Ah, the blind taste test. We always look forward to this annual adventure: the fun, the camaraderie, the free lunch. In past years we've rated wings and french fries, but this time we decided to go with something more or less indigenous: the Cuban sandwich.
I would like to include here a verifiable history of the Cuban sandwich. I cannot. Although the tasty torpedoes have long been considered a Tampa treasure, their origins have also been linked to Miami. (The general consensus is that the Cuban was not developed in Cuba.) Trolling the Internet, I did find a nugget from the St. Petersburg Times claiming that the sandwich was "formulated in Tampa's Ybor City around 1900 as a 15-cent lunch for the Cuban immigrants who worked in cigar factories."
We'll go with that.
We bought sandwiches from eight restaurants, chosen on the basis of reputation, word-of-mouth and personal experience. Taste-testing proved more difficult than previous surveys. One judge summed up the challenge like this: "Eating eight tiny bites of different Cuban sandwiches is like trying to make love to a woman through a screen door. Wholly unsatisfying."
Nevertheless, we ate with relish, as the stains on our ratings sheets attest (staff writer Max Linksy's was the greasiest). We used a standard 1-10 scale (although one particularly waffly judge granted .5s).
It was clear that the definitive Cuban did not exist in the minds of our panel. Does a Cuban have turkey in it? How about mayo? A couple of judges were put off by the appearance of Swiss cheese, even though most recipes call for it.
One guest Cuban joined Planet editorial staffers for the tasting: Jack Espinoza, the long-time public information officer (now retired) for the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office. Jack was raised in Ybor City (he is positive that Cuban sandwiches were invented there); his father came over from Spain, his mother from Cuba, which was Cuban enough for our purposes. Besides, Jack wore a guyabera for the occasion.
Here are the results of our blind, but certainly not scientific, taste test. We stand by our choices. Hey, the winner and runner-up both start with "La."
Winner
La Ideal – 6.1
The consensus on this sandwich was that it melded its flavors together beautifully. "Great meat – chipped ham and real roasted pork," wrote one taste-tester. Thick but not bloated, moist but not sloppy, La Ideal's Cuban found an inspired balance. Our most enthusiastic participant summed it up: "…All comes together for a delicious explosion in my mouth."
2924 W. Tampa Bay Blvd., Tampa, 813-870-0150
Runner Up
La Teresita – 5.82
This baby was loaded. "Nice, full, sloppy," remarked one judge. Folks noticed the strong presence of Swiss cheese – some thought it overpowered, others felt it made the sandwich stand out. A few thought La Teresita went too heavy on the mayo, but one added the caveat, "not that there's anything wrong with that."
3246 W. Columbus Drive, Tampa, 813-879-9704
The Rest
Wright's Gourmet House – 5.77
It appears that most of our tasters preferred a thick Cuban, and this one fit the bill. "Lots of stuff in the middle," commented one; "all the pig options well represented: salami, ham, pork," said another. "By far, the most flavor," wrote one, who rated the sandwich a 9, the highest individual grade given by anyone on our panel.
1200 S. Dale Mabry, Tampa, 813-253-3325
Hugo's Spanish Restaurant – 5.1
There was a wide range of opinion here: One tester thought it had "a little too much ham, but [was] flavorful and fat." Others complained that Hugo's Cuban was skimpy on the meat. Some of us missed the pork ("one thin slice doth not a Cuban make"), while others bemoaned the dominance of tomato ("one tomato is OK, but seven is a problem").
931 S. Howard Ave., Tampa, 813-251-2842
Deli News Café – 5.1
The perennial winner of Best Cuban Sandwich in the Planet's Best of the Bay Readers' Poll did not fare as well with our judges. Some testers were perplexed by a preponderance of turkey and little or no pork. One member of the panel summed it up thusly: "Like a deli ham sandwich in a crusty bread; something's missing." One judge liked it best, however: "a confectionary delight compared to the rest."
680 Main St., Dunedin, 727-735-0505
4th of July Café – 4.7
"Where's the beef?" complained one taster. "It's supposed to be a Cuban sandwich, not Cuban sandwich-flavored bread." Speaking of bread, though, this one did get a few nods for its quality, which was crisp and pleasantly chewy, but never gummy.
1611 N. Howard Ave., Tampa, 813-254-2278
Caribbean Café – 4.3
The cheese took the worst hits here. "Government cheese on barely crusted, unpressed bread," wrote one judge. "Dominated by McDonald's-like cheese," added another. Still another summed up the Caribbean Café Cuban as "completely lackluster."
4801 Central Ave., St. Petersburg, 727-327-7202
7-Eleven – 3.8
We added this one in hopes of tricking folks, and a couple judges thought the sandwich was passable. But everyone else nailed the 7-Eleven Cuban for the fraud that it was. The most glaring problem was that it was made on something other than Cuban bread – not a sub roll exactly, but a blob of dough that appeared to have been made in a lab by someone looking at a bad picture of Cuban bread. One taster gave the sandwich a 1 because of the pickle, but said "the rest tasted like death."
This article appears in Jun 15-21, 2005.
