MIAMI, United States. – Participants of the Second Casabacha ―a culinary event to promote cassava― presented food derived from cassava in Havana, including a catibía ice cream (mass resulting from grated cassava, pressed and squeezed), according to a report from the official medium Havana Tribune.
In the meeting, to which students and teachers from an elementary school in Old Havana were brought, information was offered about cassava, one of the basic foods of the Cuban indigenous people.
The event was organized by the Mipyme Yucasabi, and had the participation of a representation of the Cuban Culinary Association.
“Not only do we want to rescue all the patrimonial value that [el casabe] as one of the oldest dishes in our kitchen, but also that it be incorporated into the daily diet of all of us, for all those values that it has as a healthy food”, the president of Yucasabi, Yudisley Cruz, declared to the official press.
For her part, Madelaine Vázquez, from the Sustainable Food Movement (MAS), belonging to the Cuban Society for the Promotion of Renewable Energy Sources and Environmental Respect (Cubasolar), said that the promoters of cassava and other foods derived from cassava had the purpose of accompanying the Cuban State in the implementation of the recently approved law of food sovereignty and nutritional education.
According to Havana Tribunethis was one of “the actions that are developed in the Cuban capital to promote knowledge about this ancestral and heritage food, with wide versatility to combine with different products.”
It is not the first time that official media of the regime disseminate food alternatives to Cubans, in a panorama of serious food crisis.
To date, residents on the Island have heard of culinary initiatives that include chorizo flavored fish croquettesdishes derived from moringa, ostrich meat, hutia Y curiels, cassava flour as a substitute for wheat flour and preparations with potato and melon peels.
Meanwhile, for Cubans every day getting food has practically become a hunting exercise. The images of the endless queues, the unstocked stores and the few products in MLC are continuous on the Island, where having a glass of milk is an unthinkable luxury.
