Pilon

This one is for my buddy Howard...

One of the best parts of traveling for a living is the restaurants. Mind you, I work for a small family business, so I'm not eating at Chops/Ruth's Chris/Bones/Veni Vidi Vicci or anything of that nature. I do my best to find local places with great food and atmosphere. Lots of average joints with average food that could be found in any Chili's or Applebee's.

Tonight was a winner.

We recently upgraded to iPhones and I've annoyed my wife greatly playing around on Facebook or Twitter or iTunes or searching through the myriad of applications that are available for my new favorite "business tool." One of those apps was "Urban Spoon". The software finds your location via the internal gps, you give the iPhone a shake, and Urban Spoon spins up a dinner suggestion. Tonight's suggestion was "Carmen's Cuban Cafe and Touch Lounge".

Have no clue what the "Touch Lounge" is all about but I'm telling you...Carmen's Cuban Cafe is the real deal. Tried the Ropa Viejo (shredded flank steak cooked in onions & tomatoes) with moros (white rice cooked with black beans) and plantains. Absolutely wonderful.

The best part? The Cuban coffee of course! Intense coffee with lots of sugar (I usually have my esspresso sans sugar) so it made a great dessert.

My buddy Howard (also the senior pastor at our church) is originally from Miami and has a thing for Cuban coffee. He usually has a bag of Pilon around the office. When my cup landed on the table, I immediately thought of him.

Here's to you Howard!

Posted by maysville at 8:43 PM