Anita Snow: not eating like a Cuban

The month of June is almost over, and I couldn’t help but wonder how Anita Snow is doing after four weeks of pretending to eat like a Cuban.
I just caught up on her blog entries, and I’m sure Babalu readers will be surprised to hear that Ms. Snow is alive and well, and enjoying ham and cheese laden pizza. Of course, it doesn’t count against the ration card because, someone else paid for it.

I went back this week for another pizza in a basket. A friend who is leaving Cuba soon invited me out for one last lunch, so I suggested Pizza Celina.
I wrote about the popular private fast food joint earlier this month both for this blog and a story for AP news wires about Cuban street food, describing a lunch that arrives in a basket lowered from the terrace-top kitchen where it is made.
Still on my month eating within the limits of Cuba’s food ration plus an average salary, it didn’t seem right to accept lunch at a fancy restaurant – even if someone else was paying.
The pizza was as good as the last time, with its thick, soft crust and lots of cheese and ham.
I don’t think I could have handled a month of beans and rice on a typical Cuban diet without some kind of occasional escape like Pizza Celina.

What a revelation! So where is the post denouncing the castro regime for its inadequate wages and food rationing?
Unfortunately, Ms. Snow is otherwise occupied with the differences in regional tamales and “chocolatin,” which sells for eight pesos. She admits that’s more than the “average” Cuban can afford, but again, there is no criticism of the regime. In other words, “Let them eat cake.”
How benevolent of her, to spend a month writing dismissive, condescending blog entries about her personal reality show type experiment that exploits Cubans and their daily struggle to put food on the table. It’s so hard you know, just eating mostly rice and beans. (Snicker, snicker, good thing I have steak in the freezer, can’t’ wait to eat that.) Not only do Cubans not have the steak, they also don’t have the freezer.
Ms. Snow would be perfectly at home living in colonial times, giving food scraps to her servants, and then regaling her guests with stories about how happy they are in her employ.
Read the whole sickening thing here.
A big thanks and hat tip to Ray.