HAVANA, Jan. 20th Sailing teams racing monohulls and multihulls are to compete in races from the Florida Keys to two Cuban cities during the 13-day Conch Republic Cup. The event, also known as Key West Cuba Race Week, starts Read more
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HAVANA, Jan 20 (PL) A week devoted to the Haitian culture and the anniversary 213 of the victory of the revolution in Haiti will be held in Cuba for the first time, Ambassador to this country Geri Benoit announced.
Groups that keep the Haitian tradition in Cuba will participate in the activities Read more
https://havana-live.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Unbenanntdf.png200200Havana Livehttps://havana-live.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/logo_havana.pngHavana Live2017-01-20 07:59:582021-10-04 18:45:07Haitian Culture Week for The First Time in Cuba
HAVANA, Jan. 19th (AP) President Barack Obama on Thursday blamed Congress for his failure to keep a promise to close the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, saying there’s “simply no justification beyond politics” Read more
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HAVANA, Jan. 19th A repatriation dispute over a Cuban painting by Wifredo Lam allegedly seized by the Fidel Castro regime was settled out of court this summer, reports the Art Newspaper.
https://havana-live.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Lam_photo.jpg200187Havana Livehttps://havana-live.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/logo_havana.pngHavana Live2017-01-19 14:55:112021-10-04 18:45:08Settlement Reached Over Wifredo Lam Painting Lost During Cuban Revolution
HAVANA, Jan 19th Sources from the Ministry of Tourism (MINTUR) said Cuba expects to receive 4.2 million tourists in 2017, a four percent growth compared to last year.
During the Roundtable TV program, MINTUR deputy Mayra Alvarez Read more
Havana, Jan 19th Higinio Vélez, president of the Cuban Baseball Federation, affirmed the aspiration of his country to officially be part of the Caribbean Confederation of Read more
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HAVANA, Jan. 18th This month, Cayman Islands auto dealer John Felder and his Premier Automotive Export Ltd., a subsidiary of Cayman Automotive, will become the first U.S. car company to ship American-built vehicles to Cuba. Read more
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HAVANA, Jan. 18th The Hershey Company and its multi-billion non-profit Hershey Trust eventual return to Cuba can truly reset US-Cuban relations and let President Donald Read more
HAVANA, Jan 18 (PL) Businessmen from the German Federal State of Baden-Wuttemberg started off on negociations in Cuba, in order to identify new business and investment Read more
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HAVANA, Jan. 18th (Reuters) The United States, Mexico and Cuba aim to sign an agreement determining territorial water limits before U.S. President-elect Donald Trump takes office on Jan. 20, three diplomatic officials familiar with the Read more
HAVANA, Jan. 17th I soon learned that every morning as a tourist in Cuba would be a special occasion. Most casa particulares serve breakfast to guests as part of their stay. It is bountiful, delicious, and in fact a very big deal. We stayed in three different homes during our trip, experiencing three Read more
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HAVANA, Jan 17. (ACN) The earth shook under the feet of Cubans in Santiago de Cuba overnight Tuesday in what some described as a very strong tremor, a 5.5 magnitude Read more
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HAVANA, Jan. 17th Last Thursday’s announcement by US President Barack Obama that he is ending the longstanding “wet foot, dry foot” immigration policy that allows any Cuban who makes it to US soil to stay and become a legal Read more
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HAVANA, Jan. 17th The wait in the line to exchange money at the Havana airport can stretch on for hours, reservations are a must at popular private Cuban restaurants and tangerine and hot-pink-colored vintage cars ferrying visitors Read more
HAVANA ,Jan. 16th An American team of academics is racing to preserve millions of Cuban historical documents before they are lost to the elements and poor storage conditions.
Many of the documents shed light on the slave Read more
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HAVANA, Jan. 16th White House deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes is headed to Cuba to finalize an agreement governing joint law enforcement efforts Read more
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Thomas Donohue (L), President and CEO of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce speaks with Vice President of Cuba’s Council of Ministers Ricardo Cabrisas Ruiz (R) in Havana, Cuba, January 13, 2017. REUTERS/Alexandre Meneghini
HAVANA, Jan. 14th (Reuters) The head of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce met with Cuban President Raul Castro and in separate meetings with members of Castro’s economic Read more
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HAVANA, Jan. 13th Cuba is famous for many things. Rum. Cars. Cigars. Che. Food isn’t one of them. Aside from the staples (every Cuban citizen receives a regular supply of rice, sugar, coffee, meat, eggs and bread), food supplies are often limited and can run out without warning. Partly due to this, many meals are based around meat or fish with rice and beans as filler.
Traveling the world as a vegetarian, Cuba was the country I thought would prove hardest to eat well in — or even moderately well. Its vegetarian food has a reputation for being either “completely uninspired” or “uniformly terrible” — but is the vegetarian food in Cuba really so bad? In a word, no. Definitely not. But I wouldn’t call it great, either. Let’s explore.
HAVANA The first stop in Cuba is usually Habana Vieja, or Old Havana. As the vibrant and historic hub of the city, Old Havana is known for its striking colonial beauty, art galleries and museums, and countless restaurants offering authentic and traditional Cuban meals. In Habana Vieja, this almost always means meat or fish.
Cuban bruschetta. Image by www.selenenelson.co.uk
Restaurant staff linger outside their establishments, trying to draw you in by tapping their menus and describing their dishes with an almost feverish passion. Mention you’re vegetarian, however, and even the most enthusiastic waiters usually give up. Sometimes they’ll try to act as though the rice and beans accompanying the meat are the real draw of the meal, but usually the response is just defeated disappointment. I actually started to feel quite bad for them.
After bypassing many restaurants without a vegetarian main course, I wandered into O’Reilly 304. A tiny, trendy restaurant specialising in gin cocktails and contemporary Cuban cuisine that’s unassumingly sandwiched between two shabby buildings on the outskirts of Habana Vieja, it’s easy to walk past altogether. But it’s clear from first entry that here is something quite different.
Framed glowing reviews from the Miami Herald hang proudly on the walls, cool bartenders shake up incredible-looking cocktails, and the menu offers several meat-free plates. From pumpkin soup with Cuban blue cheese and cilantro to soft veggie tacos stuffed with beans and seasonal vegetables, O’Reilly 304 reflects the developing restaurant scene in Cuba.
One thing I discovered at O’Reilly 304 is that Cubans love bruschetta. It’s on the menu at any half-decent restaurant, and O’Reilly 304 is no exception. But Cuban bruschetta is a little different than what may strike you as familiar.
Diced fresh Cuban pumpkin. Image by www.selenenelson.co.uk
The onion is sweet, and spring onion and chives usually make an appearance, too. Also unlike traditional bruschetta, the onion outweighs the tomato in quantity, and an added splash of vinegar makes for an unusually sweet yet tangy appetizer. Cuban bread isn’t good, but when it’s lightly toasted and doused in oil, garlic and vinegar, it’s great.
The quality of food at O’Reilly 304 is excellent. The banana chips come served with the most delicious dipping sauce I’ve ever had — so good that I embarrassed myself trying to wipe up every last drop of it and had to write down every discernible ingredient to try to replicate it later (it definitely contained ginger, chili, sugar, coriander, onion, garlic and vinegar).
TRINIDAD The food choices picked up, unexpectedly, in Trinidad, a UNESCO World Heritage Site at the foot of the Escambray Mountains. Walking through this beautiful town, with its cobbled streets and perfectly preserved colonial buildings, really is like stepping back in time. The prospect of getting any good vegetarian food in a town that wasn’t even connected to the rest of Cuba until the 1950s didn’t seem too realistic. But I was wrong.
Stuffed tomatoes filled with sautéed vegetables. Image by www.selenenelson.co.uk
At Giroud, a bizarrely cool place where you sit on old TV sets and beer crates and chairs hang upside down from walls, there was a whole variety of meat-free, tapas-style dishes: stuffed peppers and tomatoes packed with cheese and sautéed vegetables, pumpkin cream, vegetable bruschetta, diced pumpkin with onion and herbs, and cooling gazpacho. Serving beautiful and great-tasting dishes, Giroud is another example of Cuba’s emerging avant-garde food scene.
The standout in Trinidad for me was Taberna La Botija, a lively 24-hour restaurant where the country’s Spanish and Latin influences seamlessly merge with traditional Cuban cuisine. The sweet corn fritters, served with a creamy garlic dip with a hint of dill, were lovely, but the fried Cuban cheese balls were incredible. I had two portions, one right after the other.
While I would never cite Cuba’s food as one of the reasons to return, in the face of its rapidly developing gastronomic scene, its reputation for truly terrible vegetarian food now seems a little undeserved.
It may take a while before it can be considered “veggie friendly” (and vegans would certainly struggle), but the meat-free options are expanding. Changes are being made, and attitudes are adjusting. Embargoes may even be lifted. The wheels on this classic Cuban car are in motion, however slowly they may be turning. http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/selene-nelson/where-to-find-vegetarian-_b_14140712.html
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HAVANA, Jan. 12th (Reuters) – The Obama administration is ending a policy that granted residency to Cubans who arrived in the United States without visas, several congressional sources said on Thursday. Read more
A portrait in the Colosos series by Máisel López, painted on a wall in the Buena Vista neighborhood Courtesy Máisel López
HAVANA, Jan. 12th Far from the galleries of Vedado and Miramar, Máisel López fills the streets of his Havana barrio with art—specifically, portraits of neighborhood children. Lianet Hernández talks with López about his Colosos portraits and their impact, his dedication to working in grisaille, Read more
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HAVANA, Jan. 12th The classic 1950s cars on the streets of Havana are much admired by foreigners, yet the reality for most Cubans is a lot more mundane. For them, owning a car – any car – remains a dream, albeit one which has been Read more
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HAVANA, Jan. 12th In 2016, 74 percent more US citizens took advantage of improved bilateral ties to visit Cuba, compared to the year before, the Cuban government announced on Wednesday.
The officla dada shows that in 2016, 284,937 Americans visited Cuba, for a 74 percent Read more
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HAVANA, Jan. 12th Latin music star Enrique Iglesias is in Havana, Cuba filming his new music video for his single “Súbeme la Radio”. The 41-year-old singer shared the news in an Instagram video posted Tuesday as he prepared to fly Read more
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Jeffrey DeLaurentis, U.S. Charge d’Affaires in Cuba (L), shakes hands with Cuban Deputy Transportation Minister Eduardo Rodriguez Davila after signing accords to join forces to prevent, contain and cleanup oil spills in their respective Gulf of Mexico waters, in Havana, Cuba, January 9, 2017. REUTERS/Alexandre Meneghini
HAVANA, Jan. 9th (Reuters) Cuba and the United States agreed on Monday to jointly prevent, contain and clean up oil and other toxic spills in the Gulf of Mexico, as they rush to Read more
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HAVANA, Ja. 9th (Reuters) Cubans are adept at inventing ways to earn cash but Felix Guirola stands – or rather, cycles – head and shoulders above them.
The handyman, who loves heights, provides advertising space for companies on Read more
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HAVANA, Jan. 8th Cuban Interior Minister Carlos Fernandez Gondin has died here after a “chronic illness”, authorities said on Sunday. He was 78.
According to his will, Fernandez Gondin, who died on Saturday, will be cremated, and his ashes will be honoured at the Pantheon of Veterans in Read more
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A man prepares artisanal charcoal at a farm on the outskirts of Havana, Cuba, Thursday, Jan. 5, 2017. Artisanal charcoal will become the first Cuban export to the U.S. this month under a new deal between the Cuban government and Read more
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