Food & Drink Jul 11, 2012 at 4:00 am

The Man from Havana Is Serving Lunch

At Cafe Con Leche. Kelly O

Comments

1
I'm glad you enjoyed Cafe Con Leche. It took me 25 minutes from the Eastlake/South Lake Union area to get there, placed my to go order at the bar (a cubano sans fries...tostones would have been better) and finally after 20 minutes a fairly aromatic sandwich arrived. It was just okay, but not quite the quality I recalled from the original Paladar Cubano and could easily have a bucket of the famous garlic sauce. Now that's something the owner should bottle and sell locally.
2
Now if the light rail extended closer ...
3
Wow, that couple gave you a lot of detail. You almost could have told the story in first person!
4
To be picky, it's not illegal for U.S. citizens to travel to Cuba. It's illegal for U.S. citizens to spend money in Cuba without a license from the Office of Foreign Assets Control. For tourists, that works out to the same thing because tourists can't get the license. However, ex-pats and their relatives, journalists (even freelance journalists w/ published work), business people, religious groups, students, and teachers can.
So if this friend had some published articles (even, I suppose, mere restaurant reviews) under their belt, they could legally travel straight to Cuba and pay for all the palatial suites and flat, gristly meat they wanted--as long as they wrote about it afterward.
5
The food in Cuba is pretty shitty unless you stumble upon one of the "restaurants" in a private home. So much better than the communist jamón con queso.
6
TERRIBLE FOOD IN CUBA?!

I DREAM of the sleeping beans and rice I ate in the restaurants there. Maduros that melted in my mouth, chicken roasted on a spit for hours until the skin was like glass and the meat could be cut with a fork. And the pork. My god the pork. One day, I was in the mood for lobster. In ten minutes I had over a pound of lobster meat, steaming hot right out of the shell, with a bowl of clarified butter and a stack of toast.

I never had to wait in line. The people were beautiful and friendly. Maybe it's the time - I was there only last year. I can't wait to go back.
7
My experience in Cuba with the food was similar. The restaurants by and large had horrible, shitty food. The best food you'll get is staying in a private home (where they rent a room out) and paying your host to go shopping and cook for you.

I laughed about the taxi story. On leaving the Havana airport I was accosted by a guy who offered to drive me to old Havana for $10. Against better judgement I said OK. Before we were even out of the airport parking lot there were 2 more guys in the car. SO, here I was, alone in a car with 3 strangers in a country I'm theoretically not supposed to be visiting. As it turns out, it was perfectly safe and people do it all the time (though the guy driving wasn't licensed as a taxi, so he could've gotten into big trouble).

BTW, it's safer to travel via Mexico City. In Cancun, the US Immigration agents stationed in the Cancun airport know exactly when the Havana Airlines flights arrive and depart. Why chance it?

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