Regional Staple · Red Beans & Rice

Congrí

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Its name comes from Haitian Creole — 'kongo' for the beans and 'diri' for rice — a legacy of Haitian migration into eastern Cuba.

Small red beans are simmered with pork fat, garlic, and peppers until the broth thickens, then rice is cooked directly in that broth so every grain turns a deep reddish-brown. It's the everyday side dish across Santiago de Cuba, Guantánamo, and the rest of Oriente province.

Why it's made this way: Cuba splits cleanly along its length: Havana and the west eat black-bean moros y cristianos, while Santiago de Cuba and the east eat red-bean congrí — a divide historians trace partly to 18th-century Haitian migration into Oriente.