THE CUBAN WEDDING
For the first time a special guest of cuba.bgspace.com is the gorgeous Mariela Nordel – a Cuban living in Bulgaria. She will tell us about the characteristics of the Cuban wedding. Feel free also to try out some of her (Cuban) recipes that she was so kind as to share with cuba.bgspace.com.
“The Cubans are cheerful and carefree people. And they love flirting… I, for example, belong more to the modest unexperienced Cubans who have only 2 marriages behind their backs. My peers on the Island have been married at least 3-4 times already and still have plans for more. However, the reasons for the Cuban polygamy is not only the love for fiestas and sex but also… irons.”
Mariela continues: ” Cuba is the only country in the world with two official currencies – the Cuban Peso /green/ and SeUSe – this is how we call the Convertible Peso or the red one because the banknotes are red-brown. There are also two types of stores – something like the corecoms that used to exist – they have more goods but in exchange for Peso Convertible, and the ordinary stores that have almost nothing and give it away for coupons. Every Cuban person is born with а Personal Identification Number and a ration coupon book to keep track of the bought products and their quantity. Only children up to the age of 5 and elderly people are entitled to milk. You can also have 10 eggs per month, 1/4 kilo of sugar, half a kilo of coffee, a kilo of meat /that is if they deliver any in the butcher’s shop/, a kilo of fish, 5 kilos of beans, 5 kilos of rice…
You can buy fruit and vegetables freely at the market but at high prices. If you buy a TV you can’t buy a ventilator and only the newly-married have the right to buy an iron. The same goes for refrigerators and ovens. This is why many people prefer to get divorced and remarry until they have all the needed equipment in stock.
However, let me take you back to the more pleasant times of the late 70s and the early 80s when the Soviet Union existed and every month flooded the Cuban markets with tons of food. The joy was immense when a Russian merchant vessel laid aboard at the harbour. This meant that in a couple of days the Russian cans Govyadina, their packet milk, the Russian candy Malyish, and the Spam ham will appear on the supermarket shelves.
We used to plan the wedding menu according to the available goods on the market. However, there were several compulsory components of the celebration regardless of the Soviet ships:
- We never booked a restaurant! The party always took place in the house of one of the newly weds and if they lived in an apartment – the celebration happened in the street or in the nearby park. This is why there never were liquid meals or ones that required cutting.
- We always invited a lot of guests and regardless of the poverty we used all our connections, friends, and bribes in order to provide beer, soft drinks, or rum. Wine is almost unknown in Cuba. It is only recently that they started importing wine and before that, the only source was Bulgaria and their ships with the brands “Gymza” and “Mecha kryv”. Because of the big number of guests, the wedding banquet is always served in… cartoon boxes! All the boxes are placed on the table and everyone takes a box, first thing, even before congratulating the newlyweds. Usually, one of the bridesmaids or some grandmother would guard the table making sure that no one took more than one box. If some boxes were left at the end of the wedding the guests were allowed to take them home. I remember that every time when someone came back home from a wedding the question was: “Did they give you some boxes for home?” A successful wedding was the one at the end of which they were giving away boxes for home… After cutting the wedding cakes – one was never enough, so they usually ordered 2 or 3, the pieces were also put in boxes on another table. Some energetic uncle of the bride used to be in charge of the bar / the groom himself would stuff you with a bottle of beer or “Trago” – this is how we call the cocktails Mojito or Cuba Libre/. Since we didn’t have original Coke drinks the Cuban factories produce a copy similar to the Bulgarian Altay named Tropi Cola, but we like it – at least it was made with real sugar. Children were served Malta – a soft drink with a sweet taste that reminded a little of dark beer – it is still quite popular in Cuba. If it was a rich wedding it used to have cans of mango or guava Taoro juice.
- About the menu: there were always 2-3 chicken, fish or cheese croquettes, sometimes one of each kind. They also used to offer Papa Rellena – a stuffed potato, a malanga friturita /Taro root/. There is no Cuban fiesta without a cold salad. Its recipe varies depending on the products at the market, but there are several compulsory components – boiled macaroni and mayonnaise. If the hosts manage to find meat or sausage they put chopped ham, some cheese, and peppers. In case there were some connections with the fish factory, some shrimp pieces could be found in the salad, pickled cucumbers, or can fish. If there wasn’t any room in the boxes, the sandwiches were placed in the form of pyraminds on huge aluminium tins. The Cuban wedding couldn’t go without the Cuban sandwiches – bocaditos. These are round small loaves of bread, like the one they use for hamburgers, cut in two and with, as it felt like back then, the most delicious meat spread – you can feel the meat inside, although it has the texture of a paste. Sometimes we also made triangle sandwiches from the bread crumbs that we used to spread with mayonnaise and ketchup, chopped pickled cucumbers, and marinated onions. They weren’t my favourite, but they were eatable. In the cake box, we would also put several pastelitos – a Cuban pastry with guava jam inside. There were also vanilla creme pastries, tartalettes “Almedras” with almonds, and inevitably a piruli – a paper cone on stick filled with hardened caramel with chopped peanut. When the family has relatives that live in some village or connections is some Finca /farm/ they offer the toasted incredibly delicious “Cubano sandwich” – baked pork leg slices, baked ham, and cheese hard-pressed in a baguette. Some call it also a Medianoche /midnight/ – since Cubans eat it towards midnight when they go out clubbing or to the cabaret in order to have strength until the morning.
Although Cubans make an impression of very chaotic and undisciplined people, we are rather formal and tend to meticulously adhere to the etiquette. Even the poorest family will save or find money to organize a fairytale wedding. For a first marriage, they usually hold the wedding in Palacios de Los Matrimonios – the wedding palace in Old Havana. With its enchanting frescoes, crystal mirrors, marble staircases, and red carpet it resembles Versailles. The bride is driven to the palace by a carriage or a Cabrio car while sitting graciously on the backrest of the back seat so that everyone can see her. Everyone who sees the bride should shout out a compliment or a wish or toot at her. The groom is waiting for her at the entrance of the palace and they enter the wedding hall together. Then they sign up and exchange rings. Cuban women don’t wear wedding rings like the ones Europeans do – the Cubans prefer platinum, silver, or white gold and 5 stones. If the diamond ring is too expensive for the man he chooses the cheaper version with white sapphires. The man wears an ordinary ring. Then, it is time for a photo session of the newlyweds in some beautiful restaurant, hotel, or park while the guests move to the place of the celebration party. The couple appears only in the heat of the party and cuts the wedding cake. The wedding cakes in Cuba are rectangular, not round, and maximum two-tiered. They always have a meringue topping – egg whites mixed with sugar using the water bath method. The sponge layer is rather simple.
And here comes my favourite moment when I was a little girl – the bride went to change her outfit because at a Cuban wedding the bride wears at least 3 outfits. Only the first one is white if it is her first wedding. The second one should be sexy, and the third – something enchanting as if from a fairytale. After the outfit show is over the newlyweds change into semi-formal comfy clothes and under the cheering of the guests they leave for their honeymoon.
Since the hotels in Cuba also use the CUC currency, every newly-married couple is entitled to 3 days in some luxurious hotel in exchange for quite a small sum of money. This is another reason for young families to get divorced formally and remarry towards the summer in order to use this mini vacation. After the newlyweds leave the party the guests stay there for 3-4 hours more. Nobody is sitting while at a Cuban wedding – the only tables there are for the food boxes. Only the elderly are provided with chairs, although personally, I don’t remember someone ever sitting – children, young, old – everyone is dancing until they drop. Often there is a live band performing at Cuban weddings since there is always a musician in the family or in the neighbourhood. My father, for example, use to have neighbours from the Tropicana Troup – musicians and ballerinas, so my sisters had the most exuberant wedding parties ever with incredible professional performances. My wedding in Bulgaria, however, was held in the afternoon and in the garden of a restaurant but nevertheless, we were scolded because of the “gypsy” band… In Cuba, this is unthinkable – even if the whole neighbourhood echoes with music everybody will take joy in the fiesta even if they are not invited. People would crowd in front of the fence and comment on the food, everybody’s dance moves, and the bride’s outfits…
[Not a valid template]The Cuban wedding cake is always rectangular and big. Sometimes there are even 2 or 3 different cakes. The cream is rather light and not oily since the climate in Cuba is hot and the parties are always outside. The most popular of all creams is the Italian meringue one. Egg whites are mixed with sugar in a bowl over a water bath until the egg whites are thick enough. The sponge layer is a simple one. Guava jam or some of the meringue cream is spread between the layers. All in all, the cakes are rather simple so there is nothing special about them.
