Some Menu Additions

Your “Key Cafes” article (Feb. 16) almost got Key West, Fla. right. It omitted, however, a few classic spots I hang out in as a food/travel writer who’s spent a fortnight each year at our “southernmost point” for the past score of years.

Anna Aguilar’s Five Star Cafe on Packer Street serves, I believe, the best Cuban food on the island. Her soups and fish are unsurpassed. The old El Siboney on Catherine Street has the best Cuban-style tamales I’ve ever tasted.

As suggested, there is no better all-around Key West cafe than the Half Shell Raw Bar, but its best dish wasn’t even mentioned: fried oyster sandwich. Finally, Pepe’s Cafe & Steak House’s best was also overlooked. Its perfectly authentic, hand-carved roast turkey dinner, served every Thursday, is a sellout by 7 p.m.

No resort island in the world has food that can touch Key West’s. Trust me.

SAUL ISLER

Los Angeles