Although the powdered egg she bought last month has expired since April and cost her 1,000 pesos for a one-kilogram package on the black market, Lucy doesn’t care. Food has become the last resort for housewives to put this type of protein on the table, in the absence of real eggs that, when they appear, do not go below 1,700 pesos per 30-unit carton.
Two tablespoons mixed with six of water equals one natural egg. The taste, which is very different, says Lucy, with a “box” aftertaste, is solved “with a lot of seasoning.” The woman, a neighbor of Centro Habana, cooks it like a scramble but first sautés onion, chili pepper and rosemary; she adds the powder diluted in water to the sauce and, finally, a little tomato sauce. “It is delicious, although I know that there are people who can only add a little salt.”
The powdered egg is not sold in stores, neither state nor private, neither in national currency nor in foreign currency, because it is an ingredient destined for the food industry in Cuba
The powdered egg is not sold in stores, neither state nor private, neither in national currency nor in foreign currency, because it is an ingredient destined for the food industry in Cuba. Rather than being prepared in an omelette, it is used for pastries or other preparations such as pancakes, croquettes or panetelas, and its objective is to avoid contamination by salmonella that can occur in the natural product.
Lucy is clear that if it reached her hands, especially taking into account the expiration date, it is because someone “diverted” it, the natural path to an informal market that supplies the endless scarcity of the Island. This package, of which she barely There’s less than a quarter left and it’s made in Argentina. She bought it in half with her sister, so she wouldn’t have to spend so much.
“I remember that in the Special Period there were eggs and they called them ‘the lifeguards,'” says the woman. “Things are so bad, that now the ‘lifeguards’ come in dust and defeated.”
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