2023-11-14 22:42:02
Photo: Archive | CN360
Text: Editorial Cuba Noticias 360
Despite the solid Cuban culinary relationship with carnivorous foods, a relationship that is weakening every day due to the country’s serious economic crisis, there are several inhabitants in Cuba who have consciously opted for a style of eating more attached to vegetarianism. But this decision also has its difficulties in the face of impoverished agriculture. So, what does a vegetarian eat in Cuba?
Although many of the people who practice this style of eating on the Caribbean island appeal to creativity, sometimes this becomes difficult, because both they and the citizens who decide to add more vegetables to their diet, first find that what they was known as seasonal vegetables rarely exists.
Whether due to macro problems such as climate change or micro problems such as the inefficiency of the Cuban agricultural system, there are currently very few vegetables that manage to make a triumphant entry in the season that corresponds to them, so creativity will have to move on to inventiveness. .
Prices also influence this inventiveness. In a quick look at any agricultural market, no vegetable will go below one hundred Cuban pesos, not to mention the famously infamous figures reached by foods such as tomatoes, peppers and onions. This is only in terms of vegetables, because if we add fruits to this type of diet, their prices double compared to vegetables.
Other quite common foods in this style of eating are nuts, which are usually used not only as snacks, but also as a base to make vegetable milks, sweets, and even garnish salads.
Peanuts and sesame seeds have always been grown in Cuba. Today, purchasing a one-pound bag of peanuts or sesame seeds in agriculture costs approximately 300 Cuban pesos. There are also MSMEs that are marketing fruits such as almonds, walnuts or even chia, but in this case the bags of these foods weighing 250 grams rise to 700 Cuban pesos or more.
Also in this panorama there are several enterprises that have looked for ways to produce other flours, as alternatives to wheat flour. Thus, options such as banaina, banana flour, or cassava flour, rice flour, have become popular until a few months ago. The prices of these flours usually vary, of course depending on the weight, so the smallest bag of banaina, which contains 100 grams of the product, can be found for more than 150 Cuban pesos.
Despite this panorama, there are several people in Cuba who adopt this style of eating, whether for health or life philosophy. The truth is that they have the same work as any ordinary Cuban, who still prefers and dreams of having a steak on his dinner plate.
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