Cuban food

Our diet didn't consist of much. The most common thing to eat was rice and beans, and maybe some kind of meat or pork. Fish was often scarce, which is ironic because Cuba is an island. In my town, El Calvario, in Havana, we would get bread for how many people there were in a household a day. We had three people in our house, therefore we would receive three small breads a day. We did not eat them like in the United States, with cheese, and ham(there were very rare). We usually just smeared it with sugar and it was good to go. My dad often gave up his to me because he knew I was hungry and he would rather I be healthy then he be healthy, saying he was much older and did not need the energy any more.

Often after coming home for lunch from school, my mom would be ready to serve some hot rice and black beans. Oh man, was it good. It was heaven for us, especially me, after being at school the whole day, and in Cuba, school is hard, with no AC, and just the windows open. This is all fine, except that in Cuba the weather is very warm, and lets say that school uniforms aren't exactly comfortable.

On Christmas, we would buy pork and have a big feast with the family, forgetting past troubles and coming all together as one for at least one night in the year before we went back to the Communist hell that was Cuba. We would eat and eat into the night, especially on Noche Buena (Good Night). I especially loved the pork. It would take at least half the day to cook. It's kind of like in those movies you watch where the characters are out in the wilderness with those fork looking branches slow cooking the pig. That's what it looked like for us. One time, I got to cut a pig's head off with a machete. It was very exciting, but kind of nasty as I got pig blood all over myself.

The pigs were very fat, treated specifically for this occasion. They would be slow to walk because of how fat they were, and were all natural, no hormones or anything, treated on leftovers.

Now for daily food, I would go to some trees in the town and try to get mamoncillos, which are small fruits which look like very small lemons. I would eat them with my friends. Then we would get fresh mangoes, ripe off the tree, and eat them, their juice spilling out of our mouths. It was delicious. Natural fruits are the best. Then we'd make natural lemonade from picked-off-the-tree lemons, and put little ice cubes in it and treat ourselves to a cold drink in a warm island country.

I would eat lots and lots of oranges. Tangerines too. It was quite popular in our town, all the kids loved it. But for me, I didn't really like them, but there was nothing else to eat so I had to eat it or else spend a very sad day without anything in my stomach, which is almost quite equal to Hell.