196 Dinners!: Cuba - Our Third Meal

For our third meal, Mark cooked us a delicious meal from Cuba. I really enjoyed the ropa vieja (one of the national dishes of Cuba), with the succulent, slow-cooked beef and green olives. And Mark bought us some nice new cocktail glasses, in which we enjoyed some fresh mojitos.

During dinner, we watched a walking tour of Havana, which was very interesting. I know almost nothing about Cuba, but it was interesting to see that their beautiful architecture and city design reminded me of Italy and France, with the grand buildings and large open plazas, with added Spanish elements. (If you're interested, the Wikipedia article on the eclectic and multicultural architecture of Cuba is here.) I would definitely hope to visit one day. :)

After dinner, we watched an awesome Cuban horror comedy film, Juan of the Dead (2011), which neither of us had seen or heard of before. After a zombie outbreak strikes, slackers Juan and Lazaro start a business as zombie killers-for-hire. Very hilarious, with some awesome fight scenes, and a killer graphic animation at the end. Also, I found it very interesting that throughout the film's zombie outbreak, the Cuban government keeps televising news that blames the violence on "counter-revolutionary" political dissidents, and United States political interference. This kind of satire is very revealing, I think, about the nature of their government, and reminded me of Soviet propaganda. (Although as Mark pointed out, the US may well have interfered in Cuba's domestic affairs.) For context, the film came out prior to the restoration of diplomatic relations between the US and Cuba on July 20, 2015, which had been severed since 1961, during the Cold War. I also really liked the scrapiness of the main character, Juan, and his ingenuity. Definitely recommend this one!