A True Cuban Diet

Cuban Diet

~Blog post #4~

April 19, 2015

By: Nicholette Davis

Well, as every other post I've stated, the traditional Cuban diet is actually one that is simple and efficient.  This combination of rice, beans, and pork is continuously filling while also being full of the needed nutrients for both adults and growing children.  The three staples are also supplemented with several different fruits that grow naturally on the island, some of which to name are plantains, bananas, citrus (grapefruit and oranges), and mangos.  Cubans have become very differential in their cooking ways as they tend to be forced to eat specifically what their government gives them.  This is due to how Cubans are given ration cards named Libreta de Abastecimiento, which literally means “supplies booklet.”  This system, implemented in 1962, causes almost all Cubans to have the same ingredients as their neighbors.  This causes little difference in any Cuban eating other than what their neighbors are eating; however, Cubans, who have fled from the island to the U.S. actually continue to just eat their staples due to the variety you can actually cook these ingredients.  For example, a recipe that my friend’s family makes can be traced all the way to the 1920’s!  I, in fact, am actually going to bring in that dish, so no spoilers here today!  However, I can indeed share one of my favorite bean recipes that can be found at http://www.chow.com/recipes/13464-authentic-black-bean-recipe-gregory.  Black beans cooked the Cuban way traditionally are always cooked within a pressure cooker, and this recipe implements it in the perfect way.  The true bummer about Cuban food is that it can’t be improved because all variations have been tried. For example, a traditional Cuban appetizer is the empanada, but there is only so many ways you can change the interior meat of an empanada so the end result will always an empanada.  I can also make the same comparison to American dishes.  If one can actually pay attention to our current diets, one can sense a pattern.  Fast food, different ethnic foods, slow cooked meals, and grilled foods tend to rule the diets of many Americans. This can also show a direct relationship between the emotions of Americans and their diets.  For example, I don’t want to cook today, so I’m going to go out to dinner.  THAT’S A DIRECT RELATIONSHIP.  Another real-life occurrence is if I wake up early and have time to kill, I can actually make dinner without even being there to cook it.  Introduce the crockpot.  I can continue in demonstrating, but I would rather focus on our current English book, Like Water for Chocolate.  In the novel, we can witness how the emotions of our main character, Tita, are directly outputted to the feelings of those who are eating it.  Fast food also does this to its consumers.  I mean who doesn't feel kind of bloated when they finish off a Big Mac?