Now in its eighth year, our annual Cuban Christmas page is up and running. Join us as we re-live some Cuban Christmas memories, plan our Noche Buena menu for this year, and get everything prepared for a traditional celebration.

Yes, Virginia, they did have Christmas trees in Cuban homes, at least before Castro. Most were rather small and shipped to Cuba from the United States and sold in American owned stores. Although the trees were usually small, everyone went all out with the decorations, so even a tiny tree looked very beautiful!

From Noche Buena to the feast of "Los Reyes Magos," help us preserve these wonderful Cuban traditions.

Check out our Cuban Christmas page here.

Our newest Cuban cookbook, "Three Guys From Miami Celebrate Cuban" is a great way to get started cooking Cuban food. Available at your local bookseller or buy a copy online.

The Original:

Three Guys From Miami Cook Cuban!

"Three Guys From Miami Cook Cuban" is a 234-page Cuban cookbook packed with full-color pictures and 100 great Cuban recipes.

Plantains are a staple in the Cuban diet and the cause of many arguments! Cubans use plantains in many different dishes, but you most frequently see them served as plátanos maduros (fried sweet plantain) and tostones. Tostones are the crisp round "cookies" of plantain.

Now the argument: some purists insist on a completely starchy tostone with no sweetness. For them, only a perfectly green plantain will do. Others like a little sweetness in the tostones, and a plantain with a few speckles of black makes a sweeter version.

The trend in restaurants lately is definitely going toward a sweeter tostone. Many places are serving the sweeter Hawaiian plantains (plátanos hawaianos) made into tostones.

You'll know you're eating a Hawaiian plantain tostone by both the taste and the size -- they are lot larger.

Another trend is that many restaurants are now using pre-cooked Hawaiian tostones. We've eaten them several times in Miami restaurants and surprise -- they are very good!

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For many Minneapolis residents, the closest thing to a good Cuban restaurant is actually a good Columbian restaurant. Maria's Café, a very popular breakfast spot in the East Franklin area of South Minneapolis. However, in the evening, Maria's serves some of the best Columbian food in town. Colombian food is not Cuban. However, if you like Cuban food, chances are you'll like Colombian food too!

READ OUR COMPLETE REVIEW

If you don't know a chicharrón from a mariquita, we've got the information you need to know. learn all about the snacks that Cubans in Miami love to eat! We give you all of the information you need to know to eat and enjoy Cuban snack food.

Step up to the counter in any Cuban place with confidence as you order these delicious Cuban snacks. A trip to Miami just isn't complete until you've tasted all of these!

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This may look like something that came off of the deck of a cabin cruiser, but it is actually a pigroaster made out of wood.

Some striking loggers in British Columbia, Canada used their woodworking skills to create the impossible. “We are out of work loggers – we’re on strike – and funds were a bit short so we built our roaster out of old bridge planks lined with steel,” says J. Bruce of Gold River, BC.

The result is an amazing feat of engineering that managed to roast a 63-pound pig to perfection.

Just spin the "captain's wheel" to flip the pig!

Future plans for these Canadian lumberjacks? “With any luck we'll do up a moose quarter or maybe half a deer this New Years Eve,” says Bruce.

That makes this the first moose roaster we’ve ever heard of! Cuban roast moose anyone?