With Patrick O'Neill
If you have ever been to the Cuban areas of Miami or Ybor City in Tampa, Florida, you may have eaten a Cuban Sandwich, Sandwich Cubano, or simply a Cuban as many call it. Even if you have not tried one, you have probably seen signs for the sandwich because it is very popular, so popular in fact that it creates endless discussions about who has the best. Every once in a while, and it seems to be happening more and more, a version of the sandwich will pop up somewhere else, even here in New England.
It might seem strange that one of the closest to the authentic Cuban North of Boston is at the Grog. After all, the Grog is the current iteration of an eating establishment that goes back to just after the Civil War, when a "Ladies and Gents Eating and Oyster House" opened and remained in operation until prohibition. After prohibition was repealed, Spud Leary opened the Pilot House, serving the public until 1964. By 1969 it was acquired by its present owners and re-named The Grog, after the English Navy's traditional ration of rum and water.
Executive Chef Patrick O’Neill at the Grog assures that their version is based on the original, authentic Cuban as he learned it growing up in Southern Florida. It is a simple sandwich in many ways, and even if you are not in Southern Florida and the Tampa area, nearly all of the ingredients can be obtained in the supermarkets except for one, the Cuban bread. Cuban bread is similar to a French or Italian Baquette, but is lighter in texture. (It has a hard, thin, almost papery toasted crust and a soft flaky middle).
The other ingredients are simple yellow mustard (the pure yellow variety), thinly sliced pickles, sliced Swiss cheese, sliced ham and last but not least, roast pork loin. The idea is to take your leftover roasted pork from the previous days meal and add it as the last ingredient. From using only yellow mustard, yesterday’s roast pork loin and a roll similar to Cuban bread, Chef Patrick’s sandwich comes as close as it gets to the original in this area.
The other unique aspect to this sandwich is the grilling. A Cuban is sandwich is heated in a sandwich press, which is called a “plancha”, which is similar to a panini press but without the grooved surfaces. The plancha both heats and compresses the sandwich, which remains in the press until the bread is crispy, the insides are warm and the cheese is melted.
One warning, the Cuban sandwich has many of the elements for creating a food addiction.
