Cuban dinner

In one of the saddest turn of events, there was a gigantic storm in passed through Atlanta that left thousands without power. We lost power Thursday night around 7.15 and it didn't come back until Saturday around 4.30am. This meant that the aquariums seriously suffered -- one of them did not make it -- and we headed out to Marine Reef and Fish out in Marietta to try to save what was in the smaller tank Friday night to save some inhabitants.

We were there for a while as they inventoried and evaluated what we had. When we were done, it was about 8pm and we were starving. One of the Marine Reef folks mentioned a good Cuban place just down the street, so we headed over there for dinner.

The Cuban Diner (mariettacubandiner.com/) did not disappoint. Our server was very nice. We asked her what was good and she gave us a list: ropa vieja, mojito chicken, lechon asado, and the popular sides: moros, yuca, maduros.

We were absolutely starving, so we ordered one of the pork tamals to start.

We split it down the middle and it was pretty tasty. There wasn't a lot of pork, but what impressed me about it was how moist it was and the fact that the flavor infused most of the masa.

Josh ordered the traditional-style lechon asada: roast pork shredded and stir-fried with onions and mojo sauce with the three most popular sides. The moros is black beans and rice sauteed together.

The pork was delicious. And faintly familiar. At the end, I figured out that it tasted very reminiscent of my pork racks, in the salty fatty areas. Very good. Very generous portions.

His third side was this cassava dish: Yuca con mojo: boiled, covered with raw onion rings and mojo sauce. It had a bite of raw garlic, I thought, but I ate a decent amount of it after Josh was full.

Once the Marine Reef gal had mentioned a cuban sammich, it was on my mind. So that was what I got! Pressed to perfection.

It looks pretty good, doesn't it? Pretty tasty too. I couldn't finish it, but I did as best I could.

I also got the moros and the maduros. I love maduros, and these were lusciously big and delicious. The moros were good, but I might prefer separate orders of rice and beans. Not sure.

We left some food and when the owner came over to clear the table, he asked if we wanted to take it home. I said no, because we had no power and couldn't put it into the fridge. He told us that he would take care of us in the only way he could and gave us 50% off our dinner! How generous!

So it was certainly sad about our aquariums, but at least we found a good place for Cuban and a new lunch place near Marine Reef.