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THE CARIBBEAN CUISINE IS A LABORATORY, AN EXPERIMENTATION CENTER, A MULTICULTURAL SPACE OF CONVERGENCES AND PLEASURES

Cuisine is a major art and one of the most important elements of a country's identity, although as every human creation it's not frozen in time, but it's in constant evolution, reinventing itself as it respects and pays tribute to the history and tastes that originated it.
However, according to Dr. Eusebio Leal Spengler, Historian of Havana, “it's not only about eating; it's a cultural approach to the costumes, lifestyle, methods and capacity to create an expression of character by means of gastronomy.”
The fact is that cuisine is a consequence, a need, an expression and art that is intensively lived around the globe, especially in countries with strong culinary tradition.

Taste of the Caribbean
The Caribbean is undoubtedly the oven in which a tornado of tastes is cooked, a jumble of history and sensations that could easily stand as a single homeland, where everything comes together due to the similarities and convergences.
The common aspects in the Antillean cuisine are the outcome of two specific situations experienced by these islands: the presence of Arahuaco, Taino and Caribe natives through the mid-16th century, and the involuntary arrival of thousands of African slaves. Moreover, the culinary diversity that also brings us together has been influenced by several European countries that conquered different areas of the region.
So, we're talking about a mixed cuisine, just like its history and present, its sea and, therefore, mixed race. This cuisine is so diverse that it's defined as “Creole” on French islands, “criolla” or “antillana” on Spanish-speaking territories and “West Indian” on the English-speaking ones. The region is characterized by a clash of flavors, so it's extremely hard to handpick one taste when it comes to defining the Caribbean.
Over a hundred marine species stand out as the main elements in delicious dishes, with wreck fish, sea bream, tuna, sawfish, swordfish, chelonians, lobsters and shrimps playing the leading role.

Cuba on a Low Burn
Cuba is the outcome of the history of mankind in the Caribbean. The cuisine of the Largest Island of the Caribbean is obviously a result of the blend, the merge of thousands of multinational places, receptions reinterpretations. The influence of ancestral costumes is powerful, since the origins are different: they are the roots that hold the tree of Cuban identity. That's the reason why Mr. Fernando Ortiz, upon defining the Cuban character, asserted that Cuba is a huge stew, a mouth-watering dish, clever, a gift for the palate.
As a token of the profound culinary blends and influences we have the famous congri, a creole term imported from Haiti, and possibly linked to “congo” (beans) and “riz” (rice), which stands for rice and beans.
Puerto Rican cuisine is quite similar to Cuba's. “Jibaro” (the equivalent of Dominican countryside person) and “conuco” (Taino agricultural practice) are very common there. The use of “bija” (another Taino word) is still popular on that island. The “sofritos” made up of oil, garlic and onion, “cochifrito” and “ragout” came from Spain and they are also very popular in Cuba.
Such term as “ajiaco” has come to our time to define a “type of meat stew”, or the so-called “sancocho” in the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Colombia and Venezuela. The congris is also eaten in those countries. Tamales are called pies and fritters, alcapurrias and pasties are popular as well. Grilled pork and cracklings are nearly worshipped, which also happens in Jamaica.
This Caribbean approach has Cuba in the center of the pot and labels the Caribbean as a region of exquisiteness, differences and similarities, thus backing up Eusebio Leal's premise: “the cuisine is a laboratory, an experimentation center where masters prepare what their patrons want, a multicultural space; it's the cult of senses where everything plays its role.”