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| Che says: Viva la Umdrehung??? |
So far our restaurant and food experience here has ranged from excellent to bizarre to terrible. I have found, after our second attempt dining at a Latin-American restaurant, that the Germans don't understand this genre of food. For all the food they do well the mixture of tomato, corn, cheese, in its variations forms, must be a bewildering and mysterious combination for them.
One of the first restaurants we went to when we got to Wiesbaden was a place called El Paso. I wondered about the naming choice. Maybe not coincidental that one of the few brands of salsa they have here is Old El Paso. I remember thinking, how interesting that there are Mexicans in Germany. Well, no, it was run by Germans. So when you get a burrito filled with mozzarella cheese instead of authentic queso, I guess it's more understandable. At a party I'd overheard someone say, "Don't order nachos here, they'll give you Doritos with tomato sauce on them." That was good advice and an accurate description of the "Mexican" cuisine here.
Last Friday we decided to check out a restaurant down the street from us called "Havana." I'm wondering, again, what the connection is between Cuba and Germany. Maybe they have a communist/ socialist connection, if that's possible. (Well, as far as some are concerned they are the same.) Are they on good terms with Fidel? They must be at least ok because you can buy Cuban cigars here. With a name like Havana you'd expect some kind of Cuban or Caribbean style food, but when you walk by the place and see a statue of a man in a sombrero, you should know that this is going to be another misguided attempt at Latin-American food. We should have known. The confused mish-mash of Che Guevara, cacti, Cohiba cigars and men in sombreros in their decorating scheme should really clue us all in to what we are about to experience— the most inauthentic Cuban food in the Western Hemisphere. Of course the menu is in German so while we can figure out some things, we are limited by our remedial knowledge of the language. However, it would be a mystery regardless of authenticity. Although I think I would know Kubaner schwarze Bohnen if I saw it, and there were no Cuban black beans to be found.
Despite all my criticisms about authenticity and the food's lack thereof, it was not a bad meal at all-- much better than El Paso. My dish included marinated grilled chicken on skewers with "tomato mash," seasoned mixed vegetables and green salad. Tomato mash was included with many of the dishes and we all were curious about it. I was sure it would most definitely not be salsa in a form I would recognize, and it wasn't, but it wasn't bad at all. (I was expecting tomato paste straight out of the can.)The vegetables were similar to what you may get in a Indian restaurant and, again, not bad. The Huhn (chicken) was fantastic. I think the mojitos were the most authentic thing there and they did those well.
So, you can't assume that the name of a restaurant is going to be any indication of the type of food they serve. It's useful to look up restaurant reviews as well. Each place I've gone to based on positive reviews has been very good.
It still remains a mystery to me that these restaurants can't figure out some basic Latin-American recipes, because they have the basic ingredients available to them—including tomatoes, onions, cilantro, garlic, hot peppers, even avocados (that's guacamole right there!). Maybe certain types of foods are just too different for the German palate to handle. Although there are plenty of exotic flavors here— Indian, Thai, Moroccan, Persian, Ethiopian—maybe Tex-Mex is just beyond their grasp.
I've told some friends already how much I miss Chipotle. I attempted to duplicate some of their food a few weeks ago, actually. It was pretty good, but nothing beats the convenience of going down the street and getting a burrito bol any time you want.
