Tastes Like Cuba: An Exile's Hunger for Home

by Eduardo Machado, Michael Domitrovich

The playwright-author of Havana and The Cook discusses his life as an exile and revealing visit to his home in Cuba, in a recipe-laden memoir that features such traditional dishes as arroz con pollo and Cuban roast pork as well as a variety of processed-food favorites. 30,000 first printing.

Genres: Nonfiction, Memoir, Food, History, Cooking, Biography Memoir

368 pages, Hardcover

First published October 18, 2007

About the author

Tastes Like Cuba is about what it means to leave behind the only home you know-and become someone else in the process. Machado chronicles the search for his lost home through the powerful memories of meals that have enriched his life. He includes traditional recipes alongside dishes using Velveeta, SPAM, and other processed wonders of 1960s American "cuisine." Machado directs Columbia University's graduate playwriting department and is the artistic director of INTAR, a Latino theater in NY."

Reviews

[Bob · Rating 2 out of 5]

Initially I really liked this. I picked it up for $3 while on a Cuba kick (and of course, in the middle of my long term foodie kick). At first, it was everything I hoped: A memoir of a boy growing up in Cuba, sharing the culture, the food, and his family with the reader.

He dove deeply into Cuban food, which I love to begin with, and described it in a way that made my tastebuds tingle. He moves to the US as an exile and it really opened my heart to people who are forced out of their homeland into a strange place (with strange food). The book was starting to really work on another level...

Then the bottom fell out.

Suddenly the book becomes about how he became a gay Cuban playwright in New York City. His failed marriages, his flopped plays, his homosexual represssion/expression and struggle.

At this point, he lost me. It was no longer a book about Cuba and Food (as the book advertises)...it suddenly became a David Sedaris book that wasn't funny.

I quit with about 40 pages to go because I could tell it wasn't going to recover. A huge disappointment after a really promising first half.

[Eden · Rating 4 out of 5]

2020 bk 300 Part memoir part cookbook, this tale of Eduardo Machado's life journey invites the reader to understand a little more of the forces that were in play at the time Castro took over Cuba and how that revolution tore apart families and caused wounds that in some cases, never healed. Eduardo talks of feeling never quite at home in his new land, evidently never giving up his Cuban passport/citizenship and living with an official stateless passport. He talks of the family moving to California with the assistance of Catholic Relief and their partial integration into Californian mores. He speaks of the prejudice felt towards Cubans on their drives through the south to visit relatives who remained in Florida and the prejudice he still encounters from time to time throughout our country. But he tempers the prejudice with a shared love of eating and finding foods that cross boundaries. It was interesting to read and watch his many journeys through this book. (and I finally found the recipe for the plaintain dish I had many years ago in the Dominican Republic - already tried it and it tastes of my friend's home!)

[Laurie Stoll · Rating 3 out of 5]

As we are in the process of moving to Southern Florida from overseas, I brought this book with me to read. It felt like a good time to read it. I wanted to learn and understand a little bit more about the culture and people with ties to Cuba.

I love the recipes throughout the book as well as the pictures.

I was enjoying most of the book but I reached a point where I put the book down and chose not to finish it. As an avid reader, this is something I seldom do!

I do not want to turn this in to a political platform. My daughter, an avid reader also, is how I learned of Goodreads. With that in mind, all 1000+ hardback books, etc. once finished I passed on to my daughter when she finished college. Boxes and boxes of books. My reviews are written TO my daughter. If she should pick up a book to read after I am no longer here, and wonders what mom thought - here it is.

I chose not to read past page 308...

[Caroline Bock · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this lovely, moving memoir with recipes from acclaimed playwright Eduardo Machado after having the opportunity to take a mini- Zoom class on playwriting with him (there are some good things about this pandemic!). He was so insightful and delightful, I wanted to learn more about him. This is was a fast-paced read about a young immigrant from Cuba with a large, hard-driving, food-focused family, struggling to be an artist (he succeeds-- though his story is not finished yet!). Bravo! Now, I just can't wait for this pandemic to end to see one of his plays performed live!!

--Caroline
Carry Her Home: Stories

[Veronica · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don’t usually read non-fiction but I picked this up as a way to learn more about my husband’s heritage. I was surprised how quickly I found myself immersed in Eduardo Machado’s life story. It probably also helped that food is such an integral part of the story (plus now I have many more Cuban and non-Cuban recipes in my collection).

[Grace]

DNF

[Jan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book may not appeal to everyone but I grew up before Fidel Castro's regime change and my neighbors who had a child my age went to Cuba for Christmas Vacation. The Jack Tar hotel; they brought me back Marachas. The pictures were just breath taking and that second hand experience plus I Love Lucy has me longing to visit Cuba. I never got there but was very close when I lived in Key Largo in 1962-1963. We lived on a boat and I can remember tuning in and watching Fidel Castro speak for hours in the middle of the night. I was there during the Cuban Missle Crisis and saw all the military convoys go right past the Marina where we were living on a small boat. I saw all the ships pass right by my high school on their way to Cuba.

I aso went to high school with refugees; some very poor that escaped by boat and one girl a year younger than me was taken in by the Kemp family and their daughter Alice was one of my best friends. Maria was just beautiful and a bit plump but she was so sad if I asked about her family so I didn't ask.

Now, my thoughts on the book. I loved the book because it shows how children and families get torn apart and with Cuba; being so close yet so far away-how painful this must of been. I fell in love with Cuba all over again with the popularity of the Buena Vista Social Club and the music. Eduardo Machado has perfectly captured a place through his memories and food. When George W. Bush named Cuba in his "Axis of Evil" -I was angry and lost hope. We should not have an embargo and restricted travel to Cuba just to appease a staunch Cuban Conservative group of people. I pray for people to return home where ever that may be.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

Machado was born in 1953 to a well-off family in Cuba, where he lived much of his childhood. After Castro, Machado moved to the US, living briefly in Florida and then for a longer time in southern California. As a young man, he went to NY to pursue a career as an actor and playwright. This book is a memoir of his experiences in Cuba and in the US and of his identity struggle. It's also a story of his life in food, with descriptions of meals and cooking at the center of the narrative. At the end of each chapter are recipes.

It was an interesting story to read, and I was curious to find out how he would react when he eventually, he did make it back to Cuba as a visitor... and this is where I accidentally left the book in the airport, maybe 300 pages in. Oops.

Machado now teaches play writing at NYU, so it's likely I'd be able to find another copy of the book in the campus bookstore. But I haven't decided yet whether I'll actually do so.

[Heather · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first third of this book is absolutely mesmerizing with descriptions of the author's life growing up in Cuba and the way he describes the food of his childhood. It truly glitters like a cherished childhood memory. The book falls flat for me in the middle as he goes through marriages, sexual identity crises and professional ups and downs. However, I think he brings it back around with the final two or three chapters. I enjoyed reading about how he brings his past and his present together in his soul and in his kitchen. This made it an excellent memoir for me.

The cookbook element of this book is great! I can't wait to try some of these recipes!

This book contains a couple of short instances where the the"f word" is used. There are no salacious sexual details but the book does have some sections that discuss the themes of sexuality and homosexuality. There are also several instances with sexual innuendo.

[Igor Korousic · Rating 2 out of 5]

This should be a theater play and not a biography book. It gives an imaginative reader's mind enough data to create a model of Eduardo's childhood, his adolescence and his creative and non-conventional adulthood.
It subtly provokes a self-critical reader with an example of someone who went much against the grain to find out what he really is and how he really wants to live.
Although it doesn't seem to be the author's intention, he challenges a thinking reader to look for hypocrisy in Eduardo's own doing and to attempt to understand what he's been really longing for in his nostalgy for Cuba.
But there is no beauty in his writting, no balance in attention to events and people he loves or hates. Although his career is a remarkable achievement he fails to make the reader fall in love with him. He fails to impress but gives a lot of material for thinking and cooking.

[Dylan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fascinating true-life story of a rich family who fled Cuba during the revolution and always pined for it. they found solace through food and family. this kind of thing has been done before, but this tale feels fresh. I'd rather learn about Cuba this way, from someone who lived it, than a dry old history book. Also, lots of great recipes are interspersed throughout. Eduardo gets to be a bit of a self-obsessed drama Queen after a while, but that's part of his charm. I'm not done reading it yet, but I have a feeling he'll be alright.

[Shana · Rating 2 out of 5]

Finished Tastes Like Cuba, An Exile’s Hunger for Home by Eduardo Machado earlier today. Went along with the previous book in the Cuba theme. I love food memoirs so I was hoping it’d be good but I didn’t love it. The first part of the book describing the author’s childhood in Cuba is the best. I wasn’t as interested in the author once he was grown up and writing plays since it was mostly the food and memories part I was after. If you’re going to read a food memoir, don’t make this your number one choice.

[Crystal · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was interested in a food-based memoir, and liked the fact that this book included recipes for every chapter. I loved the beginning of the book the most, as it was more centered on food and the Cuban culture. The last half of the book was a little harder to stay interested in, as it was more focused on the theater, with just a smattering of food references. Overall, it kept me interested throughout, and opened my eyes to the lives and tragedies of exiled Cubans in America.

[Miriam · Rating 4 out of 5]

An intersting book about a Cuban exile's search for identity after leaving his country for America. Although my political views are different from the Author, it was easy to relate my family's own experience with leaving Cuba to his family's. I enjoyed his unique story-telling and the way he brought food into his personal accounts - each chapter ends with recipes from foods he has described. One word of advice...don't read this book on an empty stomach...especially if you love Cuban food!

[Karen Starkovich · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wish I could give two separate ratings.....5 stars for the wonderful first half of the book and 1-2 stars for the pathetic last part of the book. The author should read Leaving Glory Town by Eduardo Calcines. I agree with this guy's review...

http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...

[JB · Rating 4 out of 5]

what an incredible book. my partner gave me this book because she knows how much i love food and particularly my abuela's cuban cooking. such a great way to read a family history ... especially because food and family are so intertwined in latin culture.

[Nannie Bittinger · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very interesting story of Eduardo's young life in Cuba, his evacuation to the US after Castro took over and his adventures in California, NY as a playwrite. The recipes sound great but some of the ingredients would be hard to come by in the little Midwestern town where I live.

[Andrea · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very well written book that tells the story through food about the authors life when he was in Cuba as a child before the Bay of Pigs and then what happened to he and his family after they escaped Cuba. Goes from 1960-the 2000's. Includes some recipes.

[Jennifer Schmaltz · Rating 4 out of 5]

A vivid account of an exiled "Peter Pan" boy from Cuba during the revolution, this book also includes excellent recipes. (The roast pork and black beans are AMAZING.

[Melissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book includes recipes which is so handy.

[Anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved memoir with Cuban recipes. Met both authors at Chautauqua!

[Anne Dayer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Complex memoir and delicious Cuban recipes. Met both authors at Chautauqua Institution! Michael is beautiful!

[Carrie Guinn · Rating 3 out of 5]

The recipes in the book are great. The story was a little different than my experience in Cuba but then my family was not in the upper class.

[Sue Anne · Rating 3 out of 5]

first half, 4 stars. second half, 2 stars.

[Liz Simmons · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first third or so of this book was great. It got increasingly dull though, and I couldn't finish it.