Castros Take Hostages, U.S. Serves Castros Pate

Capitol Hill Cubans

huffingtonpost.com

Can someone at the State or Treasury Department please explain how this "people-to-people" trip to Havana by a group of California gourmet chefs benefits the Cuban people?

Because it's absolutely clear how it benefits the Castro regime.

Moreover, is this appropriate behavior towards a dictatorship that is holding an American hostage and imprisoned over 100 peaceful activists on Human Rights Day alone?

According to AP:

"In the last week, members of the "Planting Seeds" delegation have held give-and-take seminars in Havana with chefs and culinary students about slow food. They also put on two massive dinners, including a five-course, five-star meal at the privately run Le Chansonnier, which drew culinary, artistic and influential leaders like President Raul Castro's daughter, Mariela. A 100-person bash was held at a state-run restaurant for luminaries such as Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates, California state Sen. Loni Hancock and senior Cuban officials who are in position to affect agricultural policy."

Of course, the Castro regime's elite is delighted to have a new pate variety:

"Luis Ramon Batlle, for one, has seen plenty of guava during his long cooking career, but never thought to combine it with rabbit-liver pate atop a crispy wafer.

'The cracker is practically neutral. The pate gives you all the classic flavor of liver, a little acidic. But at the end you sense the guava as a very subtle, very delicate touch,' said Batlle, who is head chef at Divino in Havana."

Perhaps this is some new and sophisticated "pate diplomacy" we're unaware of.