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Traditional Cuban Christmas
Traditions & Party Recipes
If you're thinking of having a Cuban style Christmas, plan on
preparing a great deal of food. Noche Buena is the time that
you will want to have a great deal of Cuban cooking to keep
everyone satisfied. Here we'll provide you with some details
on how to throw a good Cuban Christmas party.
Typical Meals of a Cuban Christmas Eve Party
This includes the lechon asado (roasted pig), Moros y Cristianos (Black beans
and rice), and plenty of Cuban cider to drink. The biggest
tradition is to have a pig roast. The day before Christmas
Eve, a pig would be selected, slaughtered, cleaned and would
begin marinating for the cookout the roast the next day.
Drinks
should include refreshing
Mojitos and Cuban cider. Cuban
eggnog, known as
crema de vie, is also a popular Cuban
Christmas beverage.
The main course should include a large
roasted pig. Most Cubans living
in the U.S. will purchase an 80 pound pig (or 100 lbs to feed over 70 people) from
their local butcher store. Doing this the traditional way in your backyard
can be a very big undertaking, but I found a website
that sells a real-deal "caja china" (Cuban pig roaster).
Click here to see one of them available for sale on that
website.
If you can't go to the trouble of a full
backyard pig roast, you can also look up the recipe for a
Roast Suckling Pig,
it's only 10 lbs and can be cooked in your oven. It's
going to take a full 12 hours to cook, though,
so you'll want to start preparing it first thing in the
morning.
Along with the pork, you'll want to serve up
Moros y
Cristianos, the seasoned black beans over a blanket of white
fluffy rice. You'll also want to have some
Mariquitas on hand,
fried plantain slices dripping with mojo sauce.
You can conclude the meal with a delicous
Rum Custard dish, as
well as the
Pudin Diplomatico, which is a Cuban bread pudding.
Cuban Christmas Decorations
If you're throwing a Cuban themed Christmas Eve party, take
some suggestions from visitors to my site's forum. For the
decorations, think about greenery, or hibiscus blooms. Bongo
drums, maracas, straw sombreros (not Mexican sombreros and
definitely no Mexican sarapes) add to the setting.
You may
also want to have a Cuban flag, if one is available. Clothing
should reflect the 1940's and 50's years; have men order guayaberas to wear. A nice touch would be some dominos in case
anyone wants to engage in one of the most classic Cuban
pastimes.
Lots of tropical fruits should be at the party: Coconut,
pineapples, sugar cane, oranges, mangoes, mamey, and papayas.
Hang up some vintage Cuban posters (you can find them on eBay,
Amazon, or various Cuban shopping sites).
Cuban Christmas Music
While there is a great deal of contemporary Salsa or classic
Salsa albums from Cuba that you could find, I think nothing
would set the mood and tone of a Cuban themed party like a
good Perez Prado compilation (or Benny Moré).
You've got the food, the music, the setting. Now you're ready to
throw your Cuban Christmas Party!
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