"Cuban food" news and stories

Black baked beans. Photo: Jennifer Iserloh.

Beans are one of the foods I crave. No matter if it's black bean soup with tons of fresh lime, refried beans, chili or summer barbecues -- I make a beeline to the baked beans.

I have a passion for Moros y Cristianos, gorgeous black beans and rice cooked with green peppers, fresh cilantro, savory spices and a little ham. I treat myself to this whenever I visit the very authentic Cuban restaurant, La Isla, in Hoboken, N.J.

My version of black baked beans is a nod to some of the flavors you'll find in a plate of their moros. The recipe is after the jump.

Most shredded potatoes find themselves nestled inside latkes and hashbrowns. But if you want to get islandy (or Latin American), something else gets thrown into the mix -- black beans.

Suddenly, that fried and starchy side gets a whole new depth -- the meaty beans offering a thicker and slightly creamier texture and a more substantial latke sort of flavor. Rather than a crisp, thin slab of potato, you get a thicker pancake, crisp on the outside and creamy inside.

Putting together potato and black bean pancakes isn't the quickest task, unfortunately. In the recipe that follows, you must rid the potatoes of their water, chop up a whole myriad of ingredients, let then firm in the fridge, form them, coat them (in ground saltines which gives them a nice, unique taste), fry them and then bake them.

So it's not really the sort of dish you throw together after work unless you like eating really late. But when you've got some extra time or an extra hand or two in the kitchen, this side quickly becomes a nice twist to your meal.

The following recipe is quite basic, relying on fresh parsley and bacon to amp up the flavor, but there are other ways to make these pancakes pop. They're just itching for some hot peppers, extra spices or even a coriander + cilantro twist.

Potato and black bean pancakes after the jump.

Get prepared. Back from a trip to Key West, I'm ready to revel in all things Cuban, tropical, and rum tasty ... until I whimper for the blue seas again and retreat back into my cave.

Above is the sandwich that almost never got eaten. I went to Key West, indulged in as much rum, seafood, and Cuban food as I could handle, and then got waylayed by a freak snowstorm in Atlanta. During my extra day in the sun, I walked the length of Simonton St. and came upon Ana's Cuban Cafe (1222 White St) -- the place I kept meaning to stop at, but never made it to. I'll never make that mistake again, and I hope you won't either.

The cafe is nestled inside a simple corner store, jam-packed with drinks and food. I walked to the counter and ordered a Cuban sandwich -- ham, pulled pork, lettuce, cheese, and mustard pressed between delicious slices of Cuban bread. It was both simple and delicious -- the sort of dish that doesn't need to rely on fancy ingredients because every single one goes perfectly with the next. But the hero of this sandwich is the bread. Cuban bread is wonderfully soft inside, so getting pressed in a plancha, it crisps up easily on the outside, and condenses into almost nothing on the inside. That way, you get the perfect flavor of bread without the stomach-filling weight of a thicker variety. Divine simplicity, just like the cafe itself.

A number of Slashfoodies can't be wrong!

Note: If anyone has good recipes for Cuban bread, let me know. I've tried one thus far, but am still looking for the perfect one.

Strolling through a casino, especially a newer one like the Tropicana in Atlantic City, New Jersey, is always fun. You can admire the architecture, shop in cute but overpriced stores and people-watch to your heart's content. The two other major attractions of casinos are, of course, gambling and eating. I'm not too lucky when it comes to the slots, but I lucked out by picking Cuba Libre for brunch.

Now, there are many restaurants around the country that share the name, but this particular restaurant has but two locations, in Atlantic City and Philadelphia. I hear that the Philly location has dancing, but the Atlantic City one serves brunch seven days a week. The brunch menu is packed with options, but isn't overwhelming. The black bean hummus is excellent and the plantain chips are a nice touch with the tasty sandwiches.