and I remember seeing the head of a pig in a trash can

and that's how you know you're Cuban.

(upbeat cheerful music)

- The 24th is the big day.

- Traditionally, we celebrate Noche Buena.

- And then the food is like the main dish.

- Yeah.

- Or the main attraction really.

- When it comes to Christmastime,

that's kind of when we bust out the tamales.

- What we do for our holidays is that

sometimes we do have either a turkey or we have chickens

or we have tamales, but

what Salvis are kind of famous for now

is panes con pavo or panes con gallina.

- I'm from Venezuela, I was born in Caracas.

The piece de resistance

is usually the pan de jamon and the hallacas,

but the pan de jamon is like super, super popular because

you pretty much eat it with everything.

- The amount of time that it takes

to make these tamales is like a lot,

so you do it like a week, maybe two weeks in advance

and you make like 500 tamales

and that takes a lot of work.

(speaking foreign language)

- So I present to you pierna de puerco,

seasoned with onions and garlic.

So aside from the pork we would have like always

arroz con frijoles, platanitos fritos, tostones,

the infamous caja china.

Why it's called that I have no idea.

- So this is a typical dish

that is served in Colombia during Christmas.

It's actually two things.

It's bunuelos and the other things is natilla.

I think it originated in Spain

but it's super popular in Colombia.

- I brought, we call it salpicao de frango.

So it's basically chicken salad,

and yeah in Brazil and in Colombia,

and in South America it's summer during the holidays,

it's actually pretty hot.

- Looks delicious, my mouth just watered looking at it.

- Salud!

(speaking foreign language)

- That's how you say.

Hmm, this is perfect.

- That is so good!

We can't go wrong with this.

- It looks like heavy but it's not, it's super light.

And it's cold.

- Pork fest right here, latinos like meat.

- It's delicious.

I really like this, this packs a punch of flavor.

- Down in Miami, near the Caribbean,

we eat a lot of bananas.

We don't do much of the corn thing so this is nice.

- Oh my god yeah, that sauce is gonna be the bomb.

It's like meaty, like sauce from meat.

- I'm not a really big fan of olives,

but this is maybe the first time

I've ever actually enjoyed olive in something.

- Are there radishes in here?

- Yeah, we add radishes and cucumbers for the crunch.

- I love Christmas.

- I love Christmas.

- It's like the best, you get the best food.

- Everybody in the world has beautiful dishes

that they should share.

- Latinos, there's so many of us.

There's so many countries.

And we don't really get to taste each other's food often.

- It's so funny 'cause like our countries

are bordering each other.

- I think the most precious, valuable thing about this

is the tradition.

- Food is the way to communicate with each other.

That's the way humans do.

So by eating each other's food,

you can probably get a little bit of their culture

or a little bit more understanding of their culture.

- Yeah.

- And that's an awesome thing.

(upbeat salsa music)