsidy at a very cheap price. I thought life without sugar was not possible, at least over there it makes sense to me.

Sugar is vital for your coffee, coffee and milk at breakfast, you add it to the juice you get from any fruit, like orange juice, pineapple juice, guava , and most of all to all the desserts you can make in a month until you get your new sugar allowance.

When the guava season was at its peak, there was not enough sugar for us. A house in every street would send out that unmistakable guava aroma, oh so sweet, warm, and of course it lingers in your mind in the form of marmalade or guava paste. When the Soviet Union’s substantial subsidies ( $6 Billion per year) disappeared, so too did guava cooking,not sure what was the relation between the Russia subsidies and the beautiful guava availability.

We did not see guava paste for a substantial period. Then it started to be sold as a mix of guava and tomato, and this trick worked because we actually forgot the real flavour, what it was supposed to taste like. Later the real guava was sold in the shops for American dollars. This was too expensive for the majority of Cubans.

Sugar cane, Cana de azucar

I am cuban, born there in a little town, near a sugar factory where everybody knew each other.
We would watch boring black and white Russian tv and dream of a better life in the future. Sometimes there was no water or electricity and the roof leaked in the bathroom. There were many children next to us to forget all about that while we played. We played until the sun went down, not caring about food, etc. We would play without supervision , it would have ruined our fun.

Do not think my house's leaking roof was due to it being an old building,no, it was a new apartment rented as a privilege to my father because of his job in the sugar industry.
There were several times a year when the sugar factory was operating and women would put their sheets on the line and it would be covered in particles of black smoke from the sugar factory. The good smoke was the white one.

I remember we would walk into the cane fields and walk back with a sugar rush, our faces dirty because of the sticky juice but very happy, as when you let loose and eat a mango under a tree while the juice runs through your hands.