Oysters have been eaten since the times of the Roman Empire, but in Holguin, far from the Roman era and history, it is common to see how the mollusk is consumed by vendors in small umbrella carts during the day and even at night in the main streets and squares of the city of Holguin.
Lovers of good Cuban rum, when they share a special occasion with friends and relatives, say that it is good to consume oysters. Because that way they avoid a good note (understood in the popular island language as drunkenness).
In the province of Holguin there are two large farms: the first in the municipality of Gibara and the second in the tourist area of Pesquero. Places where you can buy a mollusk with great quality.
Its processing is totally natural and even handmade, both in Holguin and in the rest of Cuba. Because no chemical products are involved and it is the expert hands of the processors who transform it from a rough oyster to an exquisite food.
Many eat the oyster for its proven aphrodisiac properties. While others recommend it to strengthen the mind, and they are right, because it is a food of great nutritional value in the human diet because it contains abundant minerals, proteins and phosphorus.
Its gelatinous appearance with black and gray tones, distinguish the oyster produced in this region. Which is also consumed in paladares (private restaurants), bars, cafeterias and luxury restaurants of the local tourist industry.
Oyster, the history
The choice of these mollusks as a tasty delicacy is associated with the great civilizations from one end of the world to the other. Ancient Rome fused the splendor of the arts with the refinement of its food. The gods not only delighted in the delicacy, but also resorted to oysters as a divine delight offered by the sea.
A prized mollusk, it is a natural source of organic and loving well-being. A link between Eastern and Western traditions. A point of universal communion – as are food for the body and soul – in a single product, in a single delicacy.
As early as 25 B.C.E., the recipe book De re coquinaria libri decem, written by Marcus Gavius Apicius, gave oysters a primordial place at the table. Hence their great demand in the sensual banquets of ancient Rome. Where no feast was complete without them.
The Greeks swallowed oyster shell powder in moments of sexual decadence, and in Athens the mollusk had other applications in daily life: citizens voted by writing on the shell the name of the person they wanted to remove from government.
In America, the primitive inhabitants cooked oysters in the midst of pre-Columbian splendor. Also in areas of Baja California Sur, such as Espiritu Santo Island and La Partida. There are archaeological remains that leave living proof of the use of oyster shells by the ethnic groups of the peninsula, before the Spanish conquest. The “concheros”, as they are called, were spaces where religious ceremonies took place. Large accumulations of shells cover the floors.
In Renaissance France, oysters were also used as projectiles by reformers during the siege of La Rochell, and in the Chinese dynasties they were consumed as medicine and food. In Japan, oyster farming was established in the 17th century.
Thus, the oyster covered the Mediterranean, the Atlantic and the Pacific. In Cuba, the oyster farm at San Lázaro and Infanta was a small itinerant stall that was nourished by the students of the University and the eroticism of lovers. Since the 1940s the place gained fame and expanded into a cafeteria and later a restaurant.
Movie stars, writers, great politicians, among other personalities, are oyster lovers. Who consume it during parties and professional meetings, of course, always accompanied with the best Cuban rum: Havana Club.
There are many recipes for its preparation in soups, rice, fried, enchilado, battered, as fried. But the cocktail is the best known dish to be taken with tomato puree, salt and lemon. A few drops of spicy, and served directly to the glass.
When I was talking to some tastings and sellers from Holguin, in the so-called Park of the Vista Alegre neighborhood. About the oyster, they all agreed on something: “If you want to show off with your wife tonight, take oysters”. Which is why I feel like saying that this oyster, according to popular belief, is also the viagra of the sea.
Translated by Aliani Rojas Fernandez
- ILC with new registry services in Holguin - 30 de May de 2025
- Running to extend life with quality and health - 26 de May de 2025
- Oysters, the viagra of the sea - 26 de May de 2025