C is for Cuban

Cuisine Club began for me with Shweyta's Google talk status " A for Argentina". Having worked with Cesar Pelli Architects, who is originally from Argentina, I got curious and happen to ask Shweyta was she is Argentina or traveling there. She mentioned about the Cuisine club and at once we (Hemant, my Husband) decided, consider us part of the club.

For those of you who don't know me, Shweyta and I went to the same undergrad school in Bombay ( I still can't say Mumbai), where I happen to be graduate a year before her.


For the third Cuisine club meeting 'C', I chose Cuban restaurant Guantanamera. I was debating between Chilean and Cuban, since I happen to find the only Chilean restaurant in NYC. I have couple of Chilean colleagues, who raved about the restaurant as the only place in US where you can get authentic Chilean food. But being a vegi, and no veg dishes on the menu, I decided to check with the Chef, who happen to describe dishes that were nothing closer to being Chilean. Chile, or as a matter of fact, most of the South American cuisine is very meat oriented, hence I knew it would be a challenge to find a place that would cater to all types of people. But Guantanamera came as breather where menu had enough veg dishes for us to really go there. Thus 7 of us decided to meet at Guantanamera to enjoy Cuban food.


Guantanamera claims to be a classic Cuban cuisine with Latin dance nights, live entertainment and hand-rolled cigars. Its located on eight avenue, NYC and steps away from the Theatre District.

It being Saturday night it was packed when we reached the restaurant. While waiting to be seated we ordered drinks where we started with Mojitos, (the restaurant claims to be the King of Mojitos) and I am sure every one there would agree, or correct me if I am wrong, since we had 3 pitchers of Mojito that night. Though we started with coco flavored Mojito which I really liked, where Hemant, Amit and Shwetya went with Mango flavored Mojito, we ordered the traditional Mojito(White Bacardi rum, muddled limes, macerated mint leaves,splash of soda and garnished with a sugar cane and mint) pitcher, which was the highlight of the night, where M became the bonding letter, where Rochak said, "M for Mojito, M for Masti and M for Mohegun". It has kinda stayed with me.

In appetizers we started with PAPAS RELLENAS (Stuffed potatoes swith picadillo and cheese), which looked like aloo bonda but with cheese filling. We all really like it and did order more of it. I wish I could describe what rest of the appetizers were, but since they were meant for the carnivorous I didn't pay much attention, but members do describe the remaining appetizers. But the focus of the night still was traditional mojitos.

As we were enjoying the mojitos, eating some aloo bonda :) and getting to know each other, the live mambo music band came in where the mojitos really kicked in and lifted our spirits even further. When I described the Cuban dining experience to a collegue who sits next to me, she said, "Americans are suppose to hate Cuba, but this tiny little country and it people really know how to enjoy life". I think Guantanamera proved the point. The band played the song Guantanamera" ("girl from Guantánamoa").


After a long time when our server finally asked us for food, that we decided to order entree since all of us were really enjoying the mojitos and live music and didn't pay much attention to food. Hemant and I ordered PAELLA VEGETARIANA (Saffron rice with assorted mixed vegetables). It was simple rice and vegetable dish, but tasted delicious and looked amazing. It was served in a sizzler plate, that added in enhancing the colors of saffron rice and all the different vegetables. As fas as I remember we all finished everything we ordered, which is a sign that we really liked the food, or we were just plain hungry. Once again, non-vegs will need to update their dishes, because as usual I dint pay much attention, but they all looked very appetizing.


Lastly, we did order a dessert, but I can't remember what it was, cause I think by then most of us were totally lost in mojitos and music again. But then dessert had nothing to do with it being Cuban.

The live band kicked it again later in the night where people started dancing w salsa. Shwetya and Amit joined the group of dancing couples followed Natasha and Rochak. The four really has some good salsa moves and I think they really enjoyed, we surely did watching them.

Overall, I can say that dining at Guantanamera has given me a slight glimpse in knowing how Cubans enjoy life and I hope the rest of the crowd had similar experience. This is my version of the night, but please feel free to add, subtract, comment and describe Cuban night in your own words.

Thanks Shweyta for starting this, where all of us can add some amazing experiences to our life.