Sunday, March 02, 2008

Canadians in Miami, but Don't Worry: I Fed Them Cuban Food and All is Well

Have I told you that I love Canadians? I do. I met a bunch of them (all from the Toronto area) back in high school (fell in love with one of them, too, but that's not a story for today), and I immediately clicked with them. I'm not sure why, but there's something about Canadians that I love, that makes sense to me, that makes them feel like kindred spirits.

So, I love Canadians. This is the reason I agreed to meet some strangers for a breakfast where I would have to discuss Cuban food and what it means to be Cuban in America, especially during this time of heightened attention on the situation in Cuba (which is, briefly, still not good). Because I found out they were Canadian. Prior to realizing that, I had been on the fence about the whole thing.

What the H am I talking about? Sorry, I just had a cookie and the sugar's made me wonky.

The guys from Fresh Books were in town for some conferences. Since they had to be down here but are also going to be at SXSW in Austin this week, they decided to rent an RV and make a road trip of it. They thought it'd be fun if along the way they met up with bloggers, which is where I came in, seeing as how I live in Miami and am a blogger and am known and loved by all.

But honestly, when I received the invite, I wasn't so sure about it. Not for anything, just my own inadequacies about myself and how those may be perceived by others. But once I read through their regular blog and saw they were Canadians, I reconsidered. Then I thought it'd be a good chance to spring the Cuban on a bunch of unsuspecting people, and suggested we go to the only place we Cubans are allowed to take out-of-towners (I swear, it's in the secret manual): Versailles restaurant.

What resulted was a great breakfast (the look on the waiter's face when I ordered a ton of croquetas, papas rellenas, tostadas Cubanas and pastelitos was priceless), with Balou of Searching for Normalcy and MKH of Hidden City joining me. The guys were great: friendly, curious and open-minded. It seems like they loved the food and we had a wonderful, intelligent conversation about Cuba, Castro, Che, the exile community, etc. We all agreed, in the end, that the proper attire for a retired tyrant is in fact a tracksuit (with name embroidery, natch), because it's pretty hard to top a life of camouflage, and Adidas - well, there's a lot of cred associated with that brand.

Their take on the breakfast is here.

It was fun, guys. I'm glad our paths crossed; and I remain firm in my belief that Canadians are wonderful people. Enjoy your road trip!

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Posted by Tere @ 3/02/2008   | |

2 Comments

  • Blogger Balou posted at 3/02/2008 10:45 PM  
    It was a great time, T! Thanx for inviting me along. I loved the conversation and the company. And thanx to the "Roadburners" for sujecting themselves to the craziness of our "peeps."

  • Blogger Joke posted at 3/06/2008 7:22 AM  
    You take out-of-towners to Versailles for the Full Cuban, because it's the one place where you can give someone the everything in one shot.

    You know what I do when someone arrives from Cuba for the first time? I take them to Costco and blow their mind all at once.

    -J.

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