Santiago's Specialties

Santiago is known for its roast pig and its marinated yuca (cassava or manioc). Other eastern Cuba specialties include fufu, a mashed plantain side dish laced with crumbs of crispy pork, and pru, a soft drink made from pine needles, sugar, roots, and herbs. Baracoa's cuisine is closer to that found elsewhere in the Caribbean in that it relies heavily on the coconut. Fish and shellfish, for example, are served in a flavorful orange coconut sauce. Bacán is mashed plantain and coconut stuffed with pork, wrapped in plantain leaves, and then cooked. All along the roadsides, children sell cucurucho, a desert of shredded coconut, fruits, nuts, and sugar ingeniously wrapped in a palm leaf.

When looking for a place to eat, good bets are the privately operated paladares, which serve comida criolla (the island's own mixture of Spanish and New World cuisines). Roasted pork or chicken and stewed or spiced beef are common main courses. They're usually served with arroz (rice) and red-kidney or black beans or fried sweet bananas or plantains (plátanos).