Valentine’s Day in Havana

By Aurelio Pedroso

William Shakespeare expressed it through one of his characters: “Love does not age; it dies in infancy.” The line is extremely controversial.

But this philosophical digression is of no importance to those who want to sell more and more at Havana’s hotels and restaurants. If just a few years back a Cuban was stopped at the entrance of a hotel and asked irreverently “What do you want?” today he is addressed as “Sir”. They offer a “Good morning-afternoon-evening” and invite him in.

Havana is celebrating Valentine’s Day. Show her that you love her and invite her to cannelloni “a la Romeo and Juliet”. And because double talk is our daily bread, Juliet will supply the ham and Romeo the cannelloni.

Outside the hotel, in the street, you are a “comrade”; “citizen” if the issue is with the police; “uncle” if a kid or a young man addresses you; and if the person is fully grown up and not well educated, it’s probably “dude” or “man”, or whatever the latest slang may be. But inside, you are “Sir” or “Madame.”

For a little over $5 dollars to the sky is the limit. There are varied offerings that at least Habaguanex Co. is tempting locals and as many tourists or visitors from abroad it can find these days. Coincidentally, there is also another quite acceptable offer in regular pesos.

I have closely examined what more than 35 of this company’s facilities are offering their clients and it seems impossible to believe what some are saying out in the street: that there is a shortage of products for the making of the dishes in some very well known restaurants that belong to other companies – no rice at La Casona for their wonderful rice and chicken; or that at the National Aquarium, where one of the restaurant’s walls is a huge fishbowl, such and such a product is not available, and so forth and so on.

Certainly the Habaguanex chain (chaired by Eusebio Leal, the City’s Historian and a member of the Cuban parliament, but above all a very well-liked person by all who live and work in the Historical Core of Old Havana) does not lack a thing for the St. Valentine’s Day culinary celebrations – neither the delicate Middle East spices used at the Arab restaurant Al Medina, nor the emblematic and authentic Galician chorizo at restaurants with Spanish cuisine.

Everything is ready, whether you want a table or to take home a stuffed chicken, apple pie or meat empanada. Obviously there will be some who will want none of that, and not for lack of love or companion.

Obviously some chefs or ingenuous barmen, cooks, waiters, PR people, musicians, managers, and even amateur poets must have participated in the christening of cocktails, starters, entrees and desserts. Such imagination. Smiles, laughter, groans and criticisms are allowed. Here are the surprises:

Love Temptation Veal Escalope with Onions; Eternal Love; Won Tons Madame Butterfly; Oriental Charm Custard; Romantic Hors d’Oeuvres; Capricious Roast Chicken; Valentine’s Chocolate Hearts and Coffers; Shrimp Salad in Romantic Sauce; Passion Chicken Supreme; Valentine’s Shrimps; Chicken and Shrimp Romance; Love Mousse; Aphrodisiacal Soup; Happy Hour (two cocktails for the price of one, plus tapas); Cupid’s Welcome Cocktail; Sauce of Happiness; Turnovers of Love; Paradise Custard; Lovers’ Cake; Valentine’s Chicken; Fantasy of Love; Cupid Salad; Valentine’s swords; Love Nest; Cupid’s Arrows; and Two Hearts Ice Cream.

The Los Frailes Hotel probably deserves the prize for most initiative. Everything under the title “Love at first sight”:

Looking at each other with assorted breads and aphrodisiacal butter. Meeting on a nest of shrimps over a bed of hope. Falling in love with Chicken Supreme with forbidden fruit sauce, or pork with surprise stuffing, garnished with rice and beans and boiled root vegetables with ginger mojo. Sharing with turnovers with syrup. Promise of love with exotic coffee. For toasting, the beverage of your choice.

The above menu for two costs 14 convertible pesos (about $17 dollars). If at the end of this irresistible meal the couple can’t take a step after so many insinuations of love, courtesy of Cupid, St. Valentine, the chef and his/her staff, then the hotel can offer a room at 80 convertible pesos (about $100 dollars).

There are hotels, such as the resurrected Telégrafo, one of the oldest in the city that have kept their regular recipes, without such “décor” for the occasion. Since they have ‘live’ music and a very select menu, the price is 25 convertible pesos per person.

So there are many and varied dishes dedicated to love, with recipes that since long ago have been considered erotic and exciting. The only thing missing are the celebrated oysters, but there are offers for you to choose, from half a bottle to a full one of reds or whites. It says so in the wine list: for your erection. Pardon me, for your selection.

The Great Bard was totally mistaken. Love never dies, or so claimed Count Dracula, probably on St Valentine’s Day.