June 22, 2005

Well, we ate at the Donohue pub for lunch which was OK but we had a fantastic time at the Havana. Yahoo gives it a user rating of five stars.

I wouldn’t say that this was fusion of any sort but rather more like my cooking at the Arms. That is to say, I have 3 main dishes that are Italian, because this year the theme is Italian. But the Sole Almondine is very north western Italian (French) and the Hasselback potatoes are very, very northern Italian (Germany/Switzerland) and the Shikabob is very southern Italian (Persia) and the Soy Maple Salmon is, well, if you believe the Havana’s Chef Cuban. (They do a Maple Soy Porkchop.) Ha! It’s not. It’s a New England Japanese/Chinese fusion. Nah! It’s what it is. (Actually, he doesn’t try to pull a fast one. The chef does own up to the fact that it isn’t all Cuban or even Latin American or even South American.)

Also the corn bread at the Havana is very good. The butter is out of this world. Get the spring rolls with the truffled sauce. Nice. The spinach salad is as good as mine.

So, it isn’t fusion but the chef, who goes to Brasil every year, does Latin American dishes with other stuff thrown in. Nice. As a matter of fact, he does a cold butter nut squash soup, just like mine but cold, no truffle oil but heavy cream with fried plantain and crab. I thought the crab detracted so I am going to bring it to the Hudson River Valley Art Workshops at the Greenville Arms 1889 Inn without the crab and with some basil to make it more Italian. 😉

Well, now that we made it all the way from California to Maine with Mr. Spot, we are done. Tomorrow we’re coming home. Ciao.