El Bodegon del Asado (Restaurant Review) Havana

                Once again I returned to my beloved Havana for the Partagas Encuentro, a week long celebration where Cigar Aficionados gather from around the world. Many of us know each other and I discovered that many of those follow my blog and check it for my restaurant recommendations. Someone asked me what new places I had discovered and sadly I couldn't answer him. I had been visiting the same places that I really enjoyed, not having a great deal of time, I hadn't ventured into the unknown. On this trip I decided to visit a relatively new place that Conner Gory highly recommended on her travel app. 'Havana Good Time'. It sounded like it would be something I would enjoy, that is if the review was true and not an embellishment. Conner didn't lie and I'll be checking out more of her reviews in the future. If you're reading this, thank you Conner.
                 The restaurant is a Paladar and that is to say it's in a residence where the owner would actually live. This house is located on street that runs off Calle 23, a major artery that cuts through the Vedado district of Havana. As with many or most of these restaurants, if you don't have an address you would never find it and many times walk right by it and not know it. In this particular case the outdoor market located to the right of it would draw more attention than the restaurant itself. We had an address and had no difficulty finding it although it was right in the middle of a residential area. The seating area was located to the back of the house, walking by the dessert counter on the way there. All seating is outdoors with some under a canopy in case of rain which was almost upon us. The decor was like something out of a roadhouse in North America with memorabilia scattered all around....old Esso and Coca Cola signs, licence plates, wheels and nic nacs which gave the place a rustic or homey feel. The description they use on their flyer is that it was meant to give it a country feeling. Since the menu is Criollo or Country cooking, I would say they did a good job. I liked it, I found it very comfortable.
                  The restaurant had been open for about a year off and on. It opened and then closed for a bit before reopening again. The service was quite pleasant and I would have to say that this was one of the most knowledgeable waiters that I've had the pleasure of interacting with. There was no question he couldn't answer and I/we had many. That is rare in this country, especially with a menu as vast as this one. Usually the waiter goes to the kitchen to have the question answered only to return and go through the process again when asked another question. As I said, the menu was fairly large and we had difficulty deciding what to eat but finally deciding we would have to return (providing the food was good) to try the items we didn't order. The dish we decided on immediately was the Garbanzo Fritto (translated...fried chick peas) and ordered that right away while deciding on the rest of our meal. It took only about five minutes to arrive and the waiter was correct, all the portions were abundant. They tell me this is a Spanish dish and varies from place to place, basically it's chick peas sauted with chorizo sausage and a touch of tomato. What can vary is the amount of chorizo and it's quality and how wet or dry the dish can be. This particular one had an excessive amount of sausage of excellent quality and had just the right amount of tomato. However, the chick peas could have been a little more tender but they weren't that bad. Taste wise it was perfect....in my opinion. The other appetizer I decided to order was the Pork Riblets, my first time anywhere in Cuba. This was an excellent choice, two of these Rib apps would have been more than enough for a main course. Something I didn't expect was BBQ sauce on my ribs. They described the ribs being with honey and lemon balm sauce which to my surprise was bbq sauce....never would have guessed it. It was just like back home only better, the ribs were moist and tender.
                  We were saying how filling everything was and the main courses hadn't arrived, actually, everything arrived pretty much at the same time at this point. We ordered way too much food. My girlfriend ordered the Masas de Cerdo Fritas (fried pork chunks) and I the Cordero al Romero (rosemary lamb). The pork was fatty but ohh so good. The Lamb was done in it's own gravy and more like pulled lamb, no bones, I would recommend it to anyone who likes lamb. It was a little gamey but if you like lamb you're going to enjoy it. We made the mistake of ordering sides and realized the mains came with a little something and it would have been enough. My mistake, after checking the bill, these sides came with the mains. I ordered the white rice with black beans (Arroz Blanco con Frijoles Negro) and my girlfriend the yellow rice (Arroz con Maiz Guajiro). The rice and beans I ordered were wonderful and I thought my girlfriend's were good as well but she said they lacked the quantity of corn that she remembered from her mom's cooking and found it a bit dry. What do I know, I thought it was a nice change from the usual but had never had it before. Thank God we didn't order a side of Yukka or Malanga, we would still be there, eating. I ordered the Vina Maipo Cabernet Sauvignon from Chile ($15cuc), very reasonable. We asked for the winelist but the waiter said it wasn't up to date. I gave him a $$ range and this is the wine we came up with. Served a little chilled it hit the spot. The dessert menu had 6 items on it but they only had flan (Creme Caramel), it was nice but a choice would have been good as well. We couldn't complain, everything included, wine and tip as well, $41.91cuc. As I said, way too much food, we had to take some stuff home. FYI, take out containers are charged, in this case 35 cents each. I will have to come back to try some of the other dishes....maybe this January.



El Bodegon del Asado
Calle 24 e/23 y 25
tel. 836-3636
Hours of Operation
Monday- Sunday 10am-11pm

Partagas Encuentro Noche de Bienvenida Nov.2013 (Havana)

               Once again the Encuentro de Amigos de Partagas has come and gone. After many years, the players may have changed but the show still goes on. This year the Noche de Bienvenida, or the first event of the Encuentro, took place as always at night but for a change the venue was not indoors but outside at one of the most beautiful squares in Old Havana, the Plaza de La Catedral. They took a chance on there being no rain and we were all blessed with the good fortune of it being a dry and very pleasant evening. No one knew what the backup plan was in case it did rain and we were all under the impression that there wasn't one. Thank God things turned out the way they did. It was an absolutely spectacular night and in my opinion the best event of the Encuentro, definitely the best of all the opening nights I've been to. You just have too look at the faces of the people who attended to see that everyone felt the same. The food wasn't bad either and by far much better than the dinner offered at the Gala the following Friday. The entertainment provided was the usual mix of dancers and music that kept us....well, entertained. Crowd participation is always part of every event and there was no lack of it on this evening as well. All in all it was very much worth the price of admission and always my favourite of the Encuentro events. This is the night when many of us see each other for the first time in a year and catch up on what has been happening in our lives in the past while. Cigars were in abundance and it seemed like more were given out this year than in the past. Just the price of the cigars covers the cost of the ticket. If you ever decide to attend only one these events, I suggest this is the one to partake in, you certainly get your money's worth. I hope you enjoy the pictures. A few of my readers are in some of the photos and I hope the memories put a smile on their faces.

Alcides Perez Toledo (Cuban Artist) Havana

                I came upon this artist as I was wandering the streets of Old Havana, something I do quite frequently and with great pleasure. He was showing his works in a Gallery across from the church of San Francisco next to the Plaza of the same name. The Gallery is called "Casa de La Pintora Venezolana Carmen Montilla Tinoco" at Calle Oficios no.162 and is open Mon-Sat 9:30am-5:00pm. It's a beautiful Colonial home that was restored in the mid 90's by a Venezuelan artist. The courtyard in the back of the house is absolutely stunning and features a massive mural that was created by the famous Cuban artist Alfredo Sosa Bravo. This particular gallery changes exhibits and artists once a month or so, unlike the gallery next to it that houses the famous Nelson Dominguez who's been there for at least a couple of years. I had the pleasure of finding the artist there but like the idiot I am sometimes, I forgot to take his picture. Next to the copy of his history that I've posted a copy of is a tiny picture of the artist. Hopefully I can replace it at sometime with something a little better. Below is my loose translation of a write-up printed on the same flyer that was handed out by the artist. When I say loosely, I mean the language was a little beyond my simple Spanish vocabulary. I was given permission by the artist to post it on my blog. I hope I've done a decent job.
               Don't harbor any doubt that Alicides Perez is a wonderful artist, willing to investigate rigorously many technical variants and expressive ways to create works of remarkable intensity. Early training in Havana, at the remarkable Academia de Bella Artes San Alejandro, he specialized in painting. Later, he moved on to the Taller Experimental de Grafica, which was the key to later enable him to navigate with ease through Chile, a country in which he continued to hone the development of his graphic imagination. Both methods occupy his attention today although engraving is the area in which he concentrates more time on. You have to see the quality of textures that  he offers on every impression either on metal, calligraphy or especially in mixed techniques, where he feels more comfortable from the integration of several styles. It is there where the white space of the canvas resists the efforts that Alcides submits it in terms of color, composition, drawing and materials and are applied with enough honesty as to be recognize that there are no tricks or unnecessary masking but pure aesthetics which is essential to all good art. He's restless and active towards everything that surrounds him and manages to make us share in his works as in a two-dimensional space integrating architecture through columns, balconies, roofs, doors, as if the human experience is linked intrinsically to the buildings we inhabit every day. Having said that, mostly through paintings, facades and fusions of human bodies, faces and mosaics, ears and windows, regardless of the physical condition of these poles of attraction, for him, the spirit that identifies them is the truly significant. He's a good drawer, however, he has no prejudices in the materials he uses; soles of shoes, belts, textiles or cans, to say what he wants in parts of his art where it suits him to show a refined freedom of creativity.
              This exhibition illustrates an exemplary way the variety of his goals as an artist, the challenges and in turn, the dangers he faces. It corroborates his audacity and his sense of the expansion of the territories of graphic art. His letters are cast, this time in the walls of the gallery and not on any table. From them he warns us that despite his young age he is not swayed by fads of his generation or the promotion of Cuban art. His gait seems secure and with own destiny. We await to see what the future holds for this wonderful artist.

Fachada sobre Blanco

Fachada sobre Negro

 No Title

Entre Cruces

Bilfolld

 Infra-Muros

Arquitextura

No Title

Ci-miento

 Portales

Mundosaico

Humanoide

De la serie, Infr-Muros

Vision Panoramica 2

Vision Panoramica 1

En ascenso

 Absolut Inside

The Courtyard

The Mural by Cuban Artist Alfredo Sosa Bravo