Red Corner: Why Cuba needs a Food Revolution

by Neil Woodburn on

One of my favorite places to eat in Los Angeles is a Cuban restaurant called Versailles. Their garlic chicken and plantains are simply phenomenal.

So why is the actual island of Cuba consistently rated as having some of the very worst food on this planet?

Paul Mansfield of The Observer decides to find out for himself. He recently traveled to Cuba where he learned that the state-owned restaurants (and they are all state owned) were mostly horrible. The government realizes this, however, and has allowed private citizens to open up paladares–small “restaurants” within people’s homes. The market is tightly controlled by the government, however (max 12 diners, for example), and Cubans have told me that the moment a paladar becomes too popular and takes business away from state-owned restaurants, it gets shut down.

As you might suspect, the paladares are where Mansfield finds the Island’s best food–although best is a subjective term here. When compared to the other horrific food on the island, anything simply palatable falls into the best category by default. Case in point, after a week of traveling and eating, Mansfield came up with only two recommendations that sound worthy of trying. All the others seemed hardly palatable.

Red Corner: Bush Cracks Down Harder on Cuban Travel

by Neil Woodburn on

More trouble for those trying to travel to Cuba. The Bush Administration is cracking down even harder on agencies that specialize in travel to the forbidden island of Cuba. In the last few months, audit investigators from the U.S. Treasury Department suspended the licenses of four travel agencies and six religious organizations for illegally providing travel to Cuba. Religious organizations!?! Since when does the Bush Administration crack down on religious organizations? Old Jeb must really be courting that Cuban constituency hard!

Cuban-Americans who once supported the ban, however, are not as enthusiastic about it as they once were. Prior to 2004, they could legally travel back to Cuba to visit relatives. But then Bush tightened the reigns and passed legislature limiting the definition of “family” to exclude nieces, nephews, aunts, uncles and cousins. These relatives are no longer considered family and are prohibited from traveling to Cuba just like the rest of us. Only siblings, parents, grandparents and stem cells are allowed to visit.

And just how are these new sanctions affecting Castro’s authoritarian rule? Are they chipping away at his power and slowly toppling his regime as no doubt intended? Hardly. Check out this article in yesterday’s LA Times highlighting Castro’s recent crackdown on entrepreneurs and capitalism. Years of American sanctions haven’t done a bit of good.

Little Havana

by Neil Woodburn on

There is a short little article in this month’s Southern Living that highlights the very best of what
Miami’s Calle Ocho has to offer. 

Calle Ocho, or Eighth Street for those of you Hispanically-impaired, is Miami’s colorful Little Havana
neighborhood.  With the Bush Administration cracking down on travel to Cuba these days, Miami
might be the only opportunity you’ll have to experience authentic Cuban culture before Castro kicks the
bucket.

The article, by Les Thomas, bullet-points the numero uno art gallery, gift shop, cigar-maker, breakfast
joint and restaurant to visit when limited to less than 24 hours in this vibrant neighborhood.  Go now before Bush
restricts travel within Miami itself. 

Red Corner: Cuba Changing?

by Neil Woodburn on

I’ve been saying for a number of years that one day Cuba will change in a big way. The first “small” change occurred in the early 1990s when Cuba’s big brother, the Soviet Union, crashed and withdrew the financial support which had kept the island solvent since Castro took over. The quality of life plummeted as a result, and poverty and shortages swept the nation.

The next change, according to Laura Parfitt who recently produced a BBC program about Cuban poetry, is occurring right now. This is because the Cuban economy is getting back on its feet and as a result, money is slowly trickling in. More money means more new cars, trendy clothes, and foreign produced goods. The strange time-wrap which Cuba had existed in for so long is starting to disappear as modernity and luxuries slowly encroach upon it. Tourism is a major cause of this. New hotels, restaurants, cafes, tourist shops, and street buskers are all popping up to siphon the money foreign visitors bring with them to the island.

Despite all this, Cuba, is still a long ways from achieving a decent standard of living for its people. The changes have made life better (or, perhaps easier) for many tourists, but only a few locals are benefiting in the process. This will undoubtedly change over time (perhaps with Castro’s death), but hopefully not at the expense of Cuba itself. The island still remains true to the Cuban spirit, despite government sponsored street performers and more doilies in the tourist hotels.

Image of the Day: Cuban beach

by Karen Walrond on

Today’s Image of the Day is a photograph
of a beach in Cuba, uploaded by localsurfer.  I was drawn
to this photo because, unlike most beach photos where you’re struck by how blue the sea and sky are, in this
photo, the focus is on how clear the sky and water are.  The photograph beautifully captures the expanse
of the sky and the ocean, the sharpness of the horizon, and the peace that comes with being one of the only people on
the beach.

If you’d like one of your travel photos to be featured in our Image of the Day, be sure to visit
our Flickr Pool, and upload your best shots there.  Every day
we’ll pick one to be featured here on Gadling.  Thanks!