Comida Cubano

Moros y Cristianos (aka rice and beans). A dish I could potentially be eating for every meal in Cuba...

I found a really great list of Cuban restaurants in NYC, and I definitely plan on hitting up Havana NY and Little Havana Restaurant before I leave the city. One of my favorite restaurants in New York is Cafe Habana, a Cuban-Mexican restaurant on Prince and Elizabeth Streets. I love the avocado and cheese sandwich and the Tlacoyo de Tres Marias, which is a corn cake stuffed with goat cheese, tomato, black beans and salsa. Although I love Cafe Habana, I'm not that the dishes I like are authentically Cuban. Cuban food is very meat-heavy, and as a vegetarian I won't be eating their famous pork sandwiches. I've been told as a vegetarian that I will be consisting on a lot of rice and beans, but I'm hoping that I will be able to find some good fish dishes in Havana. My program has arranged for students to eat breakfast and dinner at the hotel we're staying at, but I can imagine being sick of hotel cuisine after the first couple of weeks, so I plan to explore street food. The currency situation in Cuba is complicated, since foreigners are usually relegated to using a different type of peso than the locals, which can make it hard to pay for food at non-tourist eateries. Hopefully I will be able to work out some shady money exchange with the locals since the tourist restaurants are allegedly expensive and not as delicious as some more low-key local spots. 

I've seen a lot of pictures of Cuban fruit stands in the street, and though I've been warmed to not drink the water (or anything washed in it) I will probably end up buying fruit off of the street anyways. Cuba's national fruit is the Mamey, which "has the favor and texture of sweet potato pudding and is best served as a milkshake." I'm still undecided about whether this sounds amazing or gross...

I'm hoping that my vegetarianism and use of the tourist peso won't prevent me from experiencing some authentic Cuban food. But I'm pretty sure that whatever I end up eating will taste fine with a mojito...