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Dining In Cuba

Last year I tried to recreate my daily diary of our trip to Cuba and it never got finished. (What there is of can be read under Cuban Chronicles.) I manage to keep a hand-written journal while we are there, so at least I have an account of the trip to read later, but there?s always the desire to put it online. Last year, sadly, there was just not enough time in the day to write once I got home, and so I got to the point where so much time had elapsed between entries I felt I might as well not bother.

This year I have decided to take a different approach which is to write about topics rather than recreate a daily account, and I think this would be more interesting to readers also. So with that in mind, today?s topic is food, which is near and dear to my heart.

As I already mentioned in yesterday?s post the buffet at the resort was less than inspiring. On the two nights we actually had dinner there, the offerings included some very suspect ?composed salad? offerings consisting of tuna, ham, cheese, cooked vegetables and the like, some rather off-putting dressings and a few ?fresh? items such as the usual lettuce, shredded cabbage, sliced tomato etc. For dressings there were several kinds of flavoured vinaigrettes which seemed to be mostly vinegar. On the second outing I found the oil, which had a fly in it. Ugh. Not my idea of a salad topping. For the mains there was the roasted meat of the day, usually beef, and Cubans do not seem to do well with beef. Also pasta with a weird sauce tasting of cumin and choices of chopped ham, processed cheese, onions and peppers as toppings, plus some rather mediocre side dishes. The first night there I tried to pick out a few things and except for a bit of pasta it was all pretty appalling. Actually the pasta was pretty appalling too. After our wonderful experience with the food at Los Corales in Santiago de Cuba the past three years I left that buffet the first evening feeling pretty ripped off, thank you. And we had read so many reviews saying the food at this place was wonderful. Hah.

The next day we made CERTAIN we had reservations to the seafood restaurant that night and the Cuban/International the following night. The Seafood place has a set menu but the main course includes a half lobster tail (very small but delicious) three shrimp with head and legs intact and a good sized portion of white fish with NO BONES. The main course is preceded by a fruit and salad plate, lovely fresh rolls (there?s just something about Cuban bread) and wine flows freely. Dessert on this night was a lovely scoop of homemade chocolate ice cream on a rich cake, but one might get a banana split on another night. As dinner progressed a Cuban couple entertained us accompanied by acoustic guitar. The dining area is open to the air which is welcome but the evening unfortunately brought mosquitoes, who love me a lot. I came home with plenty of bites.

The rest of our dining followed a pattern: breakfast in the buffet as quickly as possible with Redman getting the fresh-squeezed orange juice and me getting the coffee for both of us, lining up for omelettes or fried eggs, eating as fast as possible and getting the hell out. Although the breakfast was tasty enough (except for the morning I managed to spill my juice and part of my coffee all over everything) the atmosphere was not conducive to lingering. Here people are supposed to be on holiday and ENJOYING THEMSELVES but I never saw such a collection of sour-faced old farts outside of a nursing home in all my life. Are Europeans just grim-faced in general? Though I have to confess, I was pretty grim-faced myself being subjected to that bad atmosphere on a daily basis.

Lunch was had outdoors daily at the snack bar and the safe choices were hamburgers, ham & cheese sandwiches, fries, and pizza. Because the patio was a casual lounging area and not generally crowded it usually afforded us an opportunity to linger, have a drink or two, read, write in our journals or meet up with some of the people we generally hung out with at the resort. Plus there was ample shade and a view of the beach. Very relaxed.

Dinner on our third night was eaten in the Cuban/International restaurant was not as successful. After a nice first course of an antipasto plate which included cheese, cured sausage, olives and some sort of shrimp salad, I had a wonderful and plentiful black bean soup in a rich broth. I?m glad I ordered this for it was the high point of the meal. Redman and I had opted for the rabbit stew as our main course, but that turned out to be a gross miscalculation. Instead of nice plump bunnies, these pathetic creatures (or I suppose creature, singular) must have been as emaciated as the poor dogs and cats I?ve seen around the streets of Trinidad. The pieces I had on my plate were all bone, baby. Hardly a morsel of meat on them, and boiled to tastelessness at that. And the rice accompanying it must have come from the buffet steam table for it was tired, not the nice fresh fluffy rice of the seafood dinner. I guess if I wanted typical Cuban food, this was it.

On Saturday we took a privately guided excursion into the mountains (more about this later.) At the end of our two kilometre hike, we were served a wonderful Cuban lunch of grilled chicken at a farm which is also a campground and resting spot for Cuban tourists within their own country. The chickens were free-range as evidenced by our lunch?s ?relatives? cheekily visiting us throughout the meal, and just delicious. Plump, juicy, served with wonderful buttery boiled potatoes and peppers, plentiful salad, fruit, beer, coffee. The two kinds of meat the Cubans do best are chicken and pork. If, while visiting one of these resorts in Cuba, you take an excursion or day trip which includes a meal, you are usually in for a treat. Some of the best meals we have had in Cuba include these sorts of al fresco lunches.

Since we had not gotten back to the hotel in time to reserve at one of the restaurants for dinner that night we had to brave the buffet again. Since we had eaten such a great lunch I was not especially hungry and chose my meal very carefully. For the salad I stuck to the fresh and simple choices, chose a fairly innocuous mayonnaise-type dressing, and had only the pasta. It was OK. Just OK.

Two more dinners were to follow. We had Sunday?s dinner in the seafood restaurant again and this time I think it was even better. But what really made the meal was that we had it with some new friends, John and Lily, who I will tell you about later. Some very stimulating conversation, a meeting of minds, and I think (I hope) a fast friendship. Lovely, lovely people.

On our final evening we were invited to a ?farewell? dinner which although held in the Cuban/International restaurant was actually the seafood platter again, but with a different appetizer and dessert, and a garnish of saut?ed onions. I don?t mind, I could eat seafood every day! The fish at this meal was undoubtedly the best yet. Again we sat with John and Lily and another friend, Rob. This was a very enjoyable meal for more than the food and one I will remember for a long time.

But our final meal in Cuba, lunch on the day we left, was one which was apparently a very long time in the making, involved a lot of wheeling and dealing, and proved to be one of the most memorable meals of my life. I?m going to write about that one later, because it?s a whole story in itself.

Filed under Cuba 2006, Feb 26, 2006
 

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Comments on this post:

Perfect. Your description of the events brings to mind the scenes, smells, and atmosphere of the entire experience.

Comment by redmann - 2006-02-26 05:32:50

 
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