a cuban thanksgiving

I love big family get-togethers. In order for me to celebrate with a large number of family members I must either fly to Germany or make my way to New Jersey where most of my Cuban relatives live. Obviously the latter was the ideal choice for Thanksgiving and it certainly wasn't a let down! The evening was spent conversing with various family members (sometimes in my broken Spanish), admiring their seemingly inborn ability to dance, running after a two year old and of course enjoying Cuban-American Thanksgiving food. What did the latter consist of? We had turkey, stuffing, potatoes and sweet potatoes with marshmallows (no, I didn't make these) known to many Thanksgiving tables. In addition we had the traditional Cuban foods present at most of our family events: black beans with rice, two versions of pork (I didn't even get to try these--sad, I know), tamales and, something I'd never had before, a corn souffle.


Tamales (pictured above) are basically cornmeal, spices and in our case pork, cooked together and then steamed in a corn husk or plantain leaf. Lupe made them for this event and they were sensational. I sometimes don't like the taste, but these were mmm mmmm good! My favorite dish of the evening, however, was this new corn souffle. It was light, creamy and a little sweet from the corn. What a wonderful new dish!

A note about Cuban food: many people think Cuban food is spicy. It's actually much milder and sweeter than Mexican. So, if you like the taste of Mexican food, but prefer a little less fire, give Cuban cuisine a try, I don't think you'll be disappointed.