Feature article
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Old, New worlds collide at Havana #2
By Fred Sauceman
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| Colombian Lechon combines pork and corn |
Ribbons of milky-white roast pork, kernels of yellow corn and cubes of mango mingle on the plate, bordered by rice and black beans. Pigs and corn. Old World meets New. Latin flavors in the Land of the Sky.
Hector Contreras, the man who introduced the Cuban sandwich to shoppers at the Asheville Mall, has opened a new place downtown, in the bottom of this Western North Carolina city’s Battery Park Hotel, built in 1924.
A Cheerwine-sponsored sign, roped to the reinforced concrete and limestone trim of the old hotel, announces that Havana Restaurant #2 is now open for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Meanwhile, Hector’s old mall store has relocated to the food court.
Painted in pink, yellow and sherbet green by Hector’s wife Bonnie, the downtown location suffuses the urban air with whiffs of sofrito, the aromatic Cuban cooking base of olive oil, garlic, tomatoes and green peppers.
Hector has reserved a section of the restaurant for Bonnie’s Little Corner, so his wife can keep selling Central American cigars, all smoked off the premises.
In the cold drink cooler on the opposite wall, Peach Nehi shares space with the Mexican soft drink Boing, in mango and guava flavors, just as pancakes buddy up with huevos rancheros at breakfast time.
Havana sells Coca-Colas imported from Mexico and made from pure cane sugar. In fact, sweetness is a theme throughout this Cuban and Latin American enclave.
Hector gives me a tutorial on Cuban coffee, using his own blend of beans, brewed into espresso.
“The key is to caramelize the sugar and then beat it with a spoon,” he tells me. “Now,” he says, “watch what happens when I add a shot of milk.”
Hector describes the mahogany-colored contents of the demitasse, a cortadito, as “such a simple thing, but with a really unique taste.”
Hector is an enthusiastic ambassador for Latin cuisine, but his presentations aren’t bombastic. Bananas Foster, the popular New Orleans dessert with Caribbean overtones, isn’t flamed tableside, as Hector used to do in a French restaurant, but rather brought to the distressed-finished tabletop quietly in a platter pooling with melting mounds of ice cream.
The restaurant’s specialty dish is garnished simply with some chopped red onions and parsley. Colombian Lechon is the dish that brings together pork, originally introduced to the New World by the Spaniards, and corn, which was here waiting when they arrived. In true Latino style, the pork is marinated in citrus and roasted in the restaurant’s oven for eight to nine hours.
Meanwhile, hunks of Boston Butt are roasting for about six hours until, as Hector describes, “the meat melts,” too soft to slice.
It’s destination: the Cuban sandwich. Hector prefers pulled meat to sliced on a Cuban. He says the pulled has more flavor.
Ham, American Swiss cheese, pickles, and American “ballpark” mustard complete the combination, all heated and pressed until the enveloping, buttered bread is crisp.
Hector says pressing Cuban sandwiches helps blend the cheese into the meat and concentrates the flavor.
Roast pork is also a dominant element in Havana’s thumb-thick croquettes. Hector says because of the fine texture of the pork, some diners mistake it for crabmeat.
Strips of starchy yucca, sprinkled with Hector’s own seasoning salt, accompany several dinner selections, as do rounds of fried plantains.
Tostones, a Puerto Rican specialty, are made by frying green plantains, mashing them in a press, and then frying them again.
Ropa vieja, a Cuban dish of shredded beef, translated as “old clothes,” is often listed on the specials board inside the front door, under the greeting, “Bienvenidas á Havana.”
And welcome is indeed what you’ll feel in the care of Hector Contreras, who mixes his minty mojitos a little sweeter “for the ladies.”
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Just a reminder: We’ll be signing copies of the two “Place Setting” books, collections of my stories about foodways in Southern Appalachia, this Saturday, June 30, from 5 to 8 p.m. at Riverfront Seafood Company Fresh Market and Grill, 1777 Netherland Inn Road, in Kingsport.
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Food writer Fred Sauceman, author of the book “The Place Setting: Timeless Tastes of the Mountain South — from Bright Hope to Frog Level,” is senior writer and executive assistant to the president for public affairs at East Tennessee State University. E-mail him at sauceman@etsu.edu.
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