Fulano, the Miami Cubanaso, has all the know-how you second-generation Cubericans need to visit the motherland without (hopefully) getting disowned by your exiled grandparents or by your Bay of Pigs-veteran old man. Here's Part Two: Where to Eat.
¡Que bola, aceres! In Part 1, we told you how to stay at a casa particular when you finally go to check out your roots. Now we gotta tell you where to grub, because sleeping on a bench ain't nothing as long as my stomach has something good in it. Pero before we do that, we gotta explain you Cuban money.
You got two kinds of money in Cuba: the peso nacional, which is what the Cubans use, and a type of flow that tourists are supposed to use called the peso convertible.The tourist money has got mad other names such as C.U.C., cuc (bro, like kooky), convertible, and chavito. We think they started using this because money's dirty, and they don't want foreigners bringing stupid diseases, like that democro-fever that's been spreading lately.
One dollar is worth like 24 pesos nacional, or something like 80 chavito cents. So obviously you wanna be spending pesos nacionales, right? Dog, you can do that and put the flow back in the people's pockets.
The Paladar:
These are like the casas particulares of the Cuban food world: People give up tax money, and they can sell food and stuff out the crib. Pero just 'cause they're serving up food straight out the kitchen doesn't mean that they're all cheap. If the menu's in chavitos, you could be spending mad cheddar, like $8 a plate or more.
That's cool if you roll like that, but some of us gotta make ends meet. If you're broke, don't get all scared off just 'cause some place looks scrubbed out. We found this one place once... it was just a sign out front of this sketchy ally. PeroThe thing is, paladares don't always have signs. There's the cafeteriaThe Meat-Rag Rumor:
That's cool if you roll like that, but some of us gotta make ends meet. If you're broke, don't get all scared off just 'cause some place looks scrubbed out. We found this one place once... it was just a sign out front of this sketchy ally. PeroThe thing is, paladares don't always have signs. There's the cafeteriaThe Meat-Rag Rumor:
We heard a rumor here in Miami, right, that there were paladares selling rags disguised as meat. ... dog, okay, check it out, if you get ducked out by someone feeding you a rag... Brother, we're not saying it's never happened, but if anyone out there actually comes across this, bro, PLEASE, take a picture, write down the street, and send it to us for our meat-rag alert.
So, now you know where to sleep and where to eat without feeling like a total sell-out. Next time, we'll wrap this whole thing up with how to get around. It might sound a little shady, pero we guarantee you won't see any other tourists.
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