EXERPT | Cuba Absolutely

It’s practically Cuba’s national dish—the ubiquitous hand-sized, folded pizza dripping with grease enclosed in a piece of manila paper. Then there’s the curious thin, long paper cone or cucurucho that mystifies the foreign visitor until they discover it full of surprisingly delicious roasted peanuts—the popularity of which is confirmed by the litter found at any bus stop, theatre, school or hospital exit everywhere and anywhere in the capital.

Or there’s the ice-cream cone topped with a questionable mix of flavours whipped up in the privacy of someone’s home and sold from their window: strawberry-and-pineapple, chocolate-and-something-else-not-quite-identifiable, or just plain vanilla.

Havana has a huge variety of fast foods which are sold from stands, windows, wheelbarrows and baskets. Street traders wander about hawking their merchandise in the same manner as peddlers of yesteryear who soldvegetables and fruit. There’s even a famous song about the peanut (maní) vendor: “¡Maní! Manisero se va. Caserita no te acuestes a dormir sin probar un cucurucho de maní.” (Peanuts! The peanut vendor’s going. Don’t go to bed, little housewife, without tasting a cucurucho of peanuts).

Street stalls offer a mixed selection of foods that are sweet or salty, solid or liquid—and almost always deep-fried. The most common street food include the Cuban pizza—a thick piece of dough with a thin layer of well-seasoned tomato sauce and cheese sprinkled on top; a ham sandwich or bocadito de jamón, which is made of cured ham stuffed with bacon with a dab of mayonnaise; natural and un-natural juices; peanut cucuruchos; small guava pastries usually sold from cardboard boxes by retired people; and ice-cream.

Aside from these there’s a wide assortment of heart-attack-in-the-hand fritters of which Cubans are very fond: churros or dough that is deep-fried and cut into finger-size strips; chicharitas de plátano, paper-thin slices of plantain fried in oil; frituras de malanga, grated taro mixed with egg and crushed garlic and then, of course, deep-fried; and tostones, fried flattened pieces of plantain that are crusty on the outside and tender on the inside.

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