12/10 Dinner

Finally….I know you all thought this day would never end – and you are just reading it!  Actually – we don’t want it to end – it’s been great – packed full of interesting discoveries.  And now – we are back on the bus, riding off through the rain to dinner in Miramar – another Western Habana suburb.

The bus ride takes us back through Vedado, past the Cemetery even (I think – I’m pretty sure!) and on into Miramar – which we’ll see more in the daylight tomorrow – but for now it’s just a large suburb glistening through the raindrops.

Our original plan was to go to an Association restaurant tonight – but – This Is Cuba – so our plans have changed. We are going to the state run restaurant El Aljibe.  This place is great – it’s all open air – with thatched roof and sort of reminds me of an old Polynesian restaurant.

We are seated at two long tables – we are with The “Sisters” (our nickname for Joann and Meghan who are really Mother and daughter vegetarians), “Nebraska” (Mary and Chuck – Chuck worked for Northern Pacific or one of the train lines – so he is also Train man) and “118” and “Gun Man” (Linda and Jack – 118 is because when we were telling the gate agents at the airport our weights, everyone sort of rounded up – or down!!! – you know, 130 or 185 or whatever, no, Linda was exact:  118 – and well, it just stuck! Gun Man should be self-explanatory!)  The food starts to pour out of the kitchen. First up - appetizers of little fried chicken legs, cheese croquette, fried plantains and this little sandwich type thing and might have been pork?  Don’t know what it was, but it was good!

Then came the main meal – chicken. This is their specialty – roasted chicken that was incredibly tasty.  Better than last night at the hotel. And finally - red beans and rice! We’d been waiting for this since we arrived – and we’d not had it yet. As a matter of fact the “Sisters” figured they would be fine the entire trip since they could live on red beans and rice!  And we haven’t had it once!

Tonight’s dish though was (looking back since this is a “post-“blog!) the absolute best.  I’m not into beans at all – but I had to really force myself to stop eating them and cleaning my whole plate.  Dessert – of course – helado. What else would you expect?

We have a fine time listening to the rain on the roof, eating and chatting – but mostly people watching. There are some very interesting couples dining here in this restaurant – and not with our group!  There is one couple behind us that I swear is a transvestite.  This girl is BIG, and squeezed into this dress! And she/he’s with a guy who is a foreigner and they are drinking champagne…and well, it’s all very interesting and we’re having fun speculating!

Back from dinner – the BS team hits our cute little bar for our traditional night cap.  Tomorrow:  Las Terrazas!