Word of mouth raises demand for Cuban food – “Tastes Like Cuba” – cookbook

Playwright Eduardo Machado, whose play “The Cook” is ending a run at the Goodman Theatre, said that the basis behind his new memoir/cookbook, Tastes Like Cuba: An Exile’s Hunger for Home (Gotham Books, $27.50), was that he could never find Cuban food that tasted as he remembered growing up on the island.

“In Miami, Cuban food seems too spicy. On the island it tastes underspiced, because cooks lost so many ingredients between the revolution and rationing,” Machado said. “Even my mother started cooking in that sort of ‘American’ way, that blend of cultures.”

In Tastes Like Cuba, Machado recounts vivid family dinners featuring mountains of moros y cristianos (black beans and rice), starchy yucca cooked in savory mojo, a potent marinade of citrus and garlic, or lazy afternoons with a lone tamale.”*

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