Welcome to Havana '59
What is 'Cocina Cubana', or Cuban kitchen cookery? It really cannot be described as either Caribbean, African, or Latin American but as a rich culinary mixture which developed from origins in four continents over many centuries. Initially, Cuba was in habited by Indian tribes who introduced to the island a wealth of rare tropical plants and numerous cooking skills, such as barbecue, preservation of meats, gardening, trapping game and catching fish.
Almost four thousand years later, Columbus and the Spanish colonists arrived and brought with them European foods and cookery methods. The Cuban climate and soil proved excellent for raising many Mediterranean culinary ingredients as well as New World fruits, vegetables, and spices cultivated by the island's original inhabitants. After the Spanish conquistadors decimated the Native population they imported African slave labor to tend and process sugar cane, the thriving island's leading crop. With them came a host of West African plants and a variety of tastes and cooking methods new to the Spanish.
