Authenticate your Travel:
Drink with the locals & drink in a deeper understanding!
“¡Más cerveza, por favor!” I am sure you have said that in The States, or even while traveling, and felt that you were connecting to a country’s culture and happy that you were even speaking Spanish! But, were you able to continue and have a conversation with a native speaker at your side? Or drink in a deeper understanding of a country’s culture?
Sure, it is fun to order a beer, a margarita, or a taco in a restaurant, but it doesn’t help you understand a country, its culture, traditions, or its people…not really. In order to feel the rhythm and spirit of a country and its people, to have an authentic experience, and to go deeper than a tourist’s superficial experience with badly pronounced Spanish, I recommend taking your drinking and dining “off-road” and into a local kitchen, behind a bar, or into the heart of local experiences, traditions, and conversation.
Ordering a local drink or a local dish of a country while traveling is a start. And, yes, ordering in the native language, is even better. If you happen to be lucky to be where a drink or dish originated, that will make it feel even more authentic. But, you will gain more understanding by getting out of the restaurant, and having as many, varied experiences with locals and their drinks and dishes as possible. Conversation with locals – in their native language – while dining, gives a context to the food and drinks, and helps one gain a deeper understanding of the people and see what drives the passion and behavior of a country!
Just as wine comes to mind when I think of Italy and France, whiskey in Ireland, and beer in Germany, I immediately think of Havana Club Rum and Mojitos when I think of Cuba. The Mojito — Cuba’s refreshing cocktail of lime juice, sugar, mint, and rum — was one of writer Ernest Hemingway’s favorite cocktails, which he habitually enjoyed at the small Havana bar La Bodeguita del Medio, (when he wasn’t consuming his other favorite cocktail with the same ingredients: the Daiquirí — at its place of origin a few blocks from La Bodequita, the bar El Floridita).
Rum and sugar are not just ingredients in Cuban mojitos, but are agricultural products at the heart of Cuba, both physically and emotionally. They are also symbols present in daily life, pointing to something beyond themselves. Rum and sugar are served, offered, and found everywhere. Rum, famously produced by the iconic Havana Club, is a staple and a luxury in homes, served in both deteriorating bars and in the fanciest music and dance clubs of Havana, and even available on the street, in bottles or in what we call “juice boxes.” Sugar, produced from Cuban sugar cane, is rationed by the government, abundantly poured into coffee, and was even shouted mid-song (in Spanish: “¡Azúcar!”) by singer Celia Cruz, as a reminder of the sweetness and love of her native Cuba.
Authentic travel experiences are all surprises and each one a gift and a way to build one’s understanding of a culture. I was lucky to have had an impromptu mojito-making lesson at a deserted bar, shared rum on a moonlit trip to the beach in a car from the ’50s, mixed mojitos in a kitchen, bought ingredients for a local family to make a New Year’s Eve feast and teach me their traditions, seen how sugar is rationed, reused straws to be resourceful, been offered a meal and a drink with locals in a family living room in the countryside, alongside their Havana Club altar, and seen how mojitos and rum are Cuban traditions present in music-blaring salsa clubs, on patios while listening to traditional trova music, on beautiful beaches, and in all homes.
Only through authentic, “off-road” travel, was I able to discover and develop an experientially-based understanding far beyond a menu. Rum, sugar, and mojitos not only provide a glimpse into tradition, history, and everyday Cuban life, but they also point to themes that run deeply and centrally through the Cuban culture: celebration, happiness despite hardship, community, living fearlessly and daringly in the present, and enjoying the sweetness and passion of life.
The next time you travel, I hope you take the time to sit down with the locals, eat and drink like they do, and ask them how they make a cocktail or about their favorite recipes or food memories. Doing this will tie the food or drink to an experience, an atmosphere, or a conversation, and give you a far deeper understanding of a culture than you could ever gain simply by ordering something off a menu — here or abroad. And then, the next time you are back in The States, in a restaurant, and shout out “¡Más cerveza, por favor!” or “¡Un mojito, por favor!”, you will recall and feel the richness of the country from which the drink originates, and you will, most definitely, drink in more understanding!
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Click here for my blog post: The Making of a Cuban Mojito
for a late night demo in the heart of Havana (PHOTOS & RECIPE).
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