Tastes Like Cuba: An Exile's Hunger for Home [Mass Market Paperback]

Eduardo Machado (Author), Michael Domitrovich (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 7, 2008

Born into a well-to-do family in Cuba in 1953, Eduardo Machado saw firsthand the effects of the rising Castro regime. When he and his brother were sent to the United States on one of the Peter Pan flights of 1961, they did not know if they would ever see their parents or their home again. From his experience living in exile in Los Angeles to becoming an actor, director, playwright and professor in New York, Machado explores what it means to say good-bye to the only home one’s ever known, and what it means to be a Latino in America today. Filled with delicious recipes and powerful tales of family, loss, and self discovery, Tastes Like Cuba delivers the story of Eduardo’s rich and delectable life—reminding us that no matter where we go, there is no place that feels (and tastes) better than home.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In this memoir, playwright and professor Machado (Kissing Fidel) tells the story of his family's escape from Cuba and their assimilation into the U.S. Although his tale features a familiar triumph-over-adversity storyline, it distinguishes itself in descriptions of Cuban delicacies, complete with recipes. Recalling a hasty dinner of swordfish escabeche enjoyed in the midst of the Revolution, he writes, "Something about looking down at a golden slab, cutting into the thick flesh... made the meal feel like a luxury." To better share the tastes of home, the author studs the book with recipes for favorites like Roast Pork, heady with garlic and citrus, and Biztec Empanizado, a tropical country-fried steak that's surprisingly light. Though the vivid food writing captivates, the memoir can drag in long reporterly passages, and rankles with a few too many glib assessments: "The shock of dad's departure was that it changed how we understood the very concept of family." Nevertheless, the luxuriant descriptions of family meals, and the obvious joy Machado takes in recounting them, make this memoir a tasty read.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

?Eccentric and often affecting.?
?"The New York Times Book Review"

?A tasty read.?
?"Publishers Weekly"

Machado's memoir will bring life to a world lost in time and offer recipes that are authentic, easy to follow and delicious.?
?"The Miami Herald"

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 18 and up
  
• Mass Market Paperback: 357 pages
• Publisher: Gotham; First Thus edition (October 7, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1592404057
• ISBN-13: 978-1592404056
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,420,178 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Self-Absorbed and Annoying, March 23, 2008

By 

A Reader (London) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Tastes Like Cuba: An Exile's Hunger for Home (Hardcover)

I have read many Cuban exile memoirs as well as those of Polish, Russian and other exiles groups. I also have several cookbook/memoirs about "old Cuba." This memoir is really one of the most irritating of the lot. Mr Machado goes on and on about loving his homeland and yearning for the taste of its food etc. That is fine. But he also goes on and on about his issues with his family - especially about his resentment towards his parents for sending him as a "Peter Pan" child to the US (Operation Peter Pan was a way for Cuban parents to send their unaccompanied children out of Cuba under the auspices of Catholic charities. This was at a time when parents in Cuba believed that their children would be rounded up and shipped to the Soviet Union to be "re-educated." Out of desperation, they were willing to send their children and then hoped to follow them). Mr Machado at one point rants about how they sent him and his 5 yr old brother just so they could make sure he grew up the way they thought he should. Well, one would wonder at any parent who willingly separated from their child for any other reason except to save them from a fate they viewed as horrible. This is just one example of a general trend to make rather vicious statements about his family, the US govt., other Cuban exiles (especially in Miami) and anyone else that disagrees with his view. It wasn't that gripping a memoir and the it wasn't really a great food related book. I would say that if you want a better Cuban exile memoir, try Pablo Medina's Exiled Memories or Gustavo Perez-Firmat's Next Year in Cuba. And if you really want have a useful cookbook that includes lots of memories and background flavor, then try A Taste of Old Cuba by Maria Josefa Lluria de O'Higgins or Memories of a Cuban Kitchen by Mary Urrutia Randelman. Both are excellent and authentic and filled with family photos and stories. Oh and the Nitza Villapol book(Cocina Criolla or Cocina al Minuto)from the 1950's which Mr Machado mentions is readily available in reprints -- you don't have to go secretly to Cuba and look in a second hand book stall.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Emotional and Inspiring True Life Story - And Some Good Recipes Too, October 5, 2008

By 

Sam I Am (los angeles) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Tastes Like Cuba: An Exile's Hunger for Home (Hardcover)

The author had me hooked from page one. The writing is excellent, and my only complaint is the fact that the author included Cuban recipes in the main text of the book - it was a little bit distracting, and would have been more useful if the recipes were all in one place, at the end of the book.

However, the story that Eduardo Machado tells is wonderful, detailed and rich with memory about his Cuban childhood, and the significance that familiar foods and traditions have in our lives, especially for those who can't go home. For some American immigrants, the home country is part of their lives - they can fly back home easily, knowing that things will be the way they left them; friends will still be there, and so will most of their relatives.

For refugees, the situation is different - they know they can never go back home, and the new country is their home country. Machado's longing for food and all that is familiar will ring true to any reader who has experienced a life-altering situation, one in which things will never be the same as they were before. I completely understand the author's fascination and near-obsession with the details of food, spices and aromas.

The author's description of the downtown Los Angeles Grand Central Market is so accurate, and I have been told by many people that visiting this open-air market for the first time made them feel like they were back home again. I highly recommend this book.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Tastes Like Cuba, May 8, 2008

By 

Lourdes Perdomo "BUTTERFLY" (SANTO DOMINGO, DOMINICAN REPUBLIC) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Tastes Like Cuba: An Exile's Hunger for Home (Hardcover)

Just finished reading this story..It is fantastic, has all, loved it. I related to it. The food, the story, the pain of Cuba..