Cuban food is very special to me. Several branches of my father’s family emigrated from Cuba in the late 19th century, and possibly more significantly, lived in Cuban communities in Key West and Tampa for several generations after coming to the USA. Thus, my grandmother’s cooking included significant components of Cuban cuisine, along with classic Spanish and American dishes. All of her Cuban dishes were simple, savory, hearty arrangements of common ingredients, things that I imagine being within the means of my impoverished ancestors’ budgets. Arroz con pollo (yellow rice with chicken), picadillo (basically a Cuban sloppy joe), plantanos (fried sweet plantain bananas), ropa vieja (shredded flank steak), frijoles negros (a kind of black bean stew), and bollitos (black eyed pea fritters) are all good examples of the simple, tasty meals that I was treated to when I visited grandma’s house. Note that none of these are lo-carb, lo-calorie, lo-sodium, or lo-anything else! Also, because of the flavorings, you don’t need expensive cuts of meat or farm fresh vegetables to be able to pull these off. For the uninitiated, Cuban food may be described as similar to many other Caribbean cuisines with a strong nod to Spain. In any event, I remember grandma as a great cook, and when I think about Cuban food from her kitchen, the memory is of delicious food.
My mother, a 100% New England Yankee of English, Irish and Scottish descent, did a good job of reproducing these dishes in our Seattle home during the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. I can’t imagine they were as interesting for her as they were for my father or us kids, but as in all things, mom’s a good sport and put her best efforts in. Mom is also a great cook, and I remember these dishes as being delicious as well.
On occasional trips to Key West to visit Father Evelio Hernandez (my great uncle) and other relatives, I have had the good fortune to eat at local family restaurants that preserve the traditions of this lovely cuisine. One of the best must be El Siboney, which is an unpretentious little cafe in a quiet Key West neighborhood where feral chickens walk the streets. If you’re there, try the Masas de Puerco Fritas. The last time that Reba and I were in Key West (Cayo Hueso in Spanish) we ate there twice in 4 days! Wikipedia says that the Siboney were the pre-Columbian indigenous inhabitants of the Greater Antilles in the Caribbean Sea.
So, Cuban cooking evokes a variety of nostalgic responses in me: vacations past, mom’s cooking, grandma’s cooking, and connections to my family history. When it’s done poorly, it makes me a bit sad, but I think, “what the hell, it’s hard to find this stuff and I’ll take what I can get”. When it’s done well, it brings tears to my eyes because it reminds me of people and places I have known, all of whom have taken the time to do an excellent job at preserving something that happens to be important to me. Grandma could have taken us to McDonald’s every day and we would have been fine with that. Mom could have made American style food only, and we would never have known any differently. But they didn’t and so I have a taste for something that’s rare and special.
And now, on to Cafe Laguardia. Reba took me here for my birthday, I will be 41 on Tuesday but will be in an algorithms test that evening, so we thought it would be better to go out last night. Always the good researcher, she found a well reviewed restaurant run by Cubans and located nearby in Bucktown. We arrived at 7 to a full house with lots of people waiting. Despite the madhouse around him, Carlos Laguardia was warm and serene, which is quite professional, but is also to some degree quite comical. I think Saturday Night Live could do a skit on the theme of an unflappable owner in the midst of a chaotic restaurant. Reba and I waited in the bar, chatting about the usual stuff that parents do when they are away from the kid for the evening and a few drinks in, i.e. the kid. 1.5 hours later I was getting a bit annoyed at the wait, but was finally informed that our table was ready, whereupon Carlos’ mom led us silently to our table.
Sitting down, we ordered sweet plantains and a picadillo empanada for appetizers, Reba had a chorasco steak, and I had the pernil de cerdo asado. Both came with black beans and rice. This food was simply outstanding, and took me right back to El Siboney and the various Hernandez family kitchens of my memory. Without question Cafe Laguardia served us the best Cuban food I’ve had since visiting El Siboney in Key West, and the best meal I’ve had in Chicago, a town with a lot of cuisine options. I’m not a very good food writer, but using my limited culinary vocabulary I would describe these dishes as authentic, tender, flavorful, hot, hearty, clearly made to order, and evocative of the kitchens I remember so fondly. I can hardly hold the popularity of a restaurant against it’s owners, and the food was fantastic, so I’ll admit that it was worth the wait.
The only area of improvement I would stress is the lack of good sipping rum. Of course it would be entirely apropos to have a wide selection of Havana Club rums available at the bar, but then due to the embargo, it would also be illegal. There are many excellent sipping rums from other Caribbean locales, all of which would nicely top off a night at Laguardia. Unfortunately, the only dark rum at the bar was the ubiquitous, mediocre Jamaican Meyer’s, which I ordered anyway. That said, my dad’s idea of a good dark rum was Meyer’s as well, so maybe these guys are onto something I’m missing.
I relayed a much abbreviated version of the above to Carlos Laguardia, and he told us that a number of people have mentioned El Siboney to him, smiled sadly at the mention of Havana Club, thanked us, and gave us both hugs! Nice fellow. Great restaurant.
