An illegal condiment

It's against the law to sell or buy Cuban cigars in this country, but, mercifully, not condiments. Mr. Mustard, Baby Balsamic and I attended a lovely wedding last week that was a veritable festival of Cuba. The bride was a lovely young woman I had the good fortune to "mentor" 10 years ago and she did me proud when she sashayed down the aisle to Shakira's "Hips Don't Lie" and into the arms of her handsome new husband, Alfredo, who hails from Cuba. A service in Spanish and English cemented their troth, then we hit the buffet. Baby Balsamic was a bit fussy, so Mr. Mustard, prepared me a plate chock-full of chicken and condiments. A tangy, sweet salsa full of that sweet white rooty fruit like yucca that I can never remember the name of. Unless it actually was yucca. Hmmm. And then this delicious green garlic sauce that was light, but exploded with flavor. Garlicky, but not too garlicky. Lots of other spices, tastes, ingredients mellowed the garlic. After finishing my first pile, I took my wine glass to the buffet table for another serving to more easily dip things into, because it was kind of runny. It was like green parsley had been tossed in a blender with a lot of garlic, then thinned with a melted plain yogurt.

A salsa band started up and the bride and groom led the crowd in a very fun and naughty salsa which had all the older guests laughing and reaching for their alleve.

I love my darling Baby Balsamic, but her neediness prevented me from grilling the caterers as to the ingredients in their sauce. After allowing her to inhale some cake, we carried her back to the car as the salsa music spilled into the night.

I googled "garlic sauce" and "Cuba" and came up with all kinds of recipes and variations on what they call "Mojo sauce." It seems it's one of those "do what you like and call it good" condiments, which I completely support. Here's a description: "Mojo Sauce is used as a marinade, warm or room temperature sauce or on sandwiches. It is the traditional Cuban National Sauce.' Many local variations are served in every home and public eatery in the Caribbean. Common variations in ingredients include: garlic, red pepper, jalapeño peppers, vegetable broths, tomato, Cubano peppers, scallions, lime and/or sour orange juice, vinegar, salt, pepper, cumin, cayenne pepper, oregano, minced onion, parsley, celery, wine, various spices such as allspice, thyme and cinnamon, etc."

So go nuts with whatever you like and it's the Cuban national sauce. I like it. Here's the funny part. They give a recipe for one and it includes "⅛ teaspoon Ac'cent™ Flavor Enhancer." And as we all know Accent is MSG. Considering this was a Seattle based catering company, I doubt they included MSG. Or I could blame my headache the next day on the MSG instead of the spirits I imbibed.

All I know is that I need a blender and I have a great sandwich sauce.

Condiment Grrl