Cuban Sandwich

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Felicity took me to the counter top Havana Chelsea on 8th Ave. near 19th St. It was delicious. Is this the best Cuban sandwich in NYC? If not, where is it? I'm sure there's gotta be some good ones around me (EV/LES) but I haven't tried any out.

― Mary (Mary), Tuesday, 21 October 2003 00:18 (twenty-one years ago)

Anxious to hear new answers, please.

Tim H was also introduced to the wonders of the Cuban sandwich at the just-recently crappified Viva! Cuba. But the lunch counter of Havana Chelsea seems more authentic. Is it?

― felicity (felicity), Tuesday, 21 October 2003 00:40 (twenty-one years ago)

Where/what is Viva! Cuba?

― Mary (Mary), Tuesday, 21 October 2003 00:50 (twenty-one years ago)

On 8th Avenue at 20th just up the street from the counter. They make the cake with 3 leches but the menu looks all different so I'm not sure how good it is.

― felicity (felicity), Tuesday, 21 October 2003 01:14 (twenty-one years ago)

There's this great Cuban sammich place in Glendale that Mr. Barrus and I investigated a couple of years back. Wish I could recall the name...

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 21 October 2003 01:24 (twenty-one years ago)

The Hard Grove Cafe in JC makes good ones.

― tokyo rosemary (rosemary), Tuesday, 21 October 2003 01:31 (twenty-one years ago)

I want one.

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Tuesday, 21 October 2003 02:22 (twenty-one years ago)

As well you should.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 21 October 2003 02:27 (twenty-one years ago)

I don't know from Cuban sandwiches, but I can second R. Sietsema's citation of the Camarones al Ajillo at Sophie's Cuban Cafe downtown (I don't have a downtown agenda; I just live there).

― gabbneb (gabbneb), Tuesday, 21 October 2003 02:28 (twenty-one years ago)

There's that one on Houston & like Ave B or A or something that has okay Cuban sandwiches in a pinch... and one in Park Slope that's okay too. 6th Ave and maybe 11th street in Brooklyn

― phil-two (phil-two), Tuesday, 21 October 2003 03:02 (twenty-one years ago)

Omigod Phil do you mean the Spanish restaurant on the south west corner of Houston and Ave. B? I once got some sloppy rice gruel from them and have been afeared of them ever since. But as I pass them everyday I could try them again for C.S. maybe.... But when they mess up rice+beans it does make you wonder...I wonder if the Puerto Rican restaurant on Ave. C has Cuban sandwiches...and also if my Dominican rice+beans joint on Rivington does...

What are those Puerto Rican (?) overfried crisp large yellowish things with meat inside of them called--they sell them from carts around Ave C...I had one once...You can also see them through the window of a shop on the north side of Houston and Ave. C I think...

― Mary (Mary), Tuesday, 21 October 2003 03:36 (twenty-one years ago)

The Glendale Cuban place must be Porto's, and it indeed rocks. I recently tried the Atlantic Cafe and it is great as well, but I didn't get any sammich.

― nickn (nickn), Tuesday, 21 October 2003 05:14 (twenty-one years ago)

umm... forgive the ignorance but how does a Cuban Sandwich differ from a regular sandwich?

― Guy Incognito, Tuesday, 21 October 2003 09:02 (twenty-one years ago)

Sandwich Cubano

― Mary (Mary), Tuesday, 21 October 2003 09:10 (twenty-one years ago)

Cafe Margon, 46th St between 6th and Times Square, has great Cuban sandwiches (must roll the "r"), rrrrrrrred beans and rrrrice, beef stew, you know the drill. They have INCREDIBLE pork chops if you go on pork-chop day (the specials are different every day). Unbelievable octopus salad can be got at all times

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Tuesday, 21 October 2003 10:09 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm looking forward to finding these in Miami.

― chris (chris), Tuesday, 21 October 2003 12:26 (twenty-one years ago)

There exists in my little city of Lexington ONE place that serves BOMB DIGGITTY Cuban sammiches, they stay open kinda late, and they're located next door to one of my favorite karaoke joints in town. I miss Wednesday nights on that strip.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Tuesday, 21 October 2003 13:04 (twenty-one years ago)

Is the Cuban sandwich anything like the Cuban necktie?

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Tuesday, 21 October 2003 13:14 (twenty-one years ago)

I'll heartily, happily second gabbneb's citation of Sophie's on Pearl St, downtown. I used to temp down there and Sophie's Cuban was by far the best food option in the financial district. It's insanely busy at lunchtime, though.

― Hurlothrumbo (hurlothrumbo), Tuesday, 21 October 2003 13:19 (twenty-one years ago)

Please add "sandwich" following "Cuban" above.

― Hurlothrumbo (hurlothrumbo), Tuesday, 21 October 2003 13:20 (twenty-one years ago)

"Cuban Sandwich" sounds impossibly dirty, sorry.

― teeny (teeny), Tuesday, 21 October 2003 14:01 (twenty-one years ago)

Oh my god Dan I had forgotten all about the "Cuban necktie". The 'highlight' (if you can call it that) of my 7th grade school year was giving a "cuban necktie" to a frog we were dissecting in my biology class.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Tuesday, 21 October 2003 14:10 (twenty-one years ago)

ewwwww nick!

― teeny (teeny), Tuesday, 21 October 2003 14:10 (twenty-one years ago)

Hey that's not so bad considering how my lab partner decided to conclude that dissection*.

*ie by throwing the frog carcass across the room at a girl he liked

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Tuesday, 21 October 2003 14:19 (twenty-one years ago)

WUV

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 21 October 2003 14:31 (twenty-one years ago)

Yea Mary! That's it! I usually end up there really drunk, so maybe I'm just tasting these Cuban Sandwiches with beer-tongue. Who knows.

I'll check out this Cafe Margon for lunch someday - I go bonkers for good pork chops

― phil-two (phil-two), Tuesday, 21 October 2003 14:31 (twenty-one years ago)

Here
is my friend Brett's favorite restaurant in the world for a Cuban sandwich (NB: this venue has made him the cause for many hours of ridicule and tease for many years).

― gygax! (gygax!), Tuesday, 21 October 2003 15:45 (twenty-one years ago)

haha, it made me laugh to see this thread because I immediately thought of him and made a joke at his expense.

― gygax! (gygax!), Tuesday, 21 October 2003 15:46 (twenty-one years ago)

oh man, phil. they R the bomb. around lunchtime it's always crowded because the place is tiny but the turnover is fast, so don't sweat it. by the time you pay up there's usually a table - or a seat at a table - free. GODDAMN I MISS NEW YORK.

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Tuesday, 21 October 2003 16:39 (twenty-one years ago)

I want to eat at a Hooters.

― felicity (felicity), Tuesday, 21 October 2003 17:33 (twenty-one years ago)

I did one time. It was because our car crashed really near it. I swear. Nobody believed us, though. I was like "do you really think we crashed our car near a Hooters just so we would have an excuse to go there??" And they just looked at me, shaking their heads, like "sad isn't it, how these men will justify their behavior."

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Tuesday, 21 October 2003 17:42 (twenty-one years ago)

The thing that I remember is that the tickets for each order hang on a wire that runs the length of a long counter on the side of the dining room, like a little zip-line. The waitresses have to reach up and sling the tickets down to the other end when the order comes in. The wire is at such a height that the waitresses can barely reach it, requiring them to face away from the room and stand right on their tiptoes.

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Tuesday, 21 October 2003 17:59 (twenty-one years ago)

Has anyone had the Cuban sandwich's cousin, the medianoche? I would like one right now please.

― Mary (Mary), Tuesday, 21 October 2003 22:29 (twenty-one years ago)

There's this great Cuban sammich place in Glendale that Mr. Barrus and I investigated a couple of years back. Wish I could recall the name...

That would be Portos. Cafe Atlantic in Pasadena is also a big big must stop.

― Elvis Telecom (Chris Barrus), Friday, 24 October 2003 22:21 (twenty-one years ago)

are there hooters in nyc? it seems superfluous somehow.

― mohammed abba (dubplatestyle), Saturday, 25 October 2003 01:36 (twenty-one years ago)

NYC = ass town.
Best Cuban sandwich: across
from City College,

I think Broadway and
137th
Street. O so sublime.

― Haikunym (Haikunym), Saturday, 25 October 2003 01:49 (twenty-one years ago)

somebody told me to go to cafe habana @ elizabeth & prince (i think) but it was more for the corn, i don't know about sandwich

― ron (ron), Saturday, 25 October 2003 04:48 (twenty-one years ago)

I had the one at Clinton, recommended by Phil, for dinner tonight. It was passable non-drunk, so I can see how it would be good post-drunk. However, it comes nowhere near the one I had at Havana Chelsea. This one was sorta like a regular submarine sandwich, 'cept grosser.

― Mary (Mary), Saturday, 25 October 2003 06:13 (twenty-one years ago)

four weeks pass...

There is indeed a Hooters in NYC. Last winter I jokingly suggested it as a venue for a FAP regular's birthday after spotting an ad for it on a taxi.

Anyway, in thirty minutes or so I will be eating a Cuban sandwich yum yum.

― tokyo rosemary (rosemary), Sunday, 23 November 2003 17:49 (twenty-one years ago)

I had the Cuban Sandwich at the Dominican place on Rivington -- it wasn't bad, but not as good as the Chelsea one. In Chelsea, all the ingredients seemed to run together, where as the other C.S.'s parts seem to remain distinct. Maybe it was the to-go wrapper in Chelsea that concealed the insides though?

― Mary (Mary), Sunday, 23 November 2003 20:26 (twenty-one years ago)

four months pass...

http://www.eeenterprises.net/images/LouisvilleNews1.jpg

― Dada, Monday, 5 April 2004 18:25 (twenty-one years ago)

four years pass...

I've been sick with the flu all week and right now I only want the roast pork from Guantanamera in Burbank. I'm going to get some more right now

― Elvis Telecom, Friday, 2 May 2008 22:36 (seventeen years ago)

i want cuban sandwich.
for the longest time I thought this thing had another name besides just "cuban sandwich?"

― El Tomboto, Friday, 2 May 2008 23:27 (seventeen years ago)

pics please

― fields of salmon, Friday, 2 May 2008 23:30 (seventeen years ago)

I want the cuban sandwich and chickpea salad from the cuban cafe on smith st in brooklyn, so very good.

― Ed, Friday, 2 May 2008 23:32 (seventeen years ago)

LOS AMIGOS VIEJOS ON VANDERBILT.

― ian, Saturday, 3 May 2008 00:22 (seventeen years ago)

The Hooters was actually outside Hagerstown MD

― Tracer Hand, Saturday, 3 May 2008 00:28 (seventeen years ago)

I still wand a cuban sandwich, this is not going to be fulfilled in London.

― Ed, Saturday, 3 May 2008 09:48 (seventeen years ago)

http://www.gwiv.com/CafeSalamera26.jpg

― Granny Dainger, Saturday, 3 May 2008 20:13 (seventeen years ago)

It's the best sandwich in the world, second (maybe) to a media noche. Come to Miami, guys, and I'll buy you a few.

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Saturday, 3 May 2008 20:21 (seventeen years ago)

I am getting there, I have marinaded my pernil, baked my cuban bread. I shall have cuban sandwich tonight, damnit.

― Ed, Monday, 5 May 2008 14:47 (seventeen years ago)

God i miss Margon

― Tracer Hand, Monday, 5 May 2008 14:49 (seventeen years ago)

Dainger, that looks delicious, but it's an awfully funny looking Cuban sandwich.

― Laurel, Monday, 5 May 2008 14:51 (seventeen years ago)

http://www.roadfood.com/photos/5151.jpg

http://www.roadfood.com/Reviews/Overview.aspx?RefID=2197

― Tracer Hand, Monday, 5 May 2008 14:51 (seventeen years ago)

Dainger's photo looks like they used some kind of flattened PLANTAIN isntead of bread??!

― Tracer Hand, Monday, 5 May 2008 14:52 (seventeen years ago)

yep, that's it exactly. it's called a jibarito. never had one, but they're pretty popular in Chicago (pretty sure they were invented here).

― Granny Dainger, Monday, 5 May 2008 15:27 (seventeen years ago)

(whoops, it was invented by a Puerto Rican)

― Granny Dainger, Monday, 5 May 2008 15:29 (seventeen years ago)

not mutually exclusive!

― Tracer Hand, Monday, 5 May 2008 15:38 (seventeen years ago)

Yeah wow:

Here, the words jibaro (HEE-bar-oh) and its diminutive, jibarito, conjure up a culinary masterpiece that when done properly first hits your nose with its fragrant smear of garlic oil wafting off hot, crisp, fried plantains. These eclair-size plantain planks taste like a nuttier, denser version of french fries, holding between them a hot, juicy piece of steak, slices of cold tomatoes, fresh, crisp lettuce and creamy mayonnaise.

― G00blar, Monday, 5 May 2008 17:20 (seventeen years ago)

sweet jesus i want one.

― ian, Monday, 5 May 2008 17:34 (seventeen years ago)

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