August 04, 2005
Una mentirita, por favor.
I've yet to see a study on how the revolution has affected one of the more fromidable aspects of the Cuban culture: Cuban Cuisine. A quick Google of the term Cuban Cuisine yields some 600, 000 results ranging from online recipes to restaurants all over the world. This isnt necessarily a bad thing, of course, the fact that this one aspect of the Cuban culture is so widespread throughout the world tells us that this little island in the Caribbean does indeed have a strong cultural identity.
The problem is that the Cuban diet has been changed drastically by the revolution. Food rationing will do that. As will haphazard and ill-conceived agrarian reforms. I'm pretty sure palomilla steaks are hard to come by in Cuba. As are most viandas, vegetables, that were staples to the ordinary Cuban diet.
Compounding this problem is a general lack of knowledge and understanding of the Cuban situation by those with only a peripheral view of the culture.
We Cubans in exile know the difference, of course. Every time we sit down at our dinner tables to a nice steaming plate of arroz con pollo or carne con papas we know that we are lucky. That Cubans on the island rarely, if at all, get to partake of these everyday Cuban meals. Some still on the island might never have even had a serving of an authentic Cuban carne con papas.
The drink made rum and coke, for example, is another staple of the Cuban culture. It's known in most circles as a Cuba Libre. A Free Cuba. That's not what we call it in the diaspora, however. We have a completely different name for it. We call it a Mentirita. A little lie.
Because we know.
Which is why, when I see or read about someone who has no idea what the Cuban culture is using it as a party theme because it is oh so cool and oh so quaint...well... you can imagine how it makes me feel.
Case in point:
Via Juan, from yesterday's CBS Early Show:
In life, we always want what we can't have. These days, Cuba is the forbidden fruit, which of course makes it taste all that much better. If you can't go to Cuba, why not bring Cuba to you?(Early Show resident event planner Colin) Cowie shows how even a two-hour cocktail gathering will be more pulled together by recreating a fun and lively atmosphere with a Cuba Libre party."
A Cuba Libre party! In more ways than one, una Mentirita.
Juan's take down of Cowie and CBS is a thing of beauty.
And don't miss Fausta's ass kicking take on this. Another must read.
Posted by Val Prieto at August 4, 2005 08:20 AM
Comments
Thank you Val!
Posted by: Fausta at August 4, 2005 10:37 AM
Very nice, Val!
Posted by: A.M. Mora y Leon at August 4, 2005 11:45 AM
So fried tortillas and Mexican baskets. He got his country wrong that idiot.
Potato sacks, where the hell did that come from?
Not to talk about the music, new wave meditational crap! Who the hell heard of that in Cuba?
By the way, that party planner could even take a hint from Martha Stewart whose Cuban party (featured a few years ago in her magazine) was at least with authentic Cuban food and authentic Cubans from Coral Gables. No potato sack table cloth. No Mexican basket or Hawaiian flowers. No pretentious party planner frying tortillas.
If he wants a Cuban party he should go down to Man Camp, but I think that Val will soak him in the canal for a long time!!!! WAIT FOR ME, I HAVE SOME NICE ALLIGATORS FOR HIM TO SWITH WITH, and I would happily hit him over the head with a balsa paddle!!!!
Posted by: CB at August 4, 2005 12:00 PM
SWITH (?????) = SWIM
Posted by: CB at August 4, 2005 12:01 PM
I liked SWITH - leaves something to the imagination as to just what the alligators would do to him.
Posted by: Juan Paxety at August 4, 2005 02:00 PM
It reminds me of a news heading in Chicago. Contreas and El Duque just signed on for the Sox and the Tribune had the title Cuban Spices. And the whole article was attempting to show how spicy things were going to get. Oh yeah... Oregano, Cumino, Ajo, Aji, Cebolla, Culantro, y una hoja de Laurel, spicy right? Sheesh, and that's off the island, porque todos sabemos que en Cuba la unica cosa que se comen es cable.
Posted by: Songuacassal at August 5, 2005 12:54 AM
A buddy of mine who came from Cuba 13 years ago said he had never tried such Cuban dishes as Vaca Frita. In fact a lot of what consider traditional CUban food, no longer exists on the island because of scarcity of ingredients. That of course is the fault of the embargo, because Canada and Mexico don't have any cattle.
Posted by: conductor at August 6, 2005 01:39 PM
Speaking of Cuban cooking: Nitza Villapol, we all have her cookbook in our homes. Hers was the first Cuban book reprinted (actually, pirated) in exile and undoubtedly remains the biggest bestseller. Well, this lady is a well-seasoned Fidelista who has headed for 40 years the Cuban Culinary Institute. Now, can there be in all the face of the earth a more ironic and farcical position? Her classic cookbook, "Cocina Al Minuto," was first published in the early 1950s when Cuba was the largest consumer of beef in the Western Hemisphere after Argentina and Uruguay. Of course, things have changed: cows in Cuba today are models for statues, not for human consumption. In the first edition of her book, Nitza chided her countrymen for eating so much beef and ignoring the island's rich variety of fish. For the latest edition of her book, published in Havana, in 1991, Villapol has written a new "Introduction" where she now claims that beef was never a staple of the Cuban diet and that only 4 percent of the population consumed it on a regular basis. To prove her point the cook quotes several Communist economists and Blas Roca in what sounds like an introduction to "Socialismo Al Minuto." She ends on the triumphant note that despite the embargo and all manner of American dirty tricks CUBA STILL IMPORTS FOOD PRODUCTS. This should be a comforting thought for those who try to follow her recipes (where everything is a substitution of a substitution of a substitution). Would you like to make mayonesa without oil? Or perhaps you would like to make it without vinegar? Or without eggs? Well, she tells you how to do it. In fact, the only thing she doesn't substitute is the air. By the way, nobody ever made mayonaisse by scratch in pre-Revolutionary Cuba. That's what supermarkets were for.
Posted by: M.A.T. at August 7, 2005 03:36 PM