Vegetarians push soy, but Cubans prefer pork

[El Presidente]

Vegetarians push soy, but Cubans prefer pork

http://www.courierpostonline.com/article/2...ans-prefer-pork

Juicy hamburgers and sandwiches stuffed thick with sausage aren't your typical vegetarian fare -- but that's what is on the menu at El Carmelo in Havana, a state-run restaurant that promoted healthy, meat-free eating.

"Meat-free" is not a phrase that goes over well in Cuba, an island where long-standing privations have forged a strong, emotional bond with food -- especially cuisine that once oinked, mooed or clucked.Facing the harsh reality of its tough customers, El Carmelo eventually replaced such vegetarian items as soy picadillo with greasy pork chops.

That has been the fate of the island's half-dozen or so other vegetarian restaurants as well. Opened in the 2000s under the Communist government's go-vegetarian initiative, they have all either closed down completely or replaced soy and vegetables with meat.

It's a Cuban dilemma: How can the government promote healthy eating when the country is full of die-hard carnivores, and when vegetarian meals remind people of an acute food shortage in the early 1990s that made meat an almost unattainable luxury?

Elsewhere in the world, vegetarianism is gaining proponents who cite evidence that eating less meat is good for your heart and reduces the risk of certain types of cancer.

But in Cuba, the island's handful of vegetarians face an uphill battle. Meat is such a central pillar of the Cuban diet, or at least the idea of the Cuban diet, that the rare decision to embrace vegetarianism is widely seen as bordering on insanity.

"When I tell people I'm a vegetarian, everyone says "Girl, you're crazy. You can't survive just on grass,' " said Yusmini Rodriguez, a 34-year-old translator who stopped eating meat 13 years ago out of ethical concerns.

"It's been a constant battle," she said, detailing obstacles that ran the gamut from her family's incomprehension and dead-set opposition, to the scarcity and sometimes prohibitively high prices of fresh produce, to the near-total absence of meatless options from restaurant and cafeteria menus.

"My family still doesn't get it, but after all these years, at least they finally respect my decision, so eating vegetarian at home is doable now, even if it's a headache," said Rodriguez, a slip of a woman whose tiny frame belies her iron will. "But the moment I step outside, it's practically impossible. Here, if it doesn't have meat in it, it's not considered food."

Rodriguez and some of the other dozen members of the island's vegetarian community say the Cubans' love affair with meat is linked to the country's "Special Period": an era of extreme hardship and acute food shortages in the early 1990s that followed the fall of the Soviet Union, Cuba's main benefactor at the time.

The country's rations system ensured no one starved to death by providing every citizen with a small monthly supply of basic goods. But Cubans experienced true hunger during those dark years, missing many meals, making do with very small and unappetizing ones, and going months without meat.

"It was a time of forced vegetarianism that left a really bad taste in people's mouths," said Nora Garcia Perez, a militant vegetarian who heads a Havana-based animal protection group. "The "Special Period' really hurt the cause of vegetarianism in this country. . . . Meat became an obsession for people who lived through that time."

The country's food supplies have since recovered, and most people are now able to eat some kind of meat several times a month.

Ironically for a fertile, tropical country, it's fresh produce that remains hardest to get. Even during the height of the winter growing season, the selection at state-run vegetable markets is largely limited to lettuce and cabbage, tomatoes, carrots, bell peppers and a variety of tubers.

Restaurateur Tito Nunez has made it his mission to put produce back into the Cuban diet.

Nunez converted to vegetarianism in the early 1990s because it eased his chronic intestinal problems. In 2003, he founded El Romero, billed as an eco-restaurant and one of the island's two surviving vegetarian eateries.

Located in the Las Terrazas natural reserve of rolling, palm-covered hills about 50 miles (80 kilometers) east of Havana, El Romero goes beyond garden-variety vegetables, spinning forgotten and little-known plants into delectable dishes.

On its extensive menu: ceviche made from the stems of lily pads that grow wild on a nearby pond, yucca and sweet potato "meatballs," pumpkin flower-paste crepes, sauteed prickly pear cactus with aromatic herbs, and for dessert, mousse made from chocolate, lemon and pumpkin, wrapped in a palm leaf.

"Cubans tend to think, 'If it's not rice and beans or pork, I'm not eating it,' so when people see all these plants they've never even heard of on the menu, they tend to be really reluctant at first," said Nunez, a 58-year-old with wire-rimmed glasses and an easy smile. "Then they try the food and see that it's not just 'grass' we're serving, and that in addition to being healthy and animal-friendly, it's also really delicious."

[anacostiakat]

Having meat once or twice a month would be tough.

[snickers99]

Vegetarians push soy, but Cubans prefer pork

http://www.courierpostonline.com/article/2...ans-prefer-pork

"...Nora Garcia Perez, a militant vegetarian who heads a Havana-based animal protection group..."

Can't help but notice that there are the same sort of militant food activists here in the United States. They want to control what people eat, for one reason or another, whether they like it or not. Slowly and surely they are insinuating themselves into the machinery of government to make this happen. God rot them all.

[anacostiakat]

Can't help but notice that there are the same sort of militant food activists here in the United States. They want to control what people eat, for one reason or another, whether they like it or not. Slowly and surely they are insinuating themselves into the machinery of government to make this happen. God rot them all.

Not just food! It is the whole, "I know what is good for you" mentality.

[snickers99]

In Cuba the citizens are at the mercy of absolute government. They have little choice. We're lucky the Cuban government hasn't decided to eliminate tobacco production in favor of food crops. Obviously they are not so inclined but my point is that in such a society just a few people could make such a decision. In this sense we Cuban cigar lovers are also at the mercy of the Communist regime in Havana.

In free(er) societies it is up to us to identify politicians at all levels who have these controlling tendencies and vote them out.

[Puros Y Vino]

Nothing really wrong with either diet. It comes down to balance and moderation. A little of each is good. Too much meat will mess you up over time. As I get older I find I have to cut down and balance things out. As an Italian I've eaten cured meats such as prosciutto, genoa, capicollo since I was a kid. My body can't handle it as much these days. So I reduce the portions and introduce more "greens" into my meals. I'll tell you though...going without meat months at a time would drive me nuts.

[IShotAManInReno]

I am a vegetarian and I struggled to find anything edible in Cuba. I hardly ate at all while I was there years ago. Thank goodness they put mint leaf in Mojitos - let's call that a salad! Must be a cultural thing. For example, here is one conversation I recall:

Me: Can I get a cheese sandwich?

Waitor: We don't have that.

Me: Do you have ham and cheese sandwiches?

Waitor: Yes.

Me: Can I get that without the ham?

Never tried to force anyone else to adopt this lifestyle. Just saying I appreciate having the option for those of us that choose it (by our own free will). I have traveled to many developing nations and never had any problem finding enough veggie food to eat. Cuba is the exception.

And for the record, no, I am not healthy looking

[Peter11216]

Can't help but notice that there are the same sort of militant food activists here in the United States. They want to control what people eat, for one reason or another, whether they like it or not. Slowly and surely they are insinuating themselves into the machinery of government to make this happen. God rot them all.

This has been going on for a long, long time. It's not recent. The federal government has long pursued a policy of producing certain commodities over others. The US government pays people to grow corn, for example. It would be a money losing venture if it weren't for government subsidies. Try finding something without corn by products in it - if it is processed food, it is almost impossible.

I would hazard a guess that many American young people have never had beef from cows that have grazed only on grass; they've only had cornfed beef.

For a long time now, subsidization programs have promoted market distorting large-scale corporate farming, which has severely limited what food people get access to.

Remember the hullabaloo about making it illegal to even tell customers that milk was free of rBGH, bovine growth hormones? Some states were trying to prevent people from even knowing what was in their milk! Or when the "the Bush administration, goaded by large meatpacking companies, urged a federal appeals court to stop the small company from doing more comprehensive tests"?

Unfortunately, folks in the government have long insisted on distorting they way people eat.

Fortunately, there is an increasingly large movement of people who want to eat well, and are working pretty hard to introduce more choice into the American food market.

Artificially lowering the price of things like corn, and commodifying food has been a huge disaster - definitely a good example of government planning gone wrong.

Best,

Pete

[khomeinist]

In Cuba the citizens are at the mercy of absolute government. They have little choice. We're lucky the Cuban government hasn't decided to eliminate tobacco production in favor of food crops. Obviously they are not so inclined but my point is that in such a society just a few people could make such a decision. In this sense we Cuban cigar lovers are also at the mercy of the Communist regime in Havana.

In free(er) societies it is up to us to identify politicians at all levels who have these controlling tendencies and vote them out.

Wow. Does even a joke thread need to turn into this? Getting old.....

At the end of the day..... eat what you like. Me? I like bacon.

[mazolaman]

Wow. Does even a joke thread need to turn into this? Getting old.....

At the end of the day..... eat what you like. Me? I like bacon.

Yeah man,watch out,those pesky Commies will be controlling what we write on forums next......

Interesting post Rob,on reflection,I don't think I saw a vegetable while there.

Maybe they are like some people I know,who think eating fish and chicken doesn't count as meat!

I like beef,and purple sprouting brocoli....

[Colt45]

Getting old.....

Yes - every thread not need be a soap box.

[mazolaman]

Yes - every thread not need be a soap box.

Indeed.

[laficion]

It's this kind of journalism that makes me think that certain journalists really enjoy

writing articles about subjects they know nothing about.

Here is one frustrated vegetarian woman journalist (Miss Jenny Barchfield), she has to be a MISS to

write something like this, going all out to find some vegetarian restaurants and finds it odd that, in Cuba,these restauants are a rare luxury.

First, she is talking about a situation only met by a tourist, like her and in a tourist context.

It has nothing to do with the REAL everyday life of Cubans nor of their everyday proccupations.

She is talking about a choice that the Cubans don't really have, again,

she is talking about tourists,not the local Cuban. when she writes ,

"Elsewhere in the world, vegetarianism is gaining proponents who cite evidence that eating less meat is good for your heart and reduces the risk of certain types of cancer ", OH REALLY ?

She is trying to make you think that an average Cuban has unlimited access to meat or for that matter, anything else that their little hearts want and needs.

Yes Missi, they are not tourists, they're Cubans, the days are occupied by hunting for food to feed the family,BEEF is a real luxury reserved only for tourists, milk is a luxury, fruits are a luxury, vegtables are also. what is available ? chicken, rice, beans, a little pork and if you're lucky,you may find some eggs that have just arrived from the countryside.

Missi wrote an article about HER views on Cuba as a spoiled vegetarian tourist, not about the reality in Cuba or about the Cubans.

Next time, she should write about how difficult it was to find a Cartier boutique in the middle of the Amazon and how the local tribes are not trying hard enough to take into account the latest trends

that would make them join the global community, of course,only because it would be for their own good.

[snickers99]

Wow. Does even a joke thread need to turn into this? Getting old.....

I can appreciate the humor of people 'voting' with their tastebuds when their leaders are trying to force vegetables down their throats but the story's no joke, mate. You eat bacon? So do I and in quantity. The Cuban people are under enormous pressure from their government at all levels. You have more choice (for now) than they do. Nope, some people controlling others by force ain't funny. As a lover of the leaf you should realize this. Getting old? Daily intrusions into one's life are getting old. The story contains this element and so it's legitimate to discuss it. I sometimes think comments like this are a tactic to sitfle open discussion.

[Colt45]

I can appreciate the humor of people 'voting' with their tastebuds when their leaders are trying to force vegetables down their throats but the story's no joke, mate. You eat bacon? So do I and in quantity. The Cuban people are under enormous pressure from their government at all levels. You have more choice (for now) than they do. Nope, some people controlling others by force ain't funny. As a lover of the leaf you should realize this. Getting old? Daily intrusions into one's life are getting old. The story contains this element and so it's legitimate to discuss it. I sometimes think comments like this are a tactic to sitfle open discussion.

And here I am, stupid me thinking it was a story about Cubans who are vegetarian finding it hard to be so in Cuba.

Gotta run, the black helicopters are following me.......

[mazolaman]

Yeah,Snickers,like I said,it's the damn Commies trying to control our forum discussions man!

Give'em both barrels.....

[snickers99]

Yeah,Snickers,like I said,it's the damn Commies trying to control our forum discussions man!

Give'em both barrels.....

Thanks, mazolaman. I knew somebody had my back!!

[El Presidente]

Crikey People...it was an interesting article!

If I was a vegetarian in Cuba I could imagine it would be a nightmare! Guy is right, people fight to to try and fill their and the stomachs of their family stomachs every single day.

[CanuckSARTech]

Yes - every thread not need be a soap box.

Well....I like steak! Mmmmm!!!

[Habanakane21]

I love Swine! never understood vegetarians but to each his own...