Ropa Vieja: old clothes or a tasty dish?

For my birthday last week, my husband took me to a delicious Cuban restaurant, Havana Grill. He knows how much I love my Latin food and this was a very nice, and very tasty, treat. There were so many delicious options that it was difficult to choose exactly which ones would be our dinner. However I decided on "Havana Roasted Pulled Pork" (Slow roasted pork, served with jalapeno mashed potatoes and roasted cream corn) and my husband chose "Ropa Vieja." He had a delectable dish of "choice flank steak simmered in a garlic, tomato, and bell pepper sauce until tender, served with white rice, black beans, & sweet plantains."

Ropa vieja... yum!

This dish is primarily Caribbean. I was telling my Honduran friend about this dish and he stared at me with a curious look on his face. He is a native speaker of Spanish while I learned my skills through my high school class. Knowing this, he asked me if I knew what "ropa vieja" meant. I laughed because I realized why he was looking at me so funny. In Spanish, "ropa vieja" literally means "old clothes." I explained to him that my husband did not eat a plate of old clothes and that it is in fact the real name of a delicious Cuban dish. He laughed too. I have heard a number of reasons as to why this dish is named the way it is. Wikipedia says "a man [was on his way] home for dinner. Being very poor, the man could not buy them enough food when they came. To remedy his situation, he went to his closet, gathered some old clothes (ropa vieja) and imbued them with his love. When he cooked the clothes, his love for his family turned them into a wonderful beef stew." Some food experts say that it is because the shredded beef resembles old rags. I prefer the first story but to each his own.