DATELINE: CUBA : THE MYSTERIOUS ISLAND, THEN AND NOW

Havana, 1762:

The British seized Havana and opened its port to unrestricted trade, selling merchandise and slaves and engaging in commerce with the American colonies to the north. One year later, the British returned Havana to the Spanish in exchange for the Florida peninsula.

Havana, 1991:

We thought we’d try Havana’s only Chinese restaurant. Seemed like a good idea at the time.

We arrived to find the restaurant in operation, but its door locked. We knocked and the door was opened a crack.

“What do you want?” a voice from the other side said.

“We would like to eat.”

“Wait.”

So we waited.

We knocked again.

Again the voice: “What do you want?”

“May we come inside?”

“Wait.”

We huddled under an overhang as an evening thunderstorm passed.

The door opened slightly, a hand shot out, beckoning us inside.

There were about a dozen diners. We noticed that none had any food. We would learn later that this was the preferable alternative.

The menu listed Cuban beer, Russian wine and two food options, chop suey and chow mein. Only.

“What do you have for a vegetarian?” we asked.

A small plate of sliced cucumbers arrived.

The chow mein was awful. The chop suey was awful. The ice cream was excellent.

Our table voted that we found the world’s worst Chinese restaurant. We were sorry we had.

We asked the waitress for receipts. There weren’t any.

As we were leaving, we saw that a small line had formed outside. The hopeful diners waited. The door was closed.