“notes From The Underground” A Brief Guide To Havana And

“notes from the underground” a brief guide to havana and

The name paladar comes from the Brazilian soap opera, Vale Todo (Anything Goes), which was extremely popular in Cuba in the early 1990s. Raquel, the enterprising protagonist of the telenovela, was a poor woman who moved from the Brazilian provinces to Rio. She worked as an itinerant food vendor on the famous beaches of Copacabana and eventually made it big after setting up her own chain of small restaurants, which she christened “Paladar.” Literally meaning “palate” in both Spanish and Portuguese, the curious origin of the name “paladar” hints at the initial high hopes Cubans had for the potential of these private, home-grown eateries during the worst stages of the “special period” that began in 1990.