Tuesday, December 27, 2016

Cubano Research Part I: Tropicana Cuban Restaurant

Cubano Research Part I:
Tropicana Cuban Restaurant

So these next few food blogs entries (I’m not exactly sure how many there will be or the extent of time it will take to finish the set…so yeah…) you’re going to have to blame the movie Chef (what I’ve dubbed the food porn movie).  I've watched this movie about a dozen times and after each time, I crave a Cubano sandwich.  Until now, I've never actually gotten my lazy self up to do something about these cravings. So now, I've decided to do my own research into the subject matter of Cuban sandwiches and dishes.  If you haven't watched this movie, obviously, I highly recommend it (even if you're not a huge foodie, you'll probably enjoy it).  The movie can be found on NetFlix (no I didn't get paid to write that, in fact I don't get paid for any of these blogs).

Now I’m going to start with this huge caveat, I’m not well versed in Cuban Cuisine.  I mean, at, all.  I’ve never had a Cuban sandwich, let alone anything that is considered traditional Cuban (that I’m aware of).  So with that being said, I do not have a proper baseline for this blog, all I have are my subjective senses of smell and taste.  In other words, take this blog with a grain of salt.  If you have read and somewhat agreed with most of my blogs then you’ll probably agree with me here.  With that being said…here we go…

                What is a Cuban or Cubano sandwich?  Well if you look it up in the Oxford dictionary, it states: “A type of submarine sandwich, typically grilled, especially with ham, roast pork, Swiss cheese, mustard and pickles.”  What good ole Oxford didn’t say is that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts; at least from what I’m told, that's how it’s supposed to be.  

                Since I was eating alone, I could only order and try so much from their menu, but I decided on getting the appetizer sampler and of course, the main thing I was craving, a Cuban sandwich.  The prices were very reasonable and my server was very nice and attentive when he wasn’t busy with other tables (he was the only server for the entire restaurant). 
Their menu:

 

            The appetizer plate: “Includes a Cuban-style Tamal, Ham Croquette, Stuffed Potato and Fried Yucca.”  To be perfectly honest I’m not quite sure which appetizer item was which.  I would have asked my server what everything was, but since he was starting to get double and triple sat, I left well enough alone.  I am pretty positive that I knew which the tamale was, the empanada and the rellena were, but I’m not too sure about the rest. 
The Tamale Cubanos was a decent sized appetizer and it tasted like a Hispanic grandmother made it, so it was very tasty, though I probably wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between this Cuban tamal and a Mexican tamale.  The masa was soft and moist with just a hint of some salt and pepper.  The boiled shredded pork inside the tamal didn’t stand out, but it wasn’t bad either.  Actually this was probably the best part of the appetizer plate in my opinion.

The beef empanada had a good crispy outer shell around the outer edges, but the beef inside needed more seasoning and was a bit greasy.   To give you an example, do you remember in junior high school on sloppy Joe day?  And the amount of grease that drained out of the slotted ladle the lunch lady used before placing the meat on the cold burger bun?  Well the beef inside reminded me of Sloppy Joes.  Don’t get me wrong I like a good sloppy Joe for nostalgic reasons, but not so much when it’s in an empanada.

The Papa Rellena wasn’t bad.  The outside of the Rellena was crispy and thin and the mashed potatoes were decent.   Though just like the empanada and the pork from the tamal, needed more seasoning.  (At this point, I began to think that traditional Cuban food was maybe designed to be slightly bland so that whomever is eating can adjust to their taste).   


So the rest of the plate, I didn’t exactly know what they were so, it probably wouldn’t be fair to give my opinion of them.  I could tell two were plantains, but I didn’t know which was the tostones, which were the fried and which were the croqueta de Jamon.  The center of all of that was a type of garlic sauce.  From what I could taste, it was a combination of some lime, lemon, vegetable oil, maybe a dash of cumin, some salt and pepper with some garlic.  The sauce wasn't bad, but it did over power the subtle flavors of the ingredients, so I used it very sparingly.

Now for what most of you have been waiting for, well at least I was when I ordered it.  The Cubano! Let's start with the bread.  The bread was in house made and toasted well.  It had a nice crunch and the inside was soft, glutinous and smooth.  The cheese was gooey and complimented the (few) pickles that were in the sandwich rather well...


...But I’m sorry to say that the bread and cheese might have been the best parts of the sandwich itself.  The ham and the pork were very dry, so much that the thin layer of mayo on the sandwich wasn’t helping much. And just like the previous items that I had tasted, was pretty bland in flavor.  I tried the ham and the pork individually outside of the sandwich itself to see how it compared, but sadly, I didn’t get a different result.  On a positive point, when I did happen to get a big in with all the ingredients, pickles, mustard, mayo, ham, pork, and melted cheese, I can see where the potential would be for a truly awesome sandwich.
    
    Well there you have it folks, as you can probably tell, I was very disappointed with my first encounter with Cuban dishes, but maybe this was a fluke, maybe the flavors weren't brought out because the chef was having an off day or maybe the prep cook thought someone else had flavored the dishes already.  I'm not sure, but this is the whole reason why I'm going to try other Cuban restaurants to see if this place was just an anomaly and I just happened to be unlucky with my first choice.  Maybe it'll be like watching a movie first, before reading the novel, this way if you liked the movie, you'll like the book even more.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

So until next time...I bid y'all happy eating!
-Henry

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