The Spring 2025 issue of Food & Dining Magazine is now available in all the familiar places: Louisville area eateries and food shops, newsstands and online (read it at issuu).
Perhaps not unexpectedly, Tripadvisor lists the best Cuban sandwiches in Louisville as coming from our local Cuban restaurants, most prominently Havana Rumba and Mojito in Havana.
Last year I spent quality time with Marcos Lorenzo, owner of the aforementioned establishments, and learned quite a lot about Kentubano culture in a kitchen context.
All of this came back to me when I saw an article by Susan B. Barnes at the Going website, formerly Scott’s Cheap Flights.
The Cuban Sandwich: An Integral Taste of Tampa History
What deep-dish pizza is to Chicago, cheesesteaks are to Philadelphia, and tacos are to Tucson, the Cuban sandwich is to Tampa—sought-after flavors of a city’s history and its people, served pressed and ready for the first bite.
Barnes offers an informative, deep dive into the Cuban sandwich; like so many mobile food ideas, Tampa deserves as much or more credit for shaping the modern Cuban sandwich than the Old Country itself, where today it is rarely possible to do it “right” owing to the scarcity of ingredients.
Happily, the Cuban sandwich now travels the globe.
In addition to variations of Cuban sandwiches in Florida and across the US, (writer Jeff) Houck references several international varieties. There’s The Cuban Sandwich Factory in Belfast, Northern Ireland, which sells a Cuban sandwich served by “a Cuban expat who missed the flavors of home,” and the Tampa Sandwich Bar in Seoul, South Korea, serves Tampa and Miami versions of the iconic sandwich, along with a Korean iteration with kimchi. The Seoul shop competed at Tampa’s annual Cuban Sandwich Festival a couple of years in a row and won awards for the best non-traditional sandwich.
Kimchi? Put me in, chef; I’m ready to eat.
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“Edibles & Potables” is Food & Dining Magazine’s Sunday slot for news and views that range beyond our customary metropolitan Louisville coverage area, as intended to be food (and drink) for thought.
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Edibles & Potables: Traditional Albanian fare at Tak-Fak in Tirana
