Favored Nation

As I’ve written before, I used to work from home before all the cool kids started doing it, for a tech company based in Pompano Beach, FL.  I used to fly down once a month to attend meetings, hang around and basically remind management that I was alive and doing good things for our clients, and in that time I ate out a lot at the local restaurants both in Pompano and the surrounding towns.

Some time later, I was chatting to one of the tech guys, a Cuban named Danny, and he asked me out for dinner, just the two of us because I was busy on some private skunkwork project and he wanted to get the details.  The conversation went as follows:

“Kim, do you like Cuban food?”
“Danny, I don’t like Cuban food — I fucking love it.”
“Really?”  (sounding surprised)
“Not just the food, either.  I love everything Cuban:  your food, your music — I don’t smoke, but if I did, I’d probably love your cigars as well.  I love your booze, your way of life, the way you guys dance, and your women — oh my Gawd, your women! — and if I could be reborn to any nationality and culture in the world, it would be as a Cuban, here in South Florida.”
Pause.
“Of course, your system of government absolutely sucks.”

So he took me to a little Cuban restaurant I’d never even heard of, let alone seen.  That night I fell in love with all things Cuban all over again, and Danny and I remained friends for years thereafter.

And my little skunkworks project turned into a system which later become an industry standard.

Anyway, here’s a little background Cuban music for you, and of course some local flavor:

¡Compasión!

15 comments

  1. Your posts on music never cease to amaze me, in that they show me how different musical likes and dislikes can be between men of similar age and similar opinions on many things, especially culture and politics.

    Your earworm posts often make me laugh at how different our tastes are.

    But you rang the bell with this one. Cuban music and food are spectacular.

    We are taking a cruise out of Miami in January but will arrive a week early just to stuff our faces with Cuban food and hit as many Cuban dance clubs as my poor old feet will handle. 3 of my favourite dances originated in Cuba, Rumba, Salsa and Mambo, and the playlists in your link are great.

    Thanks for this post, best ever,

      1. We normally do arrive 2 weeks early but this year family obligations intervened. If it’s good, and I’m sure it will be, we’ll be back.

    1. Also, my earworms have nothing to do with my taste in music. They arrive unbidden from somewhere in the dark recesses of memory and set about tormenting me.

      Doris Day songs come to mind…

      1. Good point, mine too, and I wish you hadn’t written “Doris Day”, I’ll be wandering around all day with “whatever will be, will be…Que sera, sera…” floating around my head.

        That thing is one of my more persistent ones.

  2. Kim,
    You mention Cuba and one name immediately comes to mind for me. Che. No, I’m kidding.
    Daisy Fuentes. You can thank me later.

    1. Forgot to add .. ages ago I had a girlfriend who was half Irish (dad’s side) and half Cuban. N* was a fiery soul and brother, could she drink. Those were some hot times.

  3. I went to high school and church with a girl who was half Cuban and half Lebanese. She was the most beautiful girl I’d ever seen. Her Cuban dad participated in the Bay of Pigs invasion and of course was captured by Castro’s forces. I remember the big celebration when her dad was released by the Cubans in 1966 or 67. I asked the young lady for a date on more than one occasion and she displayed good sense and even better taste by telling me to go and drown myself.

  4. Used to spend time with an old friend (now deceased) fishing in FL (Longboat Key) and invariably that would include several meals at “Columbia” on the circle of St. Armands Key. Yeah, I know it’s “commercial”, but it was still great.

    1. The original Columbia location in Ybor City is the standard anniversary dinner selection for my wife. She introduced me to Cuban food not long after I moved to Tampa Bay and we started dating. Her best friend’s parents are Cuban refugees and the father does amazing things with roast pork. I think Cubans love pork as much or more as my folks back home in East Tennessee.

      1. Speaking of pork roast. The Publix deli has a wonderful pork roast that they can slice real theen for stacking a foundation for an awesome Cuban sando. We moved from SW FL almost 17 years ago and there are a few epicurean delicacies from that region I surely am missing. Grouper mainly. And Conch. Our son in Cape Coral sent a pix awhile back of a 1 lb stack of thin sliced pork roast he had purchased. I hate him forever.

        1. @Ghost …
          Conch .. OMHFG .. Conch !!! Years ago there was a place in Fort Laurderale, on Federal Highway, near the 17th Streeet causway .. Ernie’s BBQ … locals called it Dirty Ernie’s. The joint opened in the late 1950s. I’d go in there for lunch, have bbq sammich on Bimini bread, a bowl of Bahamian-style conch chowder with a shot of dry sherry on the side and a cold beer. If you were lucky, some Jimmy Buffet might be playing in the background. Best. Damned. Food. EVER. Shame the place closed down. Health department probably thought the fryer grease was too old (had too much flavor) or some such nonsense.
          Also @Ghost .. I’m likely headed to Boca/Delray/Boynton area in March .. I’ll have to check out the deli at the local Publix for the pork. When I get the hankering for a Medianoche’ sammich, I head to my local “greasy spoon” Mexican grocery and get some roasted pork from them, shred it up nice, etc. Shit, is it lunch-time yet? You’re killing me.

  5. why can’t we trade hard working cubans who seek freedom, liberty and opportunity for the ungrateful statists who seek communism, socialism, fascism or some other form of authoritarianism?

    JQ

Comments are closed.