Keto in Cuba
Holla mi amigo! I just got back from Cuba and man did I learn a lot! Keto in other countries can be pretty hard, especially if you don’t speak the language at all/very well. The typical Cuban diet consists of rice, beans, plantains, and sugar. Sounds scary, right? Through trial and error my husband and I learned to navigate the vintage car filled streets and eat our way to…safety?
Most restaurants in Havana are called a paladars. They are houses that have been turned into private restaurants owned by a family vs. owned by the government. No matter where you go every meal is served with rice and beans. At first we asked them not to serve them-I hate to waste but quickly stopped doing that as it seemed to be rude. We really didn’t want to offend anyone and just wanted to enjoy the culture so we left our mounds of rice and beans untouched.
So other than rice and beans what can you expect?
Meal number 1: Dinner in a Paladar (don’t worry we didn’t eat the carbs just letting you know what was served)
Cuba Libre (I was able to get them to bring me a no sugar diet coke with rum)
Bread
Shredded bitter white cabbage
Fried taro root dumplings
Some other carby starter (sorry I don’t remember)
Wine
Meat in gravy with potato or squash
Bowls of rice and beans
Chocolate Ice Cream
Coffee
Meal number 2: Breakfast at hotel Capri
This was a buffet style breakfast with tons of meats, omelet bar, and keto options.
Needless to say we learned a few things along the way.
Cuba’s version of diet coke is worth its weight in liquid gold. Nothing tastes like it, nothing is as good as it and I would consider moving to Cuba just so I could drink it in replacement of water. Rum in Cuba gets you drunk but never gives you a hang over, it’s like magic in a bottle. Also, if you order a coke and rum you get charged 3 times as much if you order a cuba libre with diet coke and no sugar which is the exact same drink just WAY less.
As far as ground meats we learned to not eat them. Sadly we didn’t find out till the last night of our trip that all the burgers we were consuming were more corn than meat which is what gave it that odd texture. Between my husband and I, we gained over 10 pounds in 5 days-I definitely blame those burgers.
In Cuba vegetables don’t seem to exist. If we found broccoli it was murdered in the kitchen with water. All other veggies were canned if there were any.
I do have a place in which you HAVE TO GO TO. I found out about it poolside from a couple who found out about it from a guy on a plane who has been coming to Cuba for more than 20 years. Located in Miramar there is a restaurant called Corte Del Prince and it is the best Italian food I have ever had in my life. The food is all fresh, they have salad (we were unable to find it anywhere else and they even had Kirkland salt so they must import), and they have more keto options than you can count.
We started our meal off with beef Carpaccio and my husband and I locked eyes as if to say-I WANT TO EAT THIS ALL ON MY OWN. After that we had a shrimp dish that was so tender it left us wondering how it was cooked. Seriously, it wasn’t with acid, it wasn’t over cooked so no way was it steamed. It was so soft you could cut through it like butter. We were with some friends (hey Matt & Jen) and had a bottle of chilled Argentina wine for 15 bucks. A bottle of wine for less than my drink cost the first night (25 bucks because I had vodka and coke instead of Cuba Libre which is 4.75)
Most restaurants in Havana are called a paladars. They are houses that have been turned into private restaurants owned by a family vs. owned by the government. No matter where you go every meal is served with rice and beans. At first we asked them not to serve them-I hate to waste but quickly stopped doing that as it seemed to be rude. We really didn’t want to offend anyone and just wanted to enjoy the culture so we left our mounds of rice and beans untouched.
So other than rice and beans what can you expect?
Meal number 1: Dinner in a Paladar (don’t worry we didn’t eat the carbs just letting you know what was served)
Cuba Libre (I was able to get them to bring me a no sugar diet coke with rum)
Bread
Shredded bitter white cabbage
Fried taro root dumplings
Some other carby starter (sorry I don’t remember)
Wine
Meat in gravy with potato or squash
Bowls of rice and beans
Chocolate Ice Cream
Coffee
Meal number 2: Breakfast at hotel Capri
This was a buffet style breakfast with tons of meats, omelet bar, and keto options.
Needless to say we learned a few things along the way.
Cuba’s version of diet coke is worth its weight in liquid gold. Nothing tastes like it, nothing is as good as it and I would consider moving to Cuba just so I could drink it in replacement of water. Rum in Cuba gets you drunk but never gives you a hang over, it’s like magic in a bottle. Also, if you order a coke and rum you get charged 3 times as much if you order a cuba libre with diet coke and no sugar which is the exact same drink just WAY less.
As far as ground meats we learned to not eat them. Sadly we didn’t find out till the last night of our trip that all the burgers we were consuming were more corn than meat which is what gave it that odd texture. Between my husband and I, we gained over 10 pounds in 5 days-I definitely blame those burgers.
In Cuba vegetables don’t seem to exist. If we found broccoli it was murdered in the kitchen with water. All other veggies were canned if there were any.
I do have a place in which you HAVE TO GO TO. I found out about it poolside from a couple who found out about it from a guy on a plane who has been coming to Cuba for more than 20 years. Located in Miramar there is a restaurant called Corte Del Prince and it is the best Italian food I have ever had in my life. The food is all fresh, they have salad (we were unable to find it anywhere else and they even had Kirkland salt so they must import), and they have more keto options than you can count.
We started our meal off with beef Carpaccio and my husband and I locked eyes as if to say-I WANT TO EAT THIS ALL ON MY OWN. After that we had a shrimp dish that was so tender it left us wondering how it was cooked. Seriously, it wasn’t with acid, it wasn’t over cooked so no way was it steamed. It was so soft you could cut through it like butter. We were with some friends (hey Matt & Jen) and had a bottle of chilled Argentina wine for 15 bucks. A bottle of wine for less than my drink cost the first night (25 bucks because I had vodka and coke instead of Cuba Libre which is 4.75)
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Although we got 0 pictures of our meals I managed to snag these photos from a paladar menu. :D
