The Cuban Table - A Giveaway

Last year I had the good fortune to participate in the  Cuban Cultural Center of New York's (Centro Cultural Cubano de Nueva York) 12th Annual Congress. You can read about that right here.

It was there that I met another one of the chefs involved in the event. Ana Sofia Peláez is the author of the very delicious food blog, hungry sofia. We shared a kitchen and chatted a bit as we made our own creations. That day she made Cucuruchos de Coco y Almendras for all of us (which were to die for!) and told the stories of how she had been traveling on a Cuban Food Adventure with the amazing food/travel photographer Ellen Silverman.

Together, Ana Sofia and Ellen went to Cuba and Miami (of course) and New York where they visited both Cuban home cooks and accomplished chefs who eagerly shared their stories and recipes and secrets to their own versions of favorite Cuban dishes. 

The culmination of all this traveling and eating and story-telling is the gorgeous cookbook: The Cuban Table - A Celebration of Food, Flavors, and History by Ana Sofia Peláez and Ellen Silverman. 

I received a few copies of this beauty earlier last week and have been delectably enjoying each story and every recipe. Rich with Cuban history and full of evocative photos of all the food that I desperately love, I have been slowly and carefully turning each page and taking notes and drinking it all in.

Part text book, part history book, part story book - believe me when I tell you that this is the quintessential must-have Cuban cookbook.

The photography and stories are so gorgeous and compelling that I'm conflicted about whether to keep it on my coffee table or to take it into my kitchen. Right now it's still sitting on my coffee table where I pick it up and commence reading where I left off yesterday. It's a beautiful thing.

I was delighted that she even included the recipe for make-your-own pastelitos de guayaba. Like my own recipe, but a thousand times more detailed and beautiful. Well-played, Ana Sofia.

I have an extra copy of this fabulous cookbook, The Cuban Table to give away. 

To enter this comment drawing, answer one or both of the following questions:

• Who is the best cook in your family?
• What's your very favorite Cuban dish in the whole-wide-world?

Leave one comment only, please! 

Remember that if you want to enter the drawing for this cookbook, you must leave a comment on this post and I'll choose ONE winner on Thursday, October 30th at 8 pm PST.

Gracias and Buen Provecho!

Cuban Miami - A Winner

First of all, I want to thank all of you who took the time to tell me your answers and some of you who wrote your stories. As I read through each comment, I realized that this was a perfect snapshot of our Cuban community.

With the naming of each city and date, I read pain and sadness and nostalgia. Thank you so much for sharing this part of your life. Your answers made me stop and think.

Every single Cuban here in the U.S. and actually scattered across the world, has a story like this.

They all begin with the same way. "My family left Cuba in......"

It's almost like our history began the day we left our homeland. And that's what we all have in common, isn't it?

I wish I could give everyone a book, (I'm generous like that, but that's not important right now) but I had to choose just one name.

So, I went to Random.org and used the True Random Number Generator. There were 3 people who entered their names twice, so I subtracted those. From 47 comments I entered the number 44. The winner was Comment #2. (See screenshot below)

 

Ileana said...

Where: Mami from Sagua la Grande; Papi from Guantanamo

When Arrived USA: July 1, 1964

Still Have Family? Yes, tios y primos

*****************************************************

Congratulations, Ileana! You're going to love this book.

 

Please shoot me an email with MARTA, I WON STUFF ON YOUR BLOG in the subject line, so I don't accidentally delete it.

Thank you all, again, for entering this contest. To the rest of you, I encourage you to get this book, Historic Photos of Cuban Miami by Jennifer Ortiz.  It's such a great history of the struggles and triumphs of Cubans as we began our lives here in the U.S., specifically in Miami.

Today, more than ever, I feel privileged to be a part of such a rich community.