Havana Is Open

For dessert, we put away an egg flan ($3.29) — or I did, at any rate; my partner was in a coma by this time. It was the classic version, and good, but they have one made with cheese as well. Plus rice pudding and tres leches, coconut flan and crema catalana, and cheesecake. My God, the place is excellent, and even with all those drinks, we hadn't spent $60.

Castro was out. What a long, long half a century they'd had of it, even the lucky ones who'd left, lost to the families who'd stayed behind. But memory of home is distilled in its recipes: lamb shanks in wine, pot roast, palomilla steak, chicken with mushrooms, paella Valenciana, Spanish sausage omelets, vaca frita, pork in tamarindo sauce, or a parrillada grill for two. You could look into the menu at Little Havana — the Cuban sandwich, the fabada soup, shrimp in flamingo sauce — and see the shadow outlines of its namesake. Cuba libre. We can only hope.