Text 20764, 66 rader
Skriven 2012-02-03 11:30:00 av MICHAEL LOO (1:123/140)
Ärende: trip to Shipps' 174
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Before my flight I met Dale and Gail for lunch at the highly
respected cheap eats place Cuba de Ayer in Burtonsville, which
they'd enjoyed in the past but had not been to for quite a
while; it has garnered many good notices in all the media in
the meantime.

The restaurant is a pretty nondescript storefront in a
pretty dusty neighborhood, but inside the maybe 10 booths
and 5 tables are pleasant enough, as was our waiter, who
however was quick and unsubtle with the upsell but not
quite on the ball at times (such as when I wanted another
beer). 

We started off with a sampler platter, an somewhat
ungenerous serving of three standards, all of which were
good. In order of preference -

pernil, a couple ounces of marinated roast pork sliced
thin and smothered with onions;

croquetas, two small fried blobs of some mashed starchy
root flavored with ground ham and colored with annatto,
much better than they sound; and

yuca frita, which was crisp outside and not quite tender
on the inside, quite salty, also two small pieces.

The house hot sauce, a thinnish herbal concoction with a
gentle attack and a bit, not much, of a backbite, made
everything even better.

Gail got more of that pernil as her main course; among his
inattentivenesses the waiter had not pointed out that this
would be the case when she ordered "the roast pork." Not
a tragedy, as the stuff was quite tasty. The main courses
came in modest servings as well, and we needed all the
starchy sides that came with - crunchy tostones, soft sweet
plantains, black beans, and rice - to fill us up.

Dale's ropa vieja was cumin-scented shredded pot roast,
pretty savory, rather like a mild chili.

Masitas de puerco were fried cubes of meat, somewhat
marinated beforehand; I had moros y cristianos as my
side - black beans cooked together with rice and herbs,
mostly cumin.

These come with tostones (fried starchy plantains) or
platanos (stewed sweet bananas). Among the starches in
common use in the Americas, these are among the ones I like
best. Lucky we got some of each.

It was simple, wholesome cooking: meat, lots of onions, and
modest seasoning, mostly cumin, salt, and hot pepper. It was
also, except for my stuff, all preprepared and reheated.
Also, it's no longer really cheap eats.

When we left, the room, which had been almost deserted when
we arrived, was jumping.

We still had a couple hours so went back to Columbia and
had a few beers.

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