San Antonio's Cuban-Mexican fusion restaurant Paladar excels at breaking the rules

My ancient, but presumably still dependable, Velázquez Spanish-English dictionary defines the word paladar principally as palate, followed up by variations on taste and “longing desire.” Published in 1967, it predates the Cuban iteration of the word that came into prominence in the 1990s after the collapse of the Soviet Union dealt a blow to the Castro regime. In the period of deprivation that followed, Cuba’s enterprising cooks kept body and soul together by opening informal restaurants in their own homes, utilizing what products they could muster.