Cuban sandwiches

Cafe Society
1

I love a good Cuban sandwich. I’ve had some really good ones in Ybor City, never really spent any time in Miami. I’ve had good Cuban sandwiches and pale imitations in my home state of NY as well as around the country. Ham, pork, Swiss cheese, pickle and mustard on Cuban bread. The bread is key. I mean, it’s hard to fuck up a sandwich with ham, pork and Swiss as its main ingredients, but the bread is what can transform a good sandwich into culinary perfection.

I was reminded of the possibility of “holy fuck” good food in the recent Most overrated foodstuff thread. Earlier this summer, I was traveling with a co-worker in Orlando. We had more than a few hours to catch a flight and it was lunch time. He suggested a Panera nearby, and I decided to check out the Restaurant Finder app on my phone. Nearby, one of the options was Havana Bistro Cafe and I was like, we’re in Florida, Havana Bistro!

Both of our phones had a bit of trouble locating the place, his finally landed us at the ass-end of a painted cinder block building and we soon after found the front. This place is a strip mall storefront restaurant in Orlando, a few miles from the airport. The kind that makes you ask; do I want to eat here? If you ever find yourself looking for a meal near the Orlando International Airport, the answer is yes.

If you like Cuban sandwiches and want a “holy fuck” Cuban sandwich experience, I can’t recommend this place highly enough. The sandwich had good ingredients. Good pork and good ham, but the bread was amazing. Cuban bread. Even when I’ve had sandwiches in Ybor, the bread wasn’t like this and it was definitely unlike anything I’ve had anywhere else in the country.

My co-worker got the meats and sides lunch and loved his meal as well. He thanked the mother running the place (very much a family operation) and sincerely complimented her for her food. No joke, she got teary and started speaking Spanish and crying so we couldn’t understand her. The entire experience was so completely atypical of a $15 lunch for two people, I just had to share it.

If you’re in Orlando anytime soon, do yourself a favor and grab a lunch here. I promise you won’t regret it.

2

I haven’t had a good Cuban sandwich since I left Florida in 1972.

Your post has me wanting one! I agree, it’s all about the bread, which I can’t get here in California.
:frowning:

I do hope to return to Florida someday and a Cuban sandwich is what I want most.

3

I’m not a connoisseur by any means, but I have had my share of Cuban sandwiches here in South Florida. As much as I like the bread (and most Cuban restaurants will generously provide it gratis with loads of butter and maybe a little garlic), on the right sandwich - which means at least 16" long usually cut into four pieces - by the time you get to the fourth piece, it’s shredded the roof of your mouth, a la Cap’n Crunch.

Consequently, I almost always opt for the Media Noche sandwich if I’m in the mood for that sort of thing. It’s the same contents on a softer bread, similar to challah.

Cuban food in general deserves more worldwide appeal…ropa vieja, masas de puerco, picadillo, black beans and rice, moros, plantains, tostones…it’s ALL good.

But you haven’t lived until you’ve tasted the meat from a pig roasted Cuban-style outdoors.

4

Any place you would recommend? I don’t get down to Miami pretty much ever, but I do go to Tampa occasionally.

5

There may be restaurants that do this once in a while, but I’ve never heard of it. My experience has always been at backyard get-togethers.

You could always buy one of these and do it yourself ;).

6

There are a few places in L.A., including Cafe Tropical, which at least used to have good Cuban sandwiches. (I haven’t been there in a while, and heard they’ve declined.)