That Cuban Place

[saavedra77]

My niece April, my oldest brother Victor (see icon), the latter's girlfriend Ziggy, and I met up in Collingswood on Thursday to have dinner at Casona, a Cuban place which had come very highly recommended.

Collingswood turned out to be something of a surprise, in itself. For years a drab working-class enclave on the outskirts of Camden, the place now boasted a main drag of coffee shops, stores, and fairly posh restaurants (like Casona)--sort of like Ballard or Columbia City, in Seattle.

The service at Casona was so-so: slightly argumentative waiter, not always attentive service. But dinner positively rocked: empanadas de pollo, paella (including lobster tail, mussels, shrimp, scallops, and a touch of chorizo), caramel flan and tres leches for dessert. We ended up tipping 20%, despite everything.

I wish that I had a picture of what Victor looked like, that night--he was dressed like Angel from Dexter: leather fedora, guayabera shirt, neatly-trimmed moustache, upturned chin, his usual airy, ironic manner. (Later, on the street, he completed the Mac Daddy costume by lighting up a sweet-smelling cigar. The bastard even somehow got me to try one. Jesus, how did that happen?! I still need to Fabreze all of my clothes from that night.)

It's entertaining to watch Victor and April interact: they're both forceful personalities, great talkers, they love to bait one another and argue. Victor plays the chauvinist pig, although he's not nearly as bad as he likes to pretend, and April takes great pleasure in having none of it. I just love to listening to the banter: it's like a new Mamet script, every time.

Comments

[aztecson23.livejournal.com]

ahahaha . . . good to have interesting sounding people in your life. I have a niece who is queen of the quick retort. She is witty as heck. I showed her the first sentence of one of my chapters for my thesis. It was this: "In any discussion of totality, the problem of referentiality is bound to come up." She read it, threw her head back and laughed her sonorously good-natured laugh, and said, while tapping me on the arm, "Oh yes, Cesar. Because my friends and I talk about totality ALL the time and its referential problem is a must-discuss topic."

She cracks me up. She's the mother, incidentally, of my just-born great-nephew, Miguel Elias.

Your recent post on your holiday happenings have been very interesting to read. Not that you're not typically interesting, just sayin':-)

[saavedra77.livejournal.com]

Your niece sounds a lot like mine! :) That's what they do: remindin' us to keep it real.