Pleasant Hill's Habana Express: a taste of Cuba

For the owners of Havana Express in Pleasant Hill, Cuban food is about more than what's on the plate. It's a connection to their childhood, family, gatherings, and traditions that shaped them. This Hispanic Heritage Month, we're meeting the family, working to keep those traditions alive here in the East Bay. To learn more about what's popular in the dishes on the new menu, we welcome Diana and Gerardo Salas and Maria Diaz. They're the owners of the restaurant Havana Express. I have to say, I haven't been there, but I want to go. because i don't make it out to Pleasant Hill that much but when you are in Pleasant Hill how hard is it to get ingredients you know like the plantains or you know do you have to go certain place to get your ingredients yes yes actually we have a special suppliers for for our latin food and it's not that easy because it's mostly on the east coast uh-huh so but yeah we thanks god we have found like some suppliers that allow us to share our food with the east bay gerardo when someone comes into the restaurant what do you think is if someone had to say okay gerardo i want you to represent with one dish that is going to make you know i know it's hard to pick one dish what do you think that dish would be is the habana bowl is the ropa vieja with maduritos with green black beans and white rice. Ropa Vieja, which is the meat, platanos or plantains, right? The Ropa Vieja is a shredded beef with tomato, peppers, onions. Smells so good. So do you have people coming, anyone can, Maria, do you have people coming from kind of far away? Because Cuban food is not all that common, especially in Pleasant Hill, in the East Bay. Yeah. Yeah, there is people that are coming We try to talk with all our customers, and they tell us they're coming from Santa Rosa, Emeryville, San Leandro. Oh, Sacramento. The rich ones. Now, this is a sandwich. Cuban sandwiches, these are the two that whenever I go to a Cuban restaurant, I'm looking for the sandwiches. What is this one? This is a pan con bistec, and this is a Cuban sandwich. The most popular. And this is the most popular? Yeah. Okay, this one. Okay. Because this is going to be the one I try. All right. We are celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month, but here in the Bay Area, I feel like that's all the time because Hispanic heritage is everywhere, right? Yes. Very important. Do you have a kinship with your fellow Hispanics, like Mexicans, Salvadorans, Guatemalans, that come in and we all family here in your restaurant? Yes, definitely. Definitely. and we feel like that's the most important part of our restaurant is to be able to enjoy the Latin food and share it with all the Latin community and, like, of course, Americans. But we feel like it's a special place of gathering. How did you start your business? Because these are family recipes, right? Yes, yes. How did you decide, I want to share this with the world? We've been thinking about it for... like a couple of years and then yeah we definitely decided to start it and it was only one and a half years ago and it was a food that my our dad cooked for us actually so you're keeping the tradition alive this there's a box here you're also a bakery what do we have here so those are our special cuban pastries so we have a guava guava and cheese cheese and coconut and those are really really popular and we made it at the store so they're always fresh and yeah those are also. Is this uh what is this? Tres Leches cake. Tres Leches cake. I knew it! All right okay uh of course there wouldn't be a wouldn't be a food segment if I didn't. What what kind of machine do you have to get to get the bread nice and flat? I've always wondered about that. Grilled panini. Grilled panini. Okay. There we go. Tell us the bread. These your kids? Yeah. What is this? A plantain. Is it good? Is it your favorite? No, my favorite. What's your favorite? I like the yucca fries. The yucca fries. What's your favorite? Cilantro sauce is homemade That goes with the yuca We have to go Before we go I want to let everyone know Habana Express is on Contra Costa Boulevard In Pleasant Hill I give it This sandwich is very very good If anything What is the name of it? El Cubano it was one of the best sandwiches in the bay two years ago and it has the pork that we cooked in the oven ourselves we're going to be having all this food we'll be right back yeah we have vaca frita on the Cuban sandwich oh my gosh i'll take it from here well sal and Brian are going to eat up all the good stuff I know you You better head over there.