We sat in the lobby of the Montehabana the first morning after our much-anticipated arrival in Cuba. The yellow and green glaring in the lobby was almost too much for our winter eyes to handle, but we needed breakfast. The three of us ladies sat at one of the tables in the restaurant located in the lobby, and were given a menu. The tortilla española … Continue reading A Satisfying Breakfast: Tortilla Española a la Montehabana
When I asked him how he made pasta so perfectly and seemingly effortlessly, he thought for a moment, and replied, “Practice.” Continue reading Essential Rules for the Home Cook
It was the first time we had been allowed to venture out in Havana to buy food for ourselves, but our Professor Humberto followed closely behind our gaggle of six, all armed with cameras, too many CUC’s to be from the area, and signs of recent sunburn. We all slowly walked up the packed earth embankment to stalls covered with a roof of green metal, … Continue reading Hunting in Havana & A Quick Dinner Recipe
I was sitting in the apartment at Zanja and Campanario, at the wooden table in the kitchen. That table had seen a lot in its many years occupying its current space, and in those spaces that it graced, even before this apartment building was built by my future father-in-law. Its white lace tablecloth had been tattered and resewn a number of times, but showed the care that my … Continue reading Cuban Coffee: Breakfast Fuel of the People
As I walked through the market, barely keeping up with my companions, I noticed something that shocked me. Plantains had been something I had become familiar with years before, as my junior year high school teacher, in his very believable Spanish accent, showed a nervous class how to fry plantains in our 1970’s built Catholic school. At that first meeting between me and the starchy fruit, … Continue reading Fiesta Fridays: Tostones with Cilantro-Garlic Dipping Sauce
We walked down the dusty, hot, bustling streets of Centro Havana, to the bodega. We entered and a scruffy, 30-something man looked at Watson, his tattered blue libreta, and then me. He started rounding up the goods from behind the counter that Watson requested, and I stood as quietly as I could, to not attract a ton of attention. Even as I stood silently, I … Continue reading Cuban Rice 101
It was shortly after we met our Cuban counterparts on the island that we were invited to the group’s boisterous ringleader’s house to go out. As we drove down Zanja St. in Havana, a long winding road that was the original site of a large canal built by the Spanish in colonial times, we dove further and further into the heart of Havana. As our … Continue reading A Little Piece of China in Havana
The Lime Life 