Havana Salsa: Stories and Recipes [Deckle Edge] [Hardcover]

Viviana Carballo (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 22, 2006

With more than seventy mouthwatering recipes throughout, Havana Salsa is the vibrant memoir of Viviana Carballo and her extraordinary childhood growing up in Cuba. A collection of stories about her large, extended family -- an eccentric group who conducted their lives against the extraordinary backdrop of Havana -- Carballo recalls the 1940s and 1950s when Havana was a nonstop party, and food and music defined the culture, until Fidel Castro took power in 1959, and she was forced to leave her beloved country.

With each delightful family memory, Carballo showcases the food of her culture and a delectable recipe, beginning with her childhood in the forties (calabaza fritters, sweet plantain tortillas, and oxtail stew), through the sensual fifties (roast shoulder of lamb, Cuban bouillabaisse), and then the first eighteen months of Castro's revolution (mango pie, tamal en cazuela, and papas con chorizo). Havana Salsa tells the history of Carballo's Havana as only she can -- through the intimate and unifying experience of food, family, and friends.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Food columnist Carballo's devotion to both her Cuban homeland and the magnificent food of her childhood are evident in this memoir with recipes. She grew up in prerevolutionary Cuba in the 1950s with divorced parents—her father, a philandering fortune-teller, instilled in his daughter a passion for food. "My dad loved every kind of food and always encouraged me to sample right along with him," Carballo writes. "He took pleasure in every bite. It was a joyful experience, and since then I have always associated food with being cosseted, with being happy." This anecdote is followed by a recipe for Roast Duck El Pacifico. Each vignette is a mere tidbit, a taste of Carballo's life, covering her family's eccentric friends, her years in an American convent boarding school, her early romances, right up to her escape to the U.S. after Castro came to power. The stories are not as consistently fulfilling as the recipes; the ones she doesn't tell are quite interesting: "Little did I know that my mother was on a mission to the Sierra Maestra carrying medicines and small arms" is virtually all she writes about her mother's astonishing work. The memoir is a treat, although more substantial fare would have been nice. (Aug.)
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Review

"What a delicious, romantic, bawdy, touching spell Viviana Carballo casts over us in her memoir/cookbook, Havana Salsa. With her original and immensely charming voice we are transported through her memories of Cuba in the 40s and 50s when the enthralling power, the 'magic realism' that Cuba had in spades was alive and well. She saves it and then teaches us how to prepare these lusty flavors that can come alive again in our kitchens. What an inspiration, what a joyride!"

-- Chef Norman Van Aken, founder of Norman's Restaurants USA and author of New World Kitchen

"I have seen and probably own every Cuban cookbook published since the 1950s, and Havana Salsa goes way beyond black beans! It is so well researched -- no cookbook collection can do without it, and it brings back the past in a delicious and decadent way."

-- Chef Douglas Rodriguez, restaurateur and author of The Great Ceviche Book

"A delectable collection of remembrances and recipes, Havana Salsa captures the exotic and enigmatic flavors of Cuba's past. With a fresh and uninhibited style, Viviana Carballo ventures beyond the merely nostalgic and invites us to ponder the tantalizing notion that, while the Cuba she knew is gone forever, through her love for the art of cooking it is still possible to savor some aspects of her country's former glory today."

-- Cecilia Samartin, author of Broken Paradise --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Atria (August 22, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743285166
• ISBN-13: 978-0743285162
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,878,178 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Havana Salsa: Stories & Recipes is my first book although I have been in the eating business since childhood under the influence of my eccentric father first and later more seriously when I lived in Manhattan as a flight attendant exposed too many truly great restaurants in the City and abroad. But even while I had long enjoyed the pleasure of eating, I hadn't yet mastered the art of cooking and it was out of necessity that I finally did.

My boyfriend du jour was an impecunious graduate student and neither he nor I could afford the gastronomic delicacies our dreams were made of. So I started cooking French food (the height of exquisiteness at the time) with a modicum of success. As my skills progressed somewhat, I thought I was ready to try a souffl' to impress the boyfriend and show him my talents went beyond banana cream pie, his fave. Notwithstanding the limitations of my kitchen, which was situated in a closet with a half fridge and a stove that dropped the oven door open when heated to a high temperature. The blisters on my legs were a testimony of the same. But I was determined; certainly a strawberry souffl' would do the trick. Before buying the strawberries, though, I needed equipment. Off I went to the legendary Fred Bridge store, legendary, not only because he carried copper pots and numerous French gadgets, but legendary because he, Fred Bridge, was the most irascible, crochety, and unpleasant man who had ever managed to stay in business.

After the usual hostile exchange with Fred, I brought home a copper bowl and a whisk to beat the egg whites. It was considered bad form to use an electric mixer ' something about the quality or size of the molecules. I also bought a splendid souffl' dish.

And I set out to make the souffl'. After buttering the souffl' dish and preparing the copper bowl with a swirl of vinegar to produce firmer beaten egg whites (again with the molecules) I set out my ingredients; eggs room temperature and carefully separated ' not a speck of yolk on the egg whites, strawberries cleaned, hulled and thinly sliced dusted with cornstarch so they wouldn't bleed and some others mashed to a pur'e, butter, flour, sugar, boiling milk, a pinch of salt. I made the cr'me patissiere, the base of the souffl', added the mashed strawberries and sliced ones too and proceeded to beat my egg whites. Impeccable they were ' I folded them in carefully and finally, rather triumphantly I poured the concoction in the buttered dish ' a thing of beauty, but not a joy for long.

Everything was going well, I was feeling very joyful and I trusted the stove wouldn't play any of her usual tricks. It didn't. I was thrilled to see the souffl' was rising and rising if a little dangerously fast. All of a sudden the souffl' started sputtering, turning into a volcano of Krakatoa proportions, there was half cooked souffl' everywhere ' on the ceiling of the oven, on the bottom, spilling out through the sides of the oven door ' my act of bravado turning into a Lucy Ricardo skit with souffl' all over including the kitchen floor. I was crying in shame and anger, but the boyfriend thought it was hilarious and laughed and laughed, guffaws come to mind, even while choking as I made him eat the ill-fated souffl' off the floor.

But it was that Disaster (with a capital D) that changed the course of my life. I decided right then and there to learn how to cook professionally. If I couldn't afford to eat well and my attempts at refined cooking where such a catastrophe, I was going to go to the best cooking school I could find.

A few months later I was living in Paris, learning French, and attending Le Cordon Bleu 'cole de Cuisine.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The recipes are an added bonus!, September 12, 2006

By 

Three Guys from Miami "Authors of Three Guys... - See all my reviews

This review is from: Havana Salsa: Stories and Recipes (Hardcover)

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The last 10 years have brought a wealth of "growing up Cuban" memoirs, most notably "Waiting for Snow in Havana," "Tropicana Nights," and "Finding Mañana." Funny thing is, we just can't get enough of them. We guess it's because they bring memories of a Cuba we can only dream about -- the glory days of Cuba that are slowly fading in our memories.

Viviana Carballo has added to the mix with a delightful account of her own rather eccentric family's experiences both BC (Before Castro) and after. Reading this book is a little like pulling up a stool and listening to the stories of a favorite (albeit a little saucy) great aunt. As in many homes of the time and especially in the better homes of Havana, Carballo's mother cooked only occasionally, mostly for holidays and special occasions. The real culinary magic was performed by Dulce, the Carballo's cook and a devout follower of Santeria -- a religion that combines African mystic belief with Catholic faith. It was here that Viviana Carballo first learned the basics of Cuban cuisine, in a kitchen that was quite literally watched over by the Gods.

For those who survived the "revolution," no Cuban life story is without pain and suffering and Carballo's experiences are especially heartrending. Her father is branded a counter-revolutionary and locked up in one of Castro's gulags where he dies after two years of inhumane treatment. When she decides to flee the island, she must leave her husband behind, a horrible Sophie's choice that no woman should ever be faced with.

Carballo seasons her narrative with some 70 recipes for Cuban dishes, some very traditional, although there is a strong emphasis on dishes from the mother country, Spain. Some are pure Gallego: you'd be hard pressed to find Blue Cheese Circles, St. James Almond Tart, or Christmas Turkey with Catalan stuffing on a traditional Cuban menu, but this broadening of the Cuban food repertoire only adds to this book's appeal. There is even a recipe for filloas, the Spanish version of French crepes. Thick and almost rustic in appearance, these hearty pancakes make a great wrapper for a wide range of fillings both sweet and savory.

Cuban dessert fanatics (and we hear from them weekly at our website) will enjoy several rarely published dessert recipes including one for Brazo Gitano (quite literally Gypsy's arm) a classic jelly roll cake traditionally filled with sweet guava filling and topped with candied fruits and shredded coconut, but here stuffed with a citrus cream and garnished simply with powdered sugar and orange slices. Meringue loving foodies will be inspired by the capitolios, a chocolate cake-like confection topped with fluffy meringue -- although the author does admit to taking the easy way out and using a commercial brownie mix for the cake.

We have only begun to sample the recipes, but one clearly stands out: a new twist on enchilado de camarones, a very typical dish of sautéed shrimp in a creole sauce, here made less typical with the addition of coconut milk and a bit of a spicy kick.

Havana Salsa is an excellent read and the recipes are an added bonus!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Havana Salsa: Stories and Recipes, September 22, 2007

By 

F. Todaro - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Havana Salsa: Stories and Recipes (Hardcover)

This is a lovely book full of great stories and great recipes. Loved it!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Havana Salsa, September 6, 2010

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Vivian St Pierre - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Havana Salsa: Stories and Recipes (Paperback)

Being from Havana myself and coming over to the States as a 12 year old I can relate to not only some of her stories but the way it has been written is so true to life in Cuba during that era. Love her recipes, brings back very old memories.

Vivian St Pierre