Monday, April 4, 2011

Cubans Facing Rising Food Prices

Yoani Sanchez - Award-Winning Cuban Blogger

Cubans Facing Rising Food Prices
Posted: 04/ 4/11 03:53 PM ET

A drop slid down my leg, I maneuvered it into the hollow between my
ankle and my shoe and did a thousand pirouettes so my high school
classmates wouldn't notice. For months, my family had had only mineral
oil for cooking, thanks to pharmacist relative who was able to sneak it
from his work. I remember it heating to a white foam in the pot and the
food tinged with the golden color of a photograph, ideal for food
magazines. But our bodies could not absorb that kind of fat, made for
creating lotions, perfumes or creams. It passed right through our
intestines and dripped, dripped, dripped... My panties were stained, but
at least we got a break from food that was just boiled, and could try
another, slightly roasted.

We were quite fortunate to have that semblance of "butter" that someone
stole for us, because in the nineties many others had to distill engine
oil for use in their kitchens. Perhaps that's why we Cubans are
traumatized by this product extracted from sunflowers, soybeans or
olives. The price of a quart of oil in the market has become our own
popular indicator of well-being versus crisis, in the thermometer that
takes the temperature of scarcities. With an ever shrinking culinary
culture, from Pinar del Rio to Guantanamo, most stoves know only recipes
for fried foods. Hence, pork fat, or buttery liquids with high-sounding
names such as "The Cook" or "Golden Ace," prove essential in our daily
lives.

When, a few days ago -- with no prior warning -- the price of vegetable
oil in hard currency stores rose by 11.6%, the annoyance was very
strong, even more so than when fuel prices rose. Many of us don't have
cars to show us that convertible pesos are continually turned into less
and less gasoline, but we all face a plate every day where the prices of
staple foods have soared. That this happens with no accompanying public
protest, no discontented housewives raising a ruckus beating on their
pots and pans, no long articles in the press complaining of the abuse,
is harder to swallow than a meal with no fat. I'm more embarrassed by
this tacit acceptance of rising prices than I was of the thread of
mineral oil snaking down my calf before the mocking eyes of my classmates.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/yoani-sanchez/cuba-rising-food_b_844253.html

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