For years, Tampa and Miami have every claimed possession over the Cuban Sandwich. Three researchers dug into historic knowledge and arrived at a conclusion to settle the controversy.
SARAH MCCAMMON, HOST:
Two Florida cities have fought for years over one sandwich – the Cuban. Miami and Tampa each declare to be its hometown. We spoke with two of the three researchers who inform the story of the sandwich’s journey to the U.S. and its evolution. They now have a brand new ebook known as “The Cuban Sandwich: A Historical past In Layers.” The culinary layers can typically be disputed. Inside Cuban bread, you will discover seasoned pork, candy ham, Swiss cheese, a pickle and mustard, and typically even salami.
ANDY HUSE: I am Andy Huse. I am the curator of Florida research on the College of South Florida Libraries.
BARBARA CRUZ: And good afternoon. My identify is Barbara Cruz, and I am professor of social science schooling on the College of South Florida.
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CRUZ: In the end, the Cuban sandwich is an immigrant story. It was born in Cuba from the mixto – actually blended sandwich – and by means of cigar staff going to Key West, then coming to Ybor Metropolis and Tampa. After which, by 1950, Miami turns into the most important metropolis in Florida. And naturally, by the top of that decade, the Cuban revolution outcomes on this enormous inflow of Cuban immigrants coming to Miami. And the sandwich, once more, you understand, modifications.
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CRUZ: So all of those completely different waves add to the sandwich differently.
HUSE: Havana, I feel, conceived it, it is secure to say, however Tampa actually curated it for a very long time. They tinkered with the sandwich, however they came across – I might say, by the ’40s and ’50s – a reasonably secure creation that usually included turkey and virtually at all times included salami. And we checked out sandwiches in Cuba, and in 1950, there was that actual sandwich. So, you understand, for individuals wanting again and saying, oh, that is anathema – how may you place salami on a Cuban sandwich? Nicely, you understand, it wasn’t – that wasn’t invented in Tampa. , that variation – it had been round for a very long time.
CRUZ: I used to be born in Cuba, I used to be raised in Miami, and I’ve spent the majority of my grownup life in Tampa, so I actually and actually have been in all three locations. And I can inform you that, for the longest time, I actually type of grew up on a Miami Cuban sandwich. The bread may be very completely different than the bread that’s utilized in Tampa. So it is crispier, and it actually would not have salami in it.
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CRUZ: The bread in Tampa – once I obtained right here, I used to be shocked that it was a lot crustier and, once you press it in la plancha – the iron – it comes off completely different.
HUSE: That flourish – that type of final thing – so many individuals assume, you understand, you can not have a Cuban sandwich with out it being pressed. I am not essentially one in all them, though I want it pressed.
CRUZ: Nicely, I will take a stand and say that the Cuban sandwich should be pressed, and I am going to inform you why – as a result of I feel it makes it a lot much less unwieldy, and it is at all times, at all times lower on a really sharp diagonal, and so you may have virtually two triangles. These two factors of the triangle are crucial for dunking in a robust and candy cafe con leche, and that would solely be achieved if it is pressed.
HUSE: And you have got this concept that – to what extent does the Cuban sandwich nonetheless belong to Cuba? And to what extent has it develop into actually a totem of exile in Miami and past? And so one of many issues that – I do not know – is expressed within the ebook a number of occasions is, is when is the sandwich going to return to Cuba, and when are individuals going to have the ability to, you understand, afford a easy delicacy like that once more?
MCCAMMON: Andy Huse and Barbara Cruz. Their new ebook is “The Cuban Sandwich.” So which is the best Cuban sandwich? They are saying it is the one which tastes like dwelling to you.
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