Weary from the meals at the Hotel Nacional, I grabbed my friend Ned and we cabbed it over to Weary from the meals at the Hotel Nacional, I grabbed my friend Ned and we cabbed it over to Old Havana. Ned had been suffering both from a bout of Cuba's version of Bali Belly and from the monotony of the hotel buffet. I figured that a splurge meal would do us both a world of good. Our guide, Sara Daisy, told me that the 1920's Hotel Ambos Mundos was her favorite Old Havana restaurant, and the open rooftop patio certainly had appeal (it's was a few degrees cooler on the roof and in the shade than on the street level where other cafes and restaurants were located). Reputedly Hemingway wrote the first chapter of For Whom the Bell Tolls while staying in room 511, and had his fair share of drinks at this hotel too. (Hemingway is a big tourist industry in Havana; his writing retreat/Cuban residence, Finca La Vigia, is now a museum.) The rooftop dining room patio at Ambos Mundos overlooks the old city, the Bay of Havana and the old forts that once protected the inlet. As with most other cafes and restaurants, a live band plunks away while you eat and strolls around periodically to hawk its CDs. The menu had a boggling number of options, as they obviously are trying to please the European, Canadian and Latin American tourists. Travel-weary and overly hungry, I melted into a fit a laughter as I started to read the menu translations. Would I order the "Sprouted My Havana" ($18 CUC and which judging from the menu category and the Spanish menu wording looked like a mixed seafood grill) or the "paella to the seat of the chef's style" (a Chef's style seafood paella; $12 CUC)? I didn't like the sound of "roasted head meat slowing in the pan to the old style" ($9.50 CUC), but it was the "Labm (sic) to the rhythm of the mount" ($12.50) that made me wipe the tears from my eyes when I could extract my face from my napkin. We ordered drinks called Tropical Sunrise to start. My "Sprouted my Havana" was quite tasty and Ned ordered the eggs on rice, in keeping with his tropical dysentery diet. What can I say, the lobster was good, the shrimp on my plate had a refreshing amount of garlic and flavor. It was wasn't a particularly Cuban meal other than the lovely sea air, the live music and the blazing Caribbean sun. But it did the trick. I felt like a million bucks and it really only cost be $40 CUC all in. A ridiculous splurge by Cuban day-to-day standards, but in line with a high-end lunch in our part of the world.  View of the Bahia de la Habana from the rooftop patio of Hotel Ambos Mundos
 Lovely tilework at the Hotel Ambos Mundos
 Here it is: The "Sprouted My Havana" mixed seafood grill.
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