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M r. Anthony’s father had immigrated to the United States from Sardinia in 1900 and opened a produce business, thereby laying the bedrock on which today’s Rouses Markets was built. (The company still remains family owned as it stretches across the Gulf Coast.) Mr. Anthony passed away in 2009, and his daughter, Cindy, has since taken up the ladle, making the spaghetti that is as much a part of Christmas Eve for her family as the decorated tree and piles of presents. But into this festa Italiana has now come a new tradition, a culinary interloper with its own rich ancestral roots, deep family lore and a new generation ready to carry it forward: a classic Cuban flan. The purveyor of this newcomer is Gloria Acosta, the wife of Chris Acosta, Mr. Anthony’s grandson. Gloria’s mother, Dora Johnson, grew up in Cuba until her family was forced to flee Fidel Castro’s brutal regime in the 1960s. Since then, cherished family recipes have kept them anchored to the island in ways that only food and memory can. CUBAN FLAN Dora was just 11 on Epiphany, Jan. 6, 1967, when she and her family left Havana behind. They arrived in Miami, where they stayed about a year and a half before making their way to New York. Dora, a nurse, eventually married and moved to Baton Rouge, where her husband was a professor at LSU. When she settled in Louisiana’s Capitol, Dora brought the flavors of Cuba with her, having learned to cook from both of her parents. “They made all kinds of Spanish Cuban food,” she said. “My mom was very good at Cuban tamales; she used ground pork, boiled the whole corn, and used the leaves for the tamales. My father is also a very good cook, he helped my mother’s cooking grow with his stomach.” A seafood paella is quickly mentioned when Dora and her daughter Gloria share memories of Abuelo’s cooking. But few recipes are as treasured — or as rich — as the family’s flan, a dessert with an amazing alchemical balance of milky and sweet. It makes appearances on festive occasions, birthdays and holidays. Dora can

PHOTO BY ROMNEY CARUSO

In Cuba, gifts were not traditionally part of the festivities on La Noche Buena, and presents weren’t brought by Santa Claus. They arrived with the Magi. Gifts were exchanged on El Dia de Los Reyes — the Day of the Three Kings, Jan. 6. (This is the same holiday as Twelfth Night.) For many Cubans, La Noche Buena is one of the most festive nights of the year, a celebration when the best cooks in each family get to show off their skills. Drinking, dancing and eating stretch through the night until the church bells ring, beckoning everyone to head to Midnight Mass. The next day, Christmas is quieter, a welcome chance to snooze off the exertions of the prior evening. The star of La Noche Buena is the lechon asado, a whole pig, long marinaded and garlic spiked, wrapped in banana leaves and roasted, often in the backyard. Accom panying the roasted pork are traditional Cuban fare: the black beans and rice poeti cally called moros y cristianos; tostones, those addictive savory fried plantains; and yuca con mojo sauteed in garlic.

recite the recipe from recall, and, though she’s precise on ingredients, the steps come with built-in muscle memory. “My flan is my mother’s flan,” she said. “I can’t tell you exactly when it’s ready. You just know it when you see it.” Though she adds her own touch — drizzling the finished flan with cognac after it’s flipped out of the pan — Dora adheres close to tradition with most steps of the recipe. There’s comfort in knowing that, even in this ever-changing world, some things are perfect just the way they are. While Dora remains the chief flan-maker in the family, Gloria has often joined her in the kitchen. When Dora broke her wrist in 2021, Gloria stepped into the culinary breach. The flan made it to Christmas Eve without fail. LA NOCHE BUENA The Italians and the Cubans have at least one thing in common during the holidays: Both groups traditionally celebrate on Christmas Eve. La Vigilia di Natale in Italy and La Noche Buena in Cuba are when extended families gather and the feast is laid.

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