Chapter 18: About the food

It had taken me a few days to figure out the whole eating thing in cuba– the kitchen in my first home stay was very un-user friendly, so self catering was pretty much out of the question – on my second day, I had nuts for lunch. A friend of a friend took me out for coffee that night where they happened to have a very tasty cold cut and cheese sandwich with my name on it. The next day Olga made me breakfast, I had the last of my nuts for lunch and dinner. The next day, I had breakfast from Olga yet again – and then just about starved most of the day – until I broke down and went for a 10$ meal at a paladar – (a restaurant in somebody’s house with expensive food for foreigners). They tried somewhat aggressively to up sell me to a $15 meal and but I pleaded poverty so they would allow me to order the cheaper meal – which backfired when the waiter brought me a free ice-cream for desert – chatted me up for half an hour and then, rather aggressively, gave me his phone number, invited me for a walk and asked me when I would call. When I said I probably wouldn’t call – he wasn’t impressed but he let me go on my way without putting up too much of a fight...