After more than 20 years, posts here will now only be occasional ( |
| There certainly won't be any prizes for presentation with my effort! |
My good friends over at Buzz Trips posted about this oddity of a dish named Arroz a la Cubana (literally, Cuban Girl's Rice) and I'm totally with them on their observation, "It's an odd mixture, but it works surprisingly well." And I've also found it on restaurant menus in Tenerife, but, as I mentioned to them, I've even had conversations with Cubans who have never heard of it, so I couldn't resist doing a bit of research to see what the deal is with this dish.
At RevistaCatalejo.com the writer says, "The first time I heard about Cuban rice was in a restaurant in Barcelona (Spain), a very curious fact if one takes into account that I am from Cuba and I never heard anyone mention the name of that dish, as such." In Cuba, she tells us, the dish doesn't have the tomato sauce, isn't known as Cuban rice, but is considered as 'food for whores', because it's very easy and quick to prepare, and, like 'those ladies', always in a hurry!
There's controversy surrounding the origin of Cuban rice (and everything else), apparently. According to the Spanish entry at Wikipedia, it's a dish of Cuban cuisine, very typical in the Canaries, of Spanish origin from the time of Captaincy General of Cuba (Colonial Era). In the English version, similarly, "Some authors consider that it may have originated from rice dishes with fried eggs from Cuba when it was a Spanish colony." At Huffpost, they report the claim that "the Spanish Creoles created this dish in America." There are nearly as many claims for the pedigree as there are versions of the dish! (In the Philippines meat is added.)
While some scholars claim that it is originally from Cuba, others claim that it comes from the Canary Islands. Another cubana, Ana Mercedes Urrutia, assures us too that the dish is not Cuban and is Canarian, as do many others.
It hardly needs a recipe, but here's one: Arroz Cubano: Easy Cuban Rice
