Today you will learn to say Happy New Year in Spanish and to speak Cuban Spanish. This is how you say Happy New Year in Spanish: “Prospero Ano Nuevo”. But keep in mind that you can say “Happy New Year” or “Happy New Year”. Or as they say in Colombia, “Happy New Year.”

After I wrote a recent article that included a “photo” and a “recipe” for pasteo, concón, or cucayo (a delicacy consisting of crunchy rice that sticks to the bottom of the pot), a reader responded with a very interesting email :

“Thank you very much, Patrick. By the way, in Cuba, the rice crust at the bottom of the pot is called the raspa, and it’s a delicacy there too. Thanks for the recipe, too. Most people these days just Give up the scrape and use a rice cooker, but I hate hoarding more gadgets!

I do a lot of Cuban cooking. I love it.

We will have a traditional Christmas Eve on Christmas Eve with the Roasted Pig that I injected and marinated with mojo for at least 24 hours, yuca with mojo, black beans, rice, (if you cook the rice and beans together it is called Moros y Cristianos), maybe Some fried ripe plantains (yum), salad, and flan for dessert and maybe some Nougat. I have never eaten Nougat, but it is part of the traditional Christmas food. Are you still living in Colombia? I tried to make arepas, but couldn’t get them to cook well. Also, I’m not sure we have the right flour here. I used the one that Mexicans use for tamales and tortillas. “

That ends your email.

I wanted to talk about his email with you because I found it very interesting. In fact, I came across the word or phrase “la raspa” last week, for the first time, when I was searching the net for “photos” and “recipes” for sticky, concon or cucayo, and I saw that it was the word that Cubans use it for a crispy layer of rice that is scraped off the bottom of the pot. But I didn’t want to include it in my last article unless a Cuban or someone familiar with “Cuban culture” confirmed that “raspa” is the Cuban word for crispy rice that sticks to the bottom of the pot.

The word “raspa” apparently comes from the verb “raspar” which means “to scrape”.

But I also found his email very entertaining because he said he gives up the raspa and uses a rice cooker. I have a rice cooker in my “apartment” in Medellín, and every time one of my Colombian friends visits and cooks rice, they too, for convenience, give up the “caldero” (cast iron or cast aluminum pot) and the paste, concón, cucayo or raspa. Which, of course, I don’t like, since I love to eat the crispy rice that sticks to the bottom of the pot.

And another thing that she mentioned that I felt was also typical of my friends in Medellín is that she cooks with a pressure cooker.

But when I lived in Barranquilla on the Caribbean coast of Colombia, my “girlfriend” never cooked with a pressure cooker. Instead, I soaked the beans overnight to make sure they were soft before cooking them the next day.

But the “paisas” or people of Medellín are a little more “cosmopolitan” than the “costeños” (people of the coast) of Barranquilla and prefer the comfort of rice cookers and pressure cookers to the “calderos” (iron pots cast or cast aluminum) and regular “pots”.

So that’s what I wanted to share with you that I learned about Spanish or the culture of Cuba and Colombia.