I love bananas. Yellow Chiquita bananas precisely cut into rounds on my plate of arroz blanco y picadillo. Green plantains fried and flattened with the bottom of a coffee mug, then salted, especially if it’s the side dish to camarones enchilados. And, my favorite, ripe plantains, strange in color and frightening in texture, fried into a burnt sack of … More Tres maduros
How far would you travel for a good flan de leche? Five miles. Maybe 10. How far would you go for the best flan de leche in Southern California? The answer to that is 30 miles, because it’s the distance between the city of angels and the city of Orange. Located on an adorable roundabout facing a small park is … More Un flan
“Are you vegan?” “No.” “Are you vegetarian?” “No.” “You just like to eat?” “Yes.” That was a little bit of my conversation with Caro Lafaurie, who became a vegetarian at the young age of 13. Today she is the owner of Equelecuá Cuban Café in Inglewood, a vegan restaurant that takes our traditional Cuban dishes and … More Arroz sin pollo
Cubans get to have two of everything. Uno aquí y otro allá. La heladeria Coppelia en el Vedado, Coppelia ice cream in Miami Havana Club hecho en Cuba, Havana Club produced by Bacardí Tabacos Cohiba cosechados en Pinar del Río, Cohiba cigars rolled in the D.R. El Floridita Bar en Obispo, El Floridita Restaurant in Los Angeles El Floridita de allá: Ernest Hemingway … More Dos mojitos
I walked into Gigi’s Bakery with the sole intention of having a cortadito and a pastelito de guayaba. Instead, I left with an Ironbeer in hand and my pants unbuttoned. Walking in, my eyes were immediately drawn to the wide variety of pastries, I recognized the masa reales, but there were so many others that were … More Una completa
A Cuban's Guide to L.A. 