Cuba! You know Bay of Pigs, cigars, black beans and rice! All the key terms synonomous wit Cuba. Saturday we were fortunate enough to enjoy another fantastic meal with a wonderful family. One of the guys that Kiah works with and has known for about 2 and a half years invited us to his beautiful home Saturday night. He was roasting a pig. We went in February to the first one with Josh and Kristen, but Forrest wasn't able to go with us.
Forrest has always loved cultural immersion. This one was no different. I wish I would have taken my camera! The unfortunate pig was placed in a grilling rotisserie of sorts. It spun around and around for about 8 hours. Whenever someone would enter the house the burning charcoal smell waifed throughout the house. You could easily have heard stomachs growl had it not been for the music, laughter and sounds of dominoes slamming on the table!
Tres Marias! Three ladies were in the kitchen, three of them had the name Maria. Maria uno, from Cuba, made THE cake. This cake was enormous. Beautiful to look at and beautiful to taste! So moist it just melted in your mouth. In between the voluptuous layers of cake and frosting, was a thick layer of coconut. It was so good. We should have started the meal with cake!
Maria dos, was from Columbia. She was a nice lady, spoke great English and gave me grief for not speaking Spanish. Okay.. I have heard that one before!
Maria tres.. was a tall Cuban lady. She reminds me of my younger sister. The one who keeps the screaming kids in check, keeps the kitchen moving smoothly and keeps everyone in stitches. (laughter.. not stitches literally.. although Missy would probably keep everyone is literal stitches). Okay so maybe she isn't like Missy in any way other than keeping the kids in check. Anyway, she helped explain how to make the black beans and rice, and the Yuca. Or as we call it yucca! Much like a potato, the yucca root is cleaned, boiled in water that has salt and lime in it. After it has been boiled once, it is then boiled a second time in a pressure cooker. The water is drained and then they put a mixture of oil, garlic, salt and lime over the yucca before you eat it. Wow, it melts in your mouth. Another fine meal! 
The pig... well the big guys (the MEN) took it off the fire and placed it on a table for carving. V invited us to taste the meat fresh. It was really good. You can really taste the difference in the meat. Different areas are more moist than others. I couldn't tell you what was better than what. It was all good. Michela was close enough to score multiple slices of steamy meat. She never turned it down.. well she did refuse to try the roasted kidney! Scooby ate the tail and he never complained one bit!
The conversation was great. 99% of it was in Spanish and I could only understand maybe 25%. However it was enough to understand the jest of the conversations! V and his wife are awesome hosts and they have a marvelous family! We had only met most of them once before and they opened their arms and warmed our hearts to a wonderful cultural experience. Forrest and I have plans to stategize our domino playing (the national game of Cuba) in order to defeat V and his father in law, the next time we are invited to their great home!
2 comments:
I'm buying a black long haired wig so that next time your invited I can go as the "One who was conceived after the hippie baseball game that we just found out about last week." Okay?!?!
As long as you say "hey baby que paso" the whole time we are there!
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