Cupo and Cabía

Question

Well I was reading my textbook yesterday, when I noticed this sentence:

"A la hora de comer el postre, a Samuel no le cabía el flan porque comió muchas costillas."

I am confused as to why the textbook uses cabía instead of cupo. I am familar with the rules of the pretierte vs imperfect but it seems to me like "Didn't fit the flan" is a completeted action, not a description or action in progress. I guess if "He didn't have room for the flan" was the translation then cabía would make sense but would you just say "estaba lleno" or "no tenía espacio para" instead?

Answer 1

I think that this may be a special case.

Read this (I got it from the dictionary on Spanish Dict):

no cabía ni un alfiler -> the place was packed out

Answer 2

He didn't have room for the flan is the translation--he wasn´t trying to fit it into something.