Some excellent home cooked Cuban food
Whilst Cuba is renowned for being safe, friendly and good value, the only negative I heard beforehand was that Cuban food is pretty bad. Admittedly we only had the one standout meal, and a few were a bit dull, but I wouldn’t go so far as to say any were bad. And yes, everywhere was safe, friendly and good value.
Cuban food is generally very well-seasoned but usually overcooked – particularly the fish in restaurants. Fish at the home stay was perfectly cooked, but intentionally still a little dry.
Breakfast
Breakfasts were very variable. Despite the rationing, most of the casa particulars provided very large breakfasts of bread with meats, cheese and jam and the occasional fried egg.
The baguette style bread here only has a shelf life of a couple of hours, so whilst the first days breakfast is fine it can be a bit chewy on the second day. The alternative is either very light round crackers or a soft cigar shaped biscuit.
The one brand of butter in Cuba is unsalted yet flavourful, and helps with the driest of bread. Eggs always tasted fresh with a strong flavour. Breakfast always came with fresh fruit and juices. Pineapple, mango and guyava fruit were in season. Not keen on plain guyava – it’s very tough so tends to be whisked up into smoothies.
Coffee is thick, strong and often comes pre-sweetened. Our hosts usually provided hot milk or water to dilute, but I enjoyed it best simply drunk neat like an espresso.
Making sugar cane juice in Cuba
Lunch
Our lunches were often quick stops, usually at family run roadside cafes during bus rides.
I was surprised to find Coke, Fanta and Sprite widely available in Cuba, alongside their own version, called TuCola. TuCola is made by the Ciego Montero Company, which seems to have the monopoly on all soft drinks.
Rum isn’t much more expensive than water, so rum cocktails are priced exactly the same as the base fruit juices.
Cuba Libras and Mojitos seem the most popular cocktails among tourists, ideally made with cheap Havana Club rum. The two popular varieties of beer are Cristal and Buccanero, although microbreweries are also creating some more artisanal brews with a lot more variety.
Some of the best street food is the 6-10peso pizza, available on almost every street. These are sold by enterprising families from their front steps. After ordering there’s at least a 10 minute wait while it’s freshly cooked. Toppings are limited to one or two of cheese, ham, chicken, chorizo or onion. They’re handed out to customers in a single-ply sheet of brown wrapping paper, that struggles to absorb the fat released from the melted cheese. Not fancy and a bit messy, but they taste great.
Grilled Fish at Ristorante El Guajirito. Too dull to warrant an in focus photo.
Dinner
When not eating at the casa particulars we made it to a few restaurants for dinner. These served far more elaborate meals, usually consisting of a soup starter, followed by a meat and carb main course. We followed advice from our hosts and guides to find the decent restaurants, but really they couldn’t compare with the home cooking. In Vinales there was an Italian restaurant, full of unadventurous backpackers eating plain pasta dishes.
Generally the restaurant food was somewhat tasty, but it always felt overpriced for what it actually was.
An example would be our last dinner in Havana at Ristorante El Guajirito. A well regarded restaurant but very touristy – most of the tables were filled with large tour groups. No appetisers on the menu. No drinks were offered after the first round. Food was OK, but somewhat lacking in both quantity and more importantly flavour. Looking round, our table wasn’t the only one that was happier before the food arrived then looked a little underwhelmed after eating.
One thing that I didn’t see anywhere was the Cuban Sandwich that is available everywhere from Miami to Beijing. Fortunately we were headed to Florida after Cuba, so got to sample a few.
I always hear so many different stories about Cuban food. Some people love it and some people didn’t like it at all. The street food pizza sounds like a winner though!
Aahhhh – I so miss Cuban food! Used to eat it all the time when I lived in Miami but so hard to find elsewhere
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