Havana - Restaurants and Food

I mentioned earlier that we had planned to fix some of our own food, but were warned by our hostess that it can be very hard to find the food you want to eat.   It is easy to find your basic fruits and vegetables at markets scattered around town.  Meat can be a little harder.  All cows are owned by the government and there seem not to be enough of them to provide meat.  Ropa vieja, traditionally beef, is increasingly being made from lamb for instance.  Ropa vieja is slow cooked, shredded meat.  Farmers still look after the cows, but if a cow dies on your farm, there is a significant investigation into cause of death and a big fine or even jail if you are found liable in the cow’s death.  We were told by several people that you get off easier killing a person than killing a cow.  Pork can be grown privately and seemed relatively available, but you have to know where you’re buying it from in terms of how sanitary it is.  Chickens are sold in separate stores.  Eggs were in short supply while we were there, although one day we saw lots of people carrying a flat of 2 dozen eggs away from a house down the street and our hostess had purchased 30 eggs in anticipation of our arrival.  Some of the “supermercados” had rice, beans and sugar for sale in big sacks but little else.  I mean we’re talking a big store with a few bottles of vinegar and a couple cans on the shelves and then these big sacks that would feed two people for several months.  There was one small store in the neighborhood that always had a line of people and it looked like you might be able to buy some dried pasta, soap, and cooking oil there.

Maria fixed us breakfast every morning.  Café con leche or tea. Always a plate of fresh fruit (pineapple, bananas and papaya (called bomba in Cuba because “papaya” is a salacious slang word) and either guava or pineapple juice.  Usually a sweet bread or pastry.  Eggs scrambled or fried, cheese slices, sometimes some ham, and whole wheat rolls or French bread slices with butter and jam.  We got tired of eggs after a few days and skipped them for a couple mornings.   On our last night Yanelis and Maria fixed dinner for us.  They made bruschetta with tomato and arugula, chicken barbacoa slow cooked in soy sauce and beer, boiled potatos, and pasta with a tomato tuna sauce.  Maria’s husband Eric went out to get a bottle of Cuban made red wine.  With ice it wasn’t too bad.  Speaking of ice, not even most Cubans drink the tap water.  Most of them boil and then filter the water or buy bottled water.  At the restaurants that tourists are likely to eat at they all seem to make ice from bottled or filtered water.  We usually bought bottled water at restaurants or stores that seemed to sell a lot of beverages because some street vendors have been known to refill water bottles and make them look sealed.  We did sometimes buy sodas in cans from street vendors though.  Each room at the house had a small refrigerator stocked with bottles of water and soda.

Two doors down from our house was a great “paladar”, private restaurant, called Grados (Calle E between 23 and 25).  You could sit on the porch screened from the street by tropical potted plants or just indoors.  They make their own focaccia and somehow smoke it to lend a different flavor.  We ate there twice.  They had a great lamb dish slow cooked in a sauce made from Puye, a sort of herbal drink made in another region of Cuba.  Jake had pork both times cooked in different ways but always tender and flavorful.   I had a small swordfish steak another night served with yucca and a delicately flavored white sauce.  Jake had their take on Callaloo, a Caribbean soup.  It had some greens wrapped around goat cheese over which they poured a light broth.  Another appetizer featured a polenta-like base with greens and tiny poached eggs.  And they make a great mojito!

The Farm to Table tour took us from the Mediterraneo Havana restaurant  (Calle 13 between F and G) to the Rancho Vista Hermosa in Guanabacoa, about a 25 minute drive east of Havana.  Mediterraneo may be the only farm to table restaurant in Havana or was at least the first. The farm grows all kinds of things and raises all kinds of animals.  They now also have a facility to make cheese and process meat and a restaurant on site for groups.  Private farms can only have a maximum acreage of 165 acres.  This one reminded me of what I’ve read about Polyface farm in VA.  Pigs, chickens, geese and guinea hens ranged around the farm and ate weeds from under the mango, guava, banana and other fruit trees.  Rabbits lived in pens raised over a dirt floor where guinea pigs cleaned up after them (they do not eat the guinea pigs).  The farm makes a fodder out of a mix of white mulberry, sugar cane stalks, sweet potato vines, and king grass (a species of Pennisetum?).  It has a big shade house for growing greens and herbs.  German shepherds guard the animals at night – mostly from poachers and people practicing Santeria apparently.  They grow 17 varieties of sugar cane for different purposes.  Tilapia and some other fish grow in a spring fed pond and blue-clawed crayfish are grown in cement tanks.

Hauling sugar cane stalks

Guava, pineapple and sugar cane

Livestock guard dog, hopefully more alert at night

Food scraps to feed pigs and chickens

The rabbit area with guinea pig cleanup crew

A field of greens for fodder, white mulberry shown here

Vegetables in the shade tent

orchid

horseback ride to an overlook on the farm

Cows in the road

Looking back over the farm

Cows with their egrets

Making sugar cane juice

Our guide Kensys led us around the farm and introduced us to some of the 25 people who work there.  He also joined us for lunch back at the restaurant in Havana. We ate on the second floor terrace as the downstairs was occupied by a tour group, but the terrace is really pleasant.  We started by sampling three of the cheeses and the cured ham and sausage made at the farm (and a mojito for me and Kensys).  This was followed by ravioli stuffed with the farm’s goat’s milk mozzarella served with a tomato sauce made from fresh tomatos.  The main course was a grilled skewer of pork, chicken, bacon and pork sausage with peppers and onions.  Dessert was homemade vanilla ice cream served with the farm’s honey.  The chef is Italian and invested in the cheese production aspect of the farm.

The third paladar we ate at in Vedado is Idilio (Calle 15, corner of Av. Presidente).  They serve a lot of seafood dishes.  We ordered an appetizer of piquillo peppers stuffed with tuna or salmon.  I also got a cocktail made with aguardiente and honey that Yanelis had recommended, very drinkable. The peppers seemed like they were probably out of a jar rather than fresh and stuffing has a little too much like tuna with mayo, but the salmon stuffing was better with some dried fruit added in.  The main courses were quite good.  Jake got grilled mixed seafood that included a spiny lobster tail, a piece of swordfish and some small shrimp.  I ordered the mariscos enchilada which was shrimp and lobster pieces in a tasty tomato based sauce.  These came with arroz morro (rice mixed with black beans) and I got a side dish of fried plantains that turned out to be very thin slices cooked to be crispy.  The restaurant’s tables are under a covered patio with pretty blue-checked tablecloths. 

Other places we ate were somewhat hit or miss, but a few to recommend:

Topoly – an Iranian restaurant on the corner of 23^rd and Calle D.  We took a couple afternoon breaks on their pleasant porch screened from the street by a bubbling fountain and plants.  They had an interesting tea frappe, good coffee, baba ganoush, or desserts like flan and cake roll for something sweet.

A snack at Topoly

Café Cuatro Lunas  - Calle I between 23 and 25.  The most beautifully decorated daiquiri with a rose petal on top and a curled lime rind garnish.  Inexpensive typical Cuban food.  Really friendly servers and a pretty room with big windows.  They also serve breakfast.

MekedÉ – Old Havana near the Museum of the Revolution, Monseratte 211.  Good place for a drink or lunch.  We just got bruschetta and lemonade there but they were really good.

Esto no es un Café – Callejon del Chorro off of Plaza de la Catedral, Old Havana.  This little alley is known for its selction of Paladars and this one just seemed a good spot to us.  We shared a bowl of ratatouille and roast chicken with vegetables.  Good for big servings of cooked vegetables!

Record placemats at Mekede

La Fortuna – in Playa on First Avenue.  Quirky décor inside (you can sit in a VW bug or on a buggy or lie in a bathtub) and a small deck with a view of the Ocean.  An enormous chicken, gouda and olive sub for 5 CUC.  Cute male servers wearing sailor’s outfits.

The view from La Fortuna