CubaPLUS Magazine

One of the richest and most diverse autochthonous cuisines in Cuba is found in Baracoa, in the extreme northeast of Cuba, a mountainous and wild municipality of the Cuban geography that treasures more than 200 recipes of typical foods, sweets and drinks, generally prepared with fruits of the sea and organically and healthy fertilized land.

Its inhabitants say that culinary traditions of Baracoa have a strong aboriginal influence, since it was an enclave of the island where Arawak or Taíno communities lived, and where a greater number of survivors of the conquest remained.

So that fruits such as coconut, cocoa, banana -grown in the environment- are enriching components of a remarkable variety of dishes and drinks that accompany the daily coexistence of families and friends, on a regular basis.

Almost all of them have suggestive names that recall the Taíno language or popular speech. As humble as the origin of this gastronomy may be, they also manage to make delicacies that satisfy the most demanding or delicate palate, don't be fooled, without counting their nutritional properties.

They have a great fondness for the use of coconut, especially in combinations of seafood, fish and vegetables. Among the meats, they abundantly include fish, crab, shrimp, biajaca, jutia and pork, while root vegetables or tubers cannot be lacking either, well seasoned with the so-called Creole mojo, in which they lavishly use coconut milk.

The master chefs and even housewives of the place take great interest in the decoration of the dishes. Among the most famous sweets and delicacies of Baracoa, known throughout the country, are the coconut cones and various fruits, the bacán or banana tamale, which is accompanied with pork, the famous handmade chocolate ball and the nutritious chorote, very thick milk chocolate.