Val Prieto, at Babalublog, has some fun at the expense of a restaurant in Minneapolis which serves "revolutionary Cuban cuisine" amidst portraits of Che and Fidel.

Val writes what getting a real meal is like in Havana, and he asks if that is what this guy is serving. He also asks if the restaurant accepts Castro's toilet paper money or hard dollars. It's a masterpiece of debunking. He floors the guy in that magnificent storytelling way that only he can.

Revolutionary Cuban cooking!? I wonder if the maitre'd hands everyone a ration cardаwhen they walk in the door. Or if they make the cafe cubano like they have been making it in revolutionary Cuba. One thin layer of fresh coffee grounds, one thin layer of split peas for filler and one thick layer of used coffee grounds to get it all packed in. Yum. What delicious cafe con leches that must make.

I wonder if the rum they serve in thier daiquiris and mojitos is made the revolutionary Cuban way. Distilled and dug into the ground withаs**t used as the fermenting agent. Cagalitos! Now that's authentic "revolutionary" Cuban cuisine.

While I agree with Val, my take is to see a silver lining: At the end of each and every communist regime, there is always a period of 'communist nostalgia' on the geographical edges. It's some kind of leading indicator. I saw this nostalgia for communism in Solidarnosc Poland, with the student rebels showing me their 'happy German worker' posters they kept around for laughs. I saw it in China and Hong Kong with all the cheesy Mao kitsch in the chic shops like Shanghai Tang. Now, we all are seeing the same 1959 Castro nostalgia at this stupid Minneapolis restaurant.

With kitsch and nostalgia appearing, it probably means the Castro communist regime in Cuba is on its last legs.

A. M. Mora y Leonаа 1 07 05