World Food Thursdays

Country No. 4: Cuba

 

Date: 19/03/2014

 

Venue: Casa Cuba, Crystal Palace

 

Attendees: Ben, Lee, Maor, Kim, Ellen, Poppy, Becky, Paul

 

Cost: £31 a head including two cocktails each

 

Based on tonight’s evidence one could argue that (possibly) the greatest philosopher-lyricist of the 21st century also possessed an uncanny ability to predict the future when he wrote “nobody said it was easy, nobody said it would be this hard, I’m going back to Crystal Palace*” but whether he knew or he didn’t know and how will we ever know he certainly captured the spirit of the latest edition of World Food Thursdays**.

 

For at least three and possibly 5 of the gang it definitely wasn’t easy. Maor and Poppy endured the slog to Crystal Palace for the second time in a week, Becky crossed London twice on her way to the hinterland but first prize indisputably went to Ellen who arrived in Crystal Palace an hour late via a little detour to Cheam.

 

You may ask yourself why Crystal Palace? Why indeed? There are several more centrally located Cuban restaurants in London, Asia de Cuba and Floridita spring immediately to mind, however they are expensive, soulless tourist traps and we at World Food Thursdays are dedicated to authenticity if nothing else.

 

Those that arrived on time were treated to some scaremongering from Ben, a veteran of Christmas in Cuba, who assured everyone that the food was pretty inedible. Unwilling to be put off by Ben’s negativity, and fuelled by some delicious cocktails and a ravenous hunger we ordered a selection of tapas from the Lithuanian waitress (a blow for authenticity).

 

The tapas selection was small but what was ordered was very tasty, the highlight was the Frituras de malanga, deep fried taro root cakes, the Padron peppers and the stuffed plantains were also good.

 

After about an hour, when all participants have arrived, fuelled by more cocktails we were ready to order mains. The Old Clothes (Ropa Vieja in Spanish) proved a popular choice, the majority of diners were lured by the promise of shredded beef slow cooked in a creole stew but the Pargo a la plancha and the roasted pork in a traditional Cuban sauce were also ordered along with a full complement of sides.

 

All the mains smelt and tasted delicious, good sized portions that were a lot better than the food Ben had sampled in Cuba.

 

When the waitress came over to tell us we had five minutes before the kitchen closed we succumbed to the pressure and ordered some dessert, two chocolate and vanilla cakes, and two almond and custard cakes. The cakes themselves were a bit dry but they came with a lovely helping of squirty cream and what looked like squirty nutella. The authentic Cuban cortados were excellent.

 

Fortunately it was Wednesday night so there was no Salsa and our eyes were spared the indecency of watching Lee attempt to shuffle back and forth to some kind of internal rhythm.

 

Cuban Facts:

 

• Cuba is the largest island in the Caribbean

• Havana Club, one of the Cuba’s most famous exports, is not available for sale in the USA due to American foreign policy

• Salsa, aka Cuban Country & Western, originated in the 19th century and was originally called son. It was brought to Cuba by Spanish campesinos

• Post Cuban Missile Crisis the White House installed a direct line to the Kremlin in Russia

 

*There might be some slight paraphrasing there

**still proudly taking place on any day of the week but Thursday