1. 50 edible San Antonio JUNE/JULY 2015
latin roots
I
f you go to Havana, you will certainly confront the presence
of Ernest Hemingway and his well-known mojito cocktail.
And the quest for the perfect mojito will lead you to two of
his favorite bars in Habana Vieja, Havana’s old quarter -- La
Floridita and La Bodeguita del Medio. The iconic cocktail is
not so perfect at either place, substantially watered down for jostling
tourist masses.
But continuing the search led to success: the perfect mojito exists
in the most unlikely place in Cuba, in the modest and little-travelled
CUBA’S PERFECT MOJITO
FOR SOUTH TEXAS SUMMERS
A LITTLE ISLAND MAGIC TO BEAT THE HEAT
STORY AND PHOTOS BY IRIS GONZALEZ
town of Nueva Gerona on La Isla de Juventud. A sparsely populated
island south of Cuba’s mainland with only 85,000 residents, La Isla de
Juventud has few bars, even fewer hotels, and just one nightclub. Cu-
bans are primarily interested in commercial enterprise as a matter of
survival, and many entrepreneurial spirits converted their homes into
casas particulares, which are licensed bed and breakfasts, or paladares,
licensed restaurants operated out of private residences. A jaunt to La
Isla de Juventud invariably means staying in Nueva Gerona in a casa
particular and eating in paladares.
La Bodeguita del Medio in Havana, 2014