90 miles from home

Cafe LaGuardia, the restaurant that finally broke my
three year abstinence from Cuban food.

In nearly three years of living in Chicago, I have not had a lickin' of Cuban food.

There's a part of me that thinks good Latin food doesn't exist anywhere else besides down-home. The rational side of me knows this is not true, but the food snob in me holds the rational side hostage. Last week my colleague was telling me about – wait for it – Papa's Cache Sabroso, a Puerto Rican hole-in-the-wall type of place in the Humboldt Park neighborhood, that has the *best* jibaritos in Chicago. Around the same time, I met the girls for lunch at The Kerryman, and A mentioned having had really good Cuban food at Cafe 28 in the Ravenswood neighborhood. After all that talk, I felt compelled to pick up a few sweet plantains from Stanley's to fry up at home last Thursday night.

You could say that I am missing Miami, all 1,188 miles away from home. Although sometimes it feels like it might as well be a thousand more.

So. All this talk and that's what really spurred my nostalgia for good ol' Cuban food – the kind that you could get just about anywhere in Miami, anytime. (Morro Castle, anyone?) Three years minus Cuban food, and suddenly this week I will have had it twice in five days!

Alas, I gave it a shot for the first time tonight in Chicago by meeting friends for dinner at Cafe LaGuardia in Wicker Park/Bucktown – I was so excited to have back what's been missing in my life for far too long! I stepped one foot in Cafe LaGuardia and was suddenly transported back to Miami. Replete with gaudy animal-print chairs and curtains, blinking Christmas lights colorfully strung on plastic palm trees, and toe-tapping slash hip-swaying salsa, I wholeheartedly welcomed the *tacky* that is Miami!

Check out the animal-print loft pipes!

Dare I say the food tonight was almost – or better – than Cuban food in Miami?? (With the exception of Las Culebrinas in Coconut Grove, which will always hold a soft spot in my heart!)

I couldn't get enough of the Sweet Maduros (Plantains) or the House-Made Coconut Sorbet served in a "Real Coconut Shell!".

The most uh-MAZ-ing Oxtail Stew with Black Beans, White Rice, Boiled Cassava with Garlic. Oh my! I had such a difficult time deciding what to order tonight. Next time I will try the signature dish, Brazilian Red Snapper, which was featured on Chicago's Check Please! and Rachael Ray Magazine.

Next week I have planned a Cinco de Mayo fête at Nacional 27. It's more Nuevo Latino than Cuban, but nevertheless, the Latino festivities will surely be raging on, reminding me a little bit more of home.