A Cuban resident in the United States became the star of a viral video by humorously and candidly revealing what has been the biggest cultural shock since she began living with her American partner: cooking habits. The clip, posted on TikTok by the account @velazquezindira03 —known as "TheFamily Gringocubana"—, garnered over 20,200 views in just a few weeks.
"If you ask me what has shocked me the most since I started living with my gringo, I have to say it's the cooking, mami, because these people don't eat," the Cuban woman begins in the 39-second video.
The target of her criticisms is a classic of the American table: the peanut butter and jelly sandwich, known in English as peanut butter and jelly sandwich. For her, it is simply incomprehensible that her partner considers that snack a "balanced diet."
"Let me tell you, the peanut butter jelly sandwich, whatever they call it. For them, that's a balanced diet, right?" she says with evident disbelief.
Faced with that option, the Cuban makes her preferences clear: "Just give me rice and beans, meat, root vegetables, and salad."
The video doesn't just focus on the complaint. With an affectionate tone, the creator directly addresses her partner—who remains off-camera—and makes it clear who is in charge in the kitchen: "Excuse me, my love. But you need to adapt to me, you need to adapt, that's how it is. I didn't ask you to marry a Cuban."
She clarifies, however, that her partner is not "pikipiki," a colloquial expression she uses to refer to someone who is fussy about food and eats without complaining about what she puts on the table. "Fortunately for him, he is not pikipiki. Whatever you put on the table, he eats it, and he’s also fried with me," she points out.
The content falls within a recurring trend among Cuban-American couples on TikTok, where many creators humorously document the everyday clashes between the two cultures. Food often appears among these cultural differences.
It is not the first time a Cuban with an American partner has sparked conversation on social media for this reason. Another creator showed how her American partner changed his way of buying coffee after marrying her, while another Cuban went viral for taking her American neighbor a plate of food for his birthday, highlighting the Cuban custom of sharing with neighbors.
The scene humorously portrays two very different ways of understanding an everyday meal. While her partner opts for the simplicity of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, she champions a table that adheres much more closely to Cuban tradition: rice, beans, meat, root vegetables, and salad.
The comparison also takes on a particular contrast for Cubans: many of the foods the creator mentions as part of her ideal meal are products that are difficult for numerous families on the Island to access amid the prolonged economic and food crisis.
"I didn't tell you to marry a Cuban," he says with laughter, in one of the most amusing moments of the video, which has over 1,100 likes on TikTok.
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