The Cuban Protein Our Kids Love

The Cuban Protein Our Kids Love

While there are shortages of nearly everything else in Cuba, you can almost always find pork, at your local farmer’s market, freshly slaughtered and hanging from hooks, starting at around $2 per pound. Funnily enough, though, the most common pork dish in Cuba today, el bistec, comes from the word “beef steak”...

Improving Upon the New York Times' Most Popular Dessert Recipe -- with Mangoes

Improving Upon the New York Times' Most Popular Dessert Recipe -- with Mangoes

Living in Cuba, I don't enjoy reading recipes and cookbooks the way I used to. The list of ingredients often remind me of all the things we don't have in Cuba. But the New York Times recipe gave me inspiration instead...

The Secrets of Cuban Coffee

The Secrets of Cuban Coffee

I used to take coffee for granted, before I moved to Cuba. On the island, I am learning about another way to drink and make coffee -- it's a slower process, as Cubans use Italian-style espresso makers on the stove, but one that is just as rewarding as I discovered at my friend M's home recently. 

Plainly Delicious Homemade Yogurt, with a Cuban Twist

Plainly Delicious Homemade Yogurt, with a Cuban Twist

Rather than going from market to market looking for a sub-par version, I prefer making my own yogurt at home -- and coincidentally in Cuba, I even improved upon my recipe one day when I threw in a common, but often overlooked, ingredient ... 

Finding the Meaning of "Local" at the Cuban Farmer's Market

Finding the Meaning of "Local" at the Cuban Farmer's Market

I spend about five to six hours of my week buying food for my family, because in Cuba, there is no one-stop supermarket like Safeway or Whole Foods. Even daring to put the words "Whole Foods" and "Cuba" in the same sentence seems comical, or tragic ... or both...

The Perfect Mango Milkshake (and How to Make a Kids' Game Out of It)

The Perfect Mango Milkshake (and How to Make a Kids' Game Out of It)

For the first few months I was living in Cuba, I attempted to make this drink often but was tasting much better versions on the streets, from the international hotel near our house to the curbside kiosks that sell batidos by the glass for 3 Cuban pesos -- about 12 cents!

The Most Delcious Flan You Will Ever Taste

The Most Delcious Flan You Will Ever Taste

I used to think that it was acceptable to make flan from a box, something akin to making Jell-O. (One of the rare “instant” foods you can occasionally find in Cuba is packaged flan, imported from Mexico.)