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Thu, 24 Apr 2003

Habana, Cuba

My Wednesday dinner group headed to San Jose for a Cuban meal at Habana Cuba. Except for a "gran Cubano sandwich" at the Manhattan Deli, a local sandwich shop here in Pleasanton, I don't think I've had a proper Cuban dinner since Jose's in Palo Alto closed a few years ago. (That was a great place, with house-made empanadas and Cuban-style barbecue, as well as the standard meats and fish dishes.)

Habana Cuba is more upscale than the neighborhood would suggest, although the interior layout of the place is nothing short of bizarre. (One wonders what the place was originally built as.) We were seated in a small mezzanine, which was good since Wednesday is live salsa music night -- great for dancing but not so hot for dinner conversation. The mezzanine was at least a little bit quieter than the main floor.

The assorted appetizer plate came first, with fried plantains, turkey croquettes, a potato-beef croquette, some delicious grilled pork chunks, and a garlic-and-oil sauce for dipping and dousing. Alas, I failed to get the Spanish names for all of these, and the appetizers are not on the menu page of the web site.

I had Lechón a la Cubana as a main course; this is roast pork over rice. The portions were large, and the pork, "baked in its own juices", was relatively moist, considering. It's sort of like a large order of carnitas from a taqueria (but not as juicy), or the meat you get from a roast pig. Great flavour, but it needed a sauce for contrast and to add moisture. The lechón was served with black beans (which were exceptional, but I'm not a big bean eater), and white rice, as well as the ever-present fried plantains. These were cut longitudinally and seemed more banana-like than the ones in the appetizer plate, which were sliced thin like potato chips.

(My only known food allergy is a mild reaction to bananas, which has kept me away from bananas and plaintains for years, but I've come to realize that it's only raw bananas that seem to be a problem, and fried plaintains caused none at all. They're still more starch and sugar than I should be eating, in any case.)

The other popular entree at the table was the Enchilado de Pescado, basically sea bass sauteed with bell peppers and onions in tomato sauce. (An enchilado is not an enchilada; no tortillas or anything similar appeared in the dish.) It was my second choice, but I'm glad I picked the pork, since reports on the sea bass were not favourable -- one person said it had that characteristic off-flavour that sea bass sometimes gets.

We skipped dessert, although the desserts looked somewhat tempting.

I do remember there being another Cuban restaurant in San Jose that I was dragged off to a couple of years ago while with friends at a science fiction convention at the Doubletree, but I'll have to go through my notes to find the name. All I remember is that (like Habana Cuba) it was on two floors, and we had to wait for a table. If you have a clue, please email me.

Posted at 19:22 | permanent link

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