Our favorite restaurant in that ...

... steaming, bug ridden port city to our south, and one of those little grace notes that makes a stay there close to tolerable is the Vizcaya on Dale Mabry. It's a tapas restaurant and very Spanish. Most times we go there is usually a large table of old Spaniards chatting in Spanish, drinking lots of vino y cerveza, until it is time to retire to the porch for cigars.

Carmen and I went there this trip, but no Spaniards except for a small party in the corner. But two other very large groups in a very small restaurant. We had to wait a few minutes for a table but it was worth it. We never order an entree, only tapas. Four of them usually do us fine for dinner.

This time we had our usual half pitcher of sangria, plus camares fritos (my favorite), vieras y chorizo (scallops so good that Carmen says that next time she is not sharing them with me), langostinos tapas (huge shrimp), and mozzarella con tomate (translate it yourself). All with some of the best Cuban bread in town.

If you are ever so unfortunate as to find yourself in this port city to our south, you can just barely survive it IF you make it over to this place. The lunch menu, btw, looks just as good but considerably cheaper.