Cuba a Bittersweet Tale - Part III

I've been slow about updating this story, but it's important to me to finish as it's been swirling in my mind and heart for a long time.

After a few days with family in Miami we finally board a plane directly from Miami to Cuba, we're taking a mere 45 minute ride across a tempestous ocean. As we fly over the ocean I'm secretly looking out the windows to see if I there are any floating 1950 style Chevy rafts with Cuban's fleeing the island. This is silly but wouldn't you?

My Dad is so nervous he's making me nervous. As soon as we see Habana he starts to cry and then I start to cry. It's one of those emotional moments that can't be helped. It's been nearly 40 years since my dad saw this place. And this airport is literally the last scene he saw of his life in Cuba.

As we get off the plane I try to run a little ahead. I want to capture every bit of my Father's journey and well he can't stop crying, which in turn is making me cry. I'm saying this because I had a manual camera with me so trying to take pictures quickly to capture the moment sometimes come out a bit blurry.

While in Miami the relatives have imbedded in our minds all kinds of horrors that come when you get your baggage and try to get it through customs. Miraculously this is quite pain free. Dad translates everything and we pay a small tax to enter with these HUMONGOUS bags filled with all sorts of things that our friends and relatives in the States would think necessary for my grandfather and uncle.

Now as we walk out of the airport there is this huge crowd of people screaming and calling out all kinds of names. This is mayhem to me and I've travelled quite a bit. Out of this crowd comes this African Cuban man named Luis who calls my dad's name...."Nico" this is the nickname that only our Cuban relatives use for him. How my Dad recognize this man he hasn't seen in 40 years is a wonder. He pulls Dad and I out of the crowd with these huge bags and we head to the car. I was so hoping this would be a 1950's sky blue Chevy. But it ended up being this old white Russian fiat looking car. I'm so not a car person, that is my best description. As we're walking to the car Luis tells us that my grandfather, my Dads father, is in the car. Here comes the water faucet again. Seriously having no control over our emotions I just start balling. I've never seen this man in my life and my Dad has not seen or talked to him in years. I immediately start snapping pictures as my Dad greets his father. The only words coming out my father's mouth at the moment is profanity...why i have no idea....he just keeps saying "Oh, sh*t, oh sh*t" he's just not in control of his emotions. I finally get my hug in and greet my grandfather. It's such an odd thing to feel close to someone you've never met, but I immediately do. This is such a surreal moment and riding in the car looking at the country and soaking it all in. This is in indescribable feeling. Did I tell you HOT and HUMID it is. Wow Miami was bad and Habana is just as HOT. The countryside is lush green with palm trees scattered about, there is slight mix of jasmine in the air infused with the diesel smell of the old cars driving along this very rural road.We finally get to my grandfathers street. This is a dirt road filled with pot holes, but the architecture is amazing. More of that to come. My father has a younger brother who he also hasn't seen in 40 years. His brother has down syndrome and is one of the sweetest persons I met while in Cuba. Dad was equally emotional on seeing his little brother who is about 53 years old at this point. This first emotional day is overwhelming.

Espresso Ice Cream

Ever since I read a post on Chocolate & Zucchini about making ice cream and sorbets I've been on a quest to dig out my Ice Cream maker from the crevices of some cabinet. This is where all me appliances end up as they lose there newness luster, or I move on to the next new gadget.

So I found this great recipe for espresso ice cream in Bon Appetit magazine. I'll post the official recipe later as I am still searching for what issue I dug this up from.

This recipe called for making a custard first, I have to admit that the ice cream tastes the best when a warm custard is made first. But it's a lot of work.

You'll need 6 egg yokes that need to be tempered with a hot milk and sugar mixture. Then once the eggs are incorporated you strain the liquid and then add in the instant espresso powder. The first attempt, yes I had to do it more than once, I ended up with scrambled eggs. Aaargh! Thankfully I had convinced SB to buy 2 cartons of eggs because the first and last time I attempted a creme anglaise sauce I managed to make flavored scrambled eggs. So my chance of this happening again were great. So at 9PM I started all over again. This time when mixing the eggs I let the milk mixture slight cool and then exercised much patience, which I greatly lack, by slowly incorporating the milk 1/3 cup at a time and mixing. Perfecto.

After straining the liquid and mixing in the expresso powder I let the mixture cool in the refrigerator overnight, it was late by this time. Next day I followed my ice cream machines instructions and came out with a creamy mocha colored ice cream speckled with sxpresso. YUMMY. I transferred to a container and put it in the freezer overnight.

Just before serving I chopped up some dark chocolate covered espresso beans (from Trader Joes) and mixed them in the ice cream. I served the ice cream with a thin waffle butter crisp cookie I found at my local market, Jules Destrooper cookies, delish.

This was a lot of work but worth the effort as we all enjoyed this homemade espresso ice cream with much delight.

Abott Kinney Festival

This has to be one of the most eclectic street festivals in L.A. In the past 14 years this festival has literally outgrown this 1 mile strip of Venice. I remember back in 1993 going to this festival and there were maybe 10 booths and a few small bands, which consisted of a drummer and a base playing rythmic reggae tunes. This day there were over 300 booths and just about every restaurant in Venice had a presence.

All the local color and lure of this small town was out in full force.

Overall it was fun, though it was a bit crowded for my taste and you really see how much this place has changed. Venice still has it's artsy flavor but the money coming into this town shows the most on Abott Kinney Blvd. The shops have changed from local vegetarian stops to French fair and cheap clothing shops turn into high end boutiques. It's great eye candy, but not so nice on the wallet.

Cuba a Bittersweet Tale - Part II

So now we're ready to fly to Cuba, right? Not yet. With our paperwork in order, we fly to Miami to pick up our Visa's from our friends and family who arranged our travel to Habana. Once in Miami my dad starts taking me around to all these family members I've never met. Where have these people been all our lives? In fact my dad wondered the same thing. Old memories surfaced, stories unraveled as we drove from one families house to the next. Dad had been in a camp in Miami, conditions at the least in the camp were deplorable, he'd even written his mother in Cuba a letter with a drawing of the camp. The letter boldly said SOS, get me out of here! Family in Miami were alerted to this by my grandmother. They were none too pleased that he freaked his parents out in Cuba. However, when it came time for dad to leave the camp no family members in Miami would let him stay with them. So my dad got options to go to several different cities, he kept saying no, he wanted to go back to Cuba. The last and final option was Albuquerque. Which is where he ended up.


I was getting the taste, literally and symbolically, of what it would be like in Cuba once we arrived. I nearly choked the first couple of times I drank the Cuban coffee, so dark and sweet that it made you purse your lips. But the Cuban bread, how to describe this? It's got a flaky crust which is absolutely perfect and it's soft middle has the texture of finely ground flour. Toasted with butter dipped in Cuban coffee is an amazing breakfast, lunch, or dinner treat. While in Miami I spent time with my half-brother, who I had only seen once in my life (this is another LONG story). I neglected to tell SB I had a half-brother so that made for an interesting phone conversation. To say I was in the dark about these travel arrangements was an understatement. I had no clue and all the Miami relatives scare you to death on what to expect when you arrive in Cuba. We packed two humongous suitcases full of clothing and basic toiletry items. My neighbor who sells Italian import foods gave me two enormous tins of olive oil for my family so my suitcase was stuffed. After a two days in Miami I was antsy I was ready to go. Because we had relatives in Cuba we were allowed to travel directly from Miami to Cuba. Boarding the plane my dad had memories of his plane ride out of Cuba at 14. He said it was a huge plane with big propellors on the sides he was frightened that they'd crash. Now he was scared all over again for other reasons which were a mere 45 minute plane ride away.

Joe's on Abbot Kinney

Recently our friends took us out to dinner to Joe's on Abbot Kinney in Venice. I've passed this restaurant many times and have always wanted to eat there. Joe's sounds like a diner but it's not. Very upscale place, light and airy. My dear friend Conrad who recently passed away has a son who was the architect of this restaurant, so without even looking at the menu I wanted to try this place.

Our friends former boss and spouse love this place and told her about a particular waiter that they always request, Greg. Well this very nice gentleman proceeds to ask us if we've ever been to Joe's, "no", was our reply. He thought it funny that we were all locals and had never been there, my friend said "Abbot Kinney not my scene." Funny thing is he lives on AK. Loved the honesty and so did Greg. He said he could tell we were new since we were studiously reading the menu. He explained it all with confidence and warmth. My friend knew he must be Greg and indeed he was. I see why her former boss likes him. He's confident without being obnoxious, friendly without being snobby. It was already a good start.
Here comes the food. Heirloom Tomato Salad with Burrata Cheese, Pistou, Fine Herbs, Melon Marinated in Port Wine. Really I never get tired of this appetizer.

Then we all order something different. Silver Salmon with braised mustard greens, pumpkin puree, littleneck clams, white onion, water chestnuts, clam juice. New Zealand red snapper with potato scales, wild rice, crispy spinach & red wine sauce. The potatoes literally looked like fish scales. Sorry all these picture were too blurry to include, I'm sure the wine had something to do with that.
Finally one good picture the roasted sirloin of beef with mashed potatoes, crispy artichokes, brown butter balsamic vinaigrette, and red pepper juice. We all tried everything and it tasted as good as the descriptions. The fish was fresh tasting and seasoned perfectly, the steak was cook just enough to melt in your mouth like butter.

Finale was a pumpkin panna cotta with spiced ice cream, gingerbread, maple marshmallow, cranberries (everything around the panna cotta was good, but I was NOT fond of the panna cotta, it was very bland, definitely not my favorite). We also had what I call a chocolate dream, chocolate crunch cake with hazelnut praline and vanilla ice cream, candied hazelnuts I only had a taste of this but wow, it was superb.

We had a great evening again with good friends and Joe's stands as one of my favorite places on Abott Kinney.