The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1899-09-07


as well be raised in the island come
from affair. Spanish vessels bring
wines and olives from Barcelona
queer Portuguese craft discharge car
goes of onions, garlic and flour; Hall
fax sends onions, cabbages, potatoes,
apples and sailed fish South Amer
lea brigantines, with the general air
of piratical craft. bring wheat, ierked
beef, sweet oil, bacon, lard, figs. olives
and brandy: from Mexico come most
of the bulls for fighting in the Plaza
de Torros, and incidentally beef while
American and Canadian vessels bring
about fourffths of the entire food
supplies consumed in Cuba.
Speaking of odd but extremely pal
atable dishes compounded by Cuban
cooks over their queer little "estufas"
containing a handful of charcoal, here
are a few most commonly met: Beans,
cooked with sausages and shrimps,
colored golden with saffron. for an
entree: stewed tomatoes, mixed with
chopped boiled eggs pigeons, sea
soned with lemon Juice onions, pars-
ley, nutmeg and white wine, baked
in Il thin crust of suet paste chick
ems, fried in oil and garnished with
mushrooms and garlic and geese slit
down the back covered with bread
crumbs and Drowned in the oven,
afterwards smothered in Il sauce of
sauterne boiled down with thyme and
bayleaf. Peacocks are also cooked.
but are SO expensive as to be found
only in the best hotels and the houses
of the rich
A favorite way of fattening poultry
here is to put them in barrels and
stuff them with walnuts and cornmeal
for several days before they are killed,
something as Americans fatten tur-
keys for Thanksgiving-such savages
we mortals be in all parts of the
world
Just before Christmas, all over
Cuba, turkeys are driven from door
to door through the city streets, in
droves of from 40 to 100, for people to
make their own selections. Guinea
hens, Guinea pigs, mountain rats
and variety of small birds enter into
the festive menu. Beef, mutton and
pork is killed the day before it is used,
often cooked as soon as killed, because
it cannot be kept in this warm eli
mate For the same reason, reputa-
BILE Cuban cooks will never buy fish
unless they are alive, and the markets
have big tanks full of fish swimming
about. Shrimps, Holsters and mussels
are very small here, and the little
tasteless oysters grow on the sub
merged branches of shrubs and trees
along the coast; therefore, instead of
buying them by the peck unshelled,
or by the quart or can as at home.
you go to market and get a branch of
oysters, as if they were cherries.
ICIIuIJIh ihu Uui tlcS StIC ililt cllOuSll
to make up for the lack of oysters,
and the crabs are better than the best
found in the lower Potomac-which
is saying great deal for them. Land
crabs, especially, grow to great size,
and their bodies stand high from the
ground on their enormous claws.
They burrow in holes and their clum-
sy locomotion is like that of man
who has looked too long upon the
wine when it is red. Cooks feed these
monsters Oh cornmeal for several days
before they are to be dropped in boil
ing water or oil.
Cubans are adopts in pastry, but
they never make pies. Their desserts
are principally of fruits. uncooked
and in compotes, with too much
sweetness for the American taste.
They make buildings and cakes also,
and kind of custard called fam
compounded of eggs, milk, cornstarch,
with lemons or bananas and dash
of red wine. Everybody in Cuba who
has cent to spare eats "monte-cardo''