The Cuban Sandwich
In honor of Stuck on the Palmetto's poll this week asking readers for their favorite Cuban sandwiches, we thought we'd delve a bit into the history of Miami's favorite sandwich.
The story we'd heard most often was that the sandwich -- slices of roast pork, sweet ham, Swiss cheese, pickles and yellow mustard pressed on Cuban bread -- is a creation of the Cuban community in Tampa (Ybor City to be exact) in the first half of the twentieth century. But a quick search on Wikipedia, that ever-reliable source (hey, it finds out about murders before the police do!), reveals that the sandwiches were popular in Cuba in the early 1900s; the sandwich likely came to Tampa with the immigrants, where they started talking to some Italians who suggested adding yet another pork product to the sandwich: Genoa salami.
The place to get Cuban sandwiches now, of course, is Miami. Specifically, we're big fans of the ones at Sergio's and La Carreta. There's always Versailles of course, but we go there more for the ambiance than the sandwiches.
Sergio's [MenuPages]
La Carreta [MenuPages]
La Carreta [Official Site]
Versailles [MenuPages]
