Tampa's Treasure: A Cuban Sandwich

Tampa's Treasure: A Cuban Sandwich

The Cuban sandwich, also known as the "Cubano," is a popular meal in south Florida where many Cubans have settled since the early 20th century. These tasty, toasted Cuban sandwiches are definitely Tampa and Miami, Florida's favorite snack. These treats can be found in most restaurants in these cities, but the best places to buy them are from the street corner-snack bars, called "loncherias."

Every Cuban sandwich enthusiast believes that their own version of this sandwich is the best. In fact, they are usually so very passionate about this that  readily debate among themselves the finer points of how to make a Cuban sandwich. No visit to Tampa would be complete without sampling the city's claim to fame, the wonderful Cuban sandwich. 

The sandwiches have a layering of ham, roast pork, cheese & pickle between a sliced length of Cuban bread. The sandwiches are sold as grande (large) 12" long or as a Cubanocito (small) 8"long. You can have a great or a good, Cuban Sandwich. The difference iwhether or not you have heated & pressed or cold (room temp). Your great Cuban sandwich is grilled in a a "plancha" or sandwich press until the ham, pork & pickles have warmed in their own steam. It is the steady application weight combined with the heat & steam that fuses the meat, cheese, pickles & bread into a delicious, crunchy & compact delight. It is the greatest of sins in making a Cuban sandwich to press too lightly on the press. It is a heavy hand that causes the juices & flavors to mingle as one while also achieving the desired crunchy bread crust. Cuban sandwiches by nature use no mayonnaise, lettuce, onions, bell peppers, or tomatoes but butter & mustard are often used.  Cuban sandwiches are pressed) or cold. Originally they were the lunch of the cigar factory workers without benefit of refrigeration so no mayonnaise was used.

Cuban sandwiches are not made of ordinary bread but only with Cuban bread baked in an oven with the palm frond strand wrapped around it. When that burns away the bread is ready!. Believers say that true Cuban bread cannot be found outside of Tampa or Miami. Cuban bread is best when it is eaten on the same day that it is made because Cuban bread is made using lard. In a day or 2 the lard hardens & the bread gets dry. In Cuba, this sandwich is not known as a Cuban sandwich, but rather is simply called "sandwich." This sandwich has been a Cuban tradition since the early 1500's. In Cuba when regular ham was not available or was to expensive, "jamonada" a form of chopped ham, was used to make the bread.

Another important trait of the Cuban sandwich is that something that makes it so different & that is the " La Plancha" that toasts the sandwich to make it crispy & warm. The best bread is called the "pan agua" or water bread, which toasts up better in the plancha.

How the Cuban Sandwich came to Florida is not hard to figure out.

1870's - Because Cuba is only 90 miles from Florida, many Cubans moved to Key West, Florida in the late 1800's to escape Spanish Rule. Cuban cigar makers also sought a safer place to manufacture their cigars. There were 29 factories with 2000+ employees producing 171,000 cigars a day in Key West in the 1880's. This marked the beginning of a significant Cuban influence in Key West as well as the rest of Florida that continues today.

1886 - Among the first of the large factories to come to Key West was "El Principe de Gales" owned by Vincente Martinez Ybor. In 1886, Mr. Ybor's cigar factory was destroyed by a fire. After the fire, Mr. Ybor, was induced by a committee from Tampa to mov his factory there. This was the beginning of Tampa's coming to be a cigar manufacturing center. This was also the beginning of Ybor City in Tampa & the end of the cigar industry in Key West. From the opening of the first cigar factory in 1886 until the 1930's, Ybor City was a flourishing Latin community and was the "Cigar Capital of the World." One of Tampa's nicknames is the "Cigar City." As a result of several severe depressions in Cuba, 1000's of Cubans immigrated, to Tampa. This fact later caused Ybor City to be called the "Havana" of America" by the Florida Branch of the Federal Writers Project Archives in 1941.

These sandwiches were very popular with the Cubans cigar workers in the many cigar factories. Back then you could buy a sandwich for selling for 15 cents. As the Italians entered the area their wonderful Genoa salami was added to the Cuban sandwiches of the Tampa area.  From the late 1800's thru the 1940's, the major ethnic groups of Ybor City were Cubans & Italians.

1896 - Tampa's first bakery, La Joven Francesca Bakery, to bake Cuban was established by an Sicilan, Francisco Ferlita in 1896. This bakery was a major source of the community's daily bread with bread selling for 3 cents & 5 cents a loaf.
It was in 1922 that a fire destroyed the bakery, leaving only the brick oven standing. Ferlita rebuilt with a larger bakery & every morning the delivery boys distributed fresh bread throughout the community. A nail was nailed up on the outside wall of the houses & the delivery boys would slap the Cuban bread against wall on the nail. The wall-hung bread would be waiting for the customer to take inside upon awakening. Firemen would come to get free hot Cuban bread to take back to the fire station. It was a custom for people to congregate at the bakery to catch up on local news & drink "café Cubano con leche" the famous Cuban coffee. It was not unusual for this to begin in the middle of the night even while the bakers were kneading & baking the bread. This bakery produced 1500 loaves of bread per day.
The bakery closed in 1973 & reopened as the Ybor City State Museum in 1974 that forms part of the museum complex & is now known as the Ferlita Bakery.

1915 - Today, the La Segunda, a 3rd-generation, family-owned bakery produces the bulk of Tampa's Cuban bread. The original bakery opened in 1915. This particular Cuban bread was baked by Juan More', the bakery's founder who migrated from Cuba after the Spanish-American War. The formula came from a particular town in Cuba & its truly unlike anything other bread around. The 3-ft. long loaves have a crisp & flaky crust with a "bloom" down the center of the loaf. This is caused by placing a long palm frond atop the doughy loaves after proofing & when it burns away in the baking, the bread is ready.

There are annual contests where makers of Cuban sandwiches in Tampa enter their sandwiches. Winners always see a boom in their business until the next year. Some have won for years in row. If you visit Tampa you must try the truly wonderful lunch of Cuban bread, Spanish bean soup, a serving of Flan Cubano & a cup or 3 of Café Cuban con leche!

Copyright © 2008-2009 Donald R Houston, PhD. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed without the author's consent.