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Tampa IS the Cuban sandwich
Miami just couldn't get over the fact we've been doing it for soooo much longer.
And better :cool
So Tampa is poised to lay rightful claim to the Cuban sandwich that's as much a part of this city's heritage as its brick streets. And Miami starts talking smack.
Typical.
Possibly miffed at the Tampa City Council's plan to make the Cuban the official "signature sandwich" Thursday, our sister city to the south is maligning how we've put together our Cubans for oh, a century or so.
Miami Mayor Tomas Regalado chuckled, according to the Miami Herald, at the salami we layer in with the ham, pork, Swiss, pickle and mustard required to make a proper Cuban.
To us, that salami slice salutes this town's proud Italian roots. But Regalado scoffs that salami "is for pizza."
And, really? You plan to win a food culture war with salami pizza as your standard for what's normal?
Miami is my hometown and Tampa my home. I love both, but they couldn't be more different. When I was growing up down there, the clash of cultures could be fractious, so it was interesting to move to a town with a Latin Quarter long integrated by a blend of Cuban, Spanish and Italian immigrants.
So take this, Miami: Research indicates Tampa was making what we currently call the Cuban sandwich back in the cigarmaker days — before Miami was even Miami.
Who better to ask about all this than Ybor City's own Jack Espinosa, former standup comic, sheriff's spokesman and author of the memoir Cuban Bread Crumbs? Now 80, Espinosa says when he tried to order a Cuban in Havana in the 1950s, the waiter thought he was kidding. Wasn't any sandwich made by a Cuban a Cuban sandwich? The "mixto," or mixed sandwich that became the Cuban, was a Depression sort of creation, a hearty meal made with what was at hand. Like salami.
And purists, do not be alarmed: Espinosa says when he was a kid and men talking of important matters on a front porch paid him a nickel to run over to Los Helados de Ybor for sustenance, the sandwiches he delivered included, get ready, a slice of turkey. And, you could opt for butter over mustard. Nobody spoke of mayo, and "nobody thought about lettuce and tomato unless you asked for it — when we got richer," he says. Food, like language, evolves.
I can offer this: On Saturdays when my parents worked on our boat docked on the Miami River near the Orange Bowl, I was sent down the street to pick up lunch from one of those spots where Spanish-speaking men lined the counters throwing back supercharged coffee from tiny cups. On the menu: Media noche, ham and mixto sandwiches. Cubans? Nada.
In Miami, I never tasted the kind of bread that makes a true Cuban here, baked at places like La Segunda Central Bakery in long loaves with a palmetto palm frond to split the center. Miami bread was good, just different, like arguing the superiority of gulf beaches versus Atlantic ones.
It is civic pride, then, that makes us fierce about food, declaring that our town alone makes the only real barbecue or chili or cheese steaks. Food threads a city's history. In Tampa, that's the Cuban.
So maybe we can settle this over steaming cups of cafe con leche with our Miami friends. Probably they won't know to dunk their buttered Cuban toast in it like they're supposed to, but we can show them. Tampa's friendly like that.
And better :cool
So Tampa is poised to lay rightful claim to the Cuban sandwich that's as much a part of this city's heritage as its brick streets. And Miami starts talking smack.
Typical.
Possibly miffed at the Tampa City Council's plan to make the Cuban the official "signature sandwich" Thursday, our sister city to the south is maligning how we've put together our Cubans for oh, a century or so.
Miami Mayor Tomas Regalado chuckled, according to the Miami Herald, at the salami we layer in with the ham, pork, Swiss, pickle and mustard required to make a proper Cuban.
To us, that salami slice salutes this town's proud Italian roots. But Regalado scoffs that salami "is for pizza."
And, really? You plan to win a food culture war with salami pizza as your standard for what's normal?
Miami is my hometown and Tampa my home. I love both, but they couldn't be more different. When I was growing up down there, the clash of cultures could be fractious, so it was interesting to move to a town with a Latin Quarter long integrated by a blend of Cuban, Spanish and Italian immigrants.
So take this, Miami: Research indicates Tampa was making what we currently call the Cuban sandwich back in the cigarmaker days — before Miami was even Miami.
Who better to ask about all this than Ybor City's own Jack Espinosa, former standup comic, sheriff's spokesman and author of the memoir Cuban Bread Crumbs? Now 80, Espinosa says when he tried to order a Cuban in Havana in the 1950s, the waiter thought he was kidding. Wasn't any sandwich made by a Cuban a Cuban sandwich? The "mixto," or mixed sandwich that became the Cuban, was a Depression sort of creation, a hearty meal made with what was at hand. Like salami.
And purists, do not be alarmed: Espinosa says when he was a kid and men talking of important matters on a front porch paid him a nickel to run over to Los Helados de Ybor for sustenance, the sandwiches he delivered included, get ready, a slice of turkey. And, you could opt for butter over mustard. Nobody spoke of mayo, and "nobody thought about lettuce and tomato unless you asked for it — when we got richer," he says. Food, like language, evolves.
I can offer this: On Saturdays when my parents worked on our boat docked on the Miami River near the Orange Bowl, I was sent down the street to pick up lunch from one of those spots where Spanish-speaking men lined the counters throwing back supercharged coffee from tiny cups. On the menu: Media noche, ham and mixto sandwiches. Cubans? Nada.
In Miami, I never tasted the kind of bread that makes a true Cuban here, baked at places like La Segunda Central Bakery in long loaves with a palmetto palm frond to split the center. Miami bread was good, just different, like arguing the superiority of gulf beaches versus Atlantic ones.
It is civic pride, then, that makes us fierce about food, declaring that our town alone makes the only real barbecue or chili or cheese steaks. Food threads a city's history. In Tampa, that's the Cuban.
So maybe we can settle this over steaming cups of cafe con leche with our Miami friends. Probably they won't know to dunk their buttered Cuban toast in it like they're supposed to, but we can show them. Tampa's friendly like that.
I have a much bigger and more powerful button
Replies
1/2 a cuban and a crab roll with texas pete for lunch and i won't eat dinner that night.
what he said!
Local older couple used to own a convenience story in which that was featured.
They apparently sold out some months ago and the new owner no longer offers.
:banghead
A southeast Florida laid back beach bum and volunteer bikini assessor who lives on island time.
Baked (not boiled) ham, Roast pork, Swiss cheese, pickle slices on a good Cuban bread with mustard (NO mayo), buttered on the outside and pressed till the cheese starts to melt, cut diagonally. Forget the lettuce, tomato and salami :puke And don't chintz on the meat.
So I have a feeling the part of not having a cuban sammich, in Cuba, might have been embellished a bit.
Call yours what you want, a cuban to me hast no salami.
Something about the bread used in Miami have most folks rating the Miami sammich much lower.
Its all relative really
It was funny listenting to the Mayor of Miami "battle" it out on the radio with our representative
What makes it so good down heya is the roast pork. You really have to find a place that has good roast pork, fer the sammich to be good.
My brother's wife makes the La Pierna, and along with the roast pork, the best thing is dipping soft cuban bread into the drippings/mojo/grease. It'll stick to your ribs fer sure.
except it aint a cuban sandwich. its a tampa cuban sandwich. yuck.
tell that trAd!
You would be assuming wrong. The best Tampa Cubans are made with La Segunda bread, baked since 1915 by four generations of the same family.
http://lasegundabakery.com/index.php
Read this to see how serious the Columbia restaurant is about the meat in their cubans.
http://www.tampabay.com/news/business/retail/article1119309.ece
Don't read this story if you're hungry:
http://cltampa.com/dailyloaf/archives/2010/10/19/the-cuban-sandwich-diaries-a-lifelong-obsession-with-tampas-finest-sandwich#.T578n9nFBK0
I like a Medianoche too
Try again. Tampa was incorporated over 40 years before Miami; Ybor City alone was bigger than Miami in 1890 (Miami population: 861).
And yes it starts with La Segunda Cuban bread (and has been that way forever)....it has all the regular Cuban essentials including roast pork, and yes we do put salami on it, but if you're like me and don't like the peppercorns, you just take the salami off and chunk it. And it only has mustard. But in all honesty, we sell the most in the southwest Florida area, and they all want the salami....(I guess it's a Tampa thing)...but I'm not complaining, we make tons of 'em and sell most of them there. The whole southwest coast.
We used to make a Havana Melt...which is basically the same Cuban without the salami. We also make a Grill to go Cuban wrapped in parchment paper, so it can go on a grill press.....now that is the best way to eat one by far. You can also do the same at home by putting a little butter on top and bottom of your Cuban sandwich, and grilling it with a george foreman type grill, unless you have a panini press.
They're pretty dang good for a convenience store sandwich.....for an on the go treat, nuke it for about 40 seconds so the cheese slightly melts....on the boat just eat 'em cold :thumbsup
I just had one for lunch today...:wink
Oh...and a side note....a good and flattened out piece of La Segunda Cuban bread...makes a killer grilled cheese sandwich :full
...just sayin'.....
you have heard the little ditty 'bout assuming, right?
I make them at home with a press.
So, is salami official or not on a Cuban?