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Cuban cuisine has been the result of the convergence of the same factors that allowed the formation of the Cuban nationality: a mixture of Spanish customs as well as those of the aboriginal groups and African descendants; more recently the Chinese and Yucatecan immigration has also had an influence on the common dishes. The national dish is the ajiaco (a stew prepared with root vegetables, vegetables, and meats of several types). The typical Cuban dishes (besides all the possible combinations of dishes using rice) are fried or roast pork, fried plantain (cut in circles and smashed before frying), pork cracklings, and ground beef, this being the Havana style, which is the most widespread of all the possible dishes that one can prepare. Aboriginal cuisine remains today among the Cubans. In Cuba, Columbus and all the sailors that came with him tasted for the first time the flavors of corn, yucca, peanut, sweet potato, pumpkin, pepper; and the fruits of the soursop, pineapple, star apple, sapodilla plum, guava, coco plum, among others. The pork roasted using a wooden pole that goes through the body of the animal is an aboriginal trace; a way to prepare roast pork that is kept nowadays. The yam, the plantain, the malanga, the guinea fowl and the dishes based on green plantain: fufu, maize porridge and fried plantains were brought from Africa. From African cultures comes, as well, the pleasure of eating white rice mixed with other foods and sauces. On their own, the emerging Cuban people began to remove bacon, pig fat, cabbage and sausages from bean stews and Spanish broths; which gave birth to the Cuban bean stews: prepared with root vegetables (mainly potatoes), lightly fried with onions, garlic and other spices and brisket pieces, all of what made the stews more digestible for the weather conditions of the tropics. The huge connection there is with the Caribbean islands is reflected in the existence of recipes coming from one area or another. Despite of the fact that the combination of rice and red beans (congri) is typically Cuban, the term came from Haiti. There, red beans are called "congo", and rice, "ri". Congri comes, then, from the Creole word "congos and rice". Congri rice is not the same as the combination of black beans and rice, although they are prepared in a similar way. The relevance of the Cuban cuisine is precisely in the mixture, one proof is the Cuban sauce, which does not use too many spices and to which one can add almost everything at hand for cooking. There is a Cuban way of cooking which is basically natural, with very precise ingredients, and scarce amount of spices (oregano and cumin cannot be missed, pepper and other hot spices are usually left out). It can be identified with the amount of fried food used in the cooking, the mixture of sweet and salty tastes (Cubans usually accompany their meals with bananas and their desserts with white cheese), and the rice and stew dishes a little runny because a true Cuban does not like his/her food too dry.
This cultural guide to the origins of Cuban Cuisine was written by a Cuba travel expert from Cuba For Less, a specialist in fully customizable Cuba vacation packages.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Matthew_Barker
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