Philadelphia bound

In the early morning, my husband and I set out in my trusty salsa-red Scion bound for Philadelphia so I could present a paper the next day at MLA, the largest and most significant conference in my discipline. With the white clouds on a blue sky reflected in my side view mirror, we arrived into Philadelphia during rush hour but were in our comfortable Marriott room by nightfall and ready to paint the town red (well, not really, but I like that expression).

We met up with my long-time friend, TK, and set off in a cab for Cuba Libre, a Cuban restaurant that I had visited two years ago when I had been at MLA also to present a paper and was invited by my newly acquired friends and colleagues from my small college on the hill to join them at this restaurant. The visit was memorable then as it was now not only because of the fantastic mojitos, a Cuban rum drink with mint and lemon, but also because of the almost industrial quantities of food we were served and ate.

I had actually decided to go with side dishes and had ordered four of those (tostones, mofongo, arroz con frijoles negros and yuca frita), thinking these would be more like tapas or small portions to accompany larger dishes. I was utterly embarrased and not a little mortified when huge plates overflowing with food (enough for about five people, not one) arrived and were placed right in front of me! (Needless to say, we arrived in Maryland the following day with a shopping-bag full of leftovers.)