Country 5: Cubano Sandwich from The U.S.A.

I'm sure a few of you read that and were like "Of all the different foods he could have picked from the US he chose the Cubano?!? Why?" And the answer to that is, because I messed up a little bit. So I love Cubano sandwiches but they're pretty hard to find in Edmonton, so I thought I would make one for myself. As the name suggests, before looking into it, I had assumed that the Cubano was established in Cuba, and thus thought it would be a good meal/country to add to the list.

WWWWWELLLL I was wrong, so here is a really quick history lesson from a very unqualified historian. While there was sandwiches of a similar style in Cuba (called a Mixto sandwich or mixed sandwich), the Cubano as it is known now is actually a product of Florida. In the late 1800's/early 1900's, Cuban workers came to work in Cigar factories in Florida. Here, in worker Cafes, is where many believe the Cubano as we are familiar with now, was born.

So all this to say, after finding this out, I was still craving a Cubano, so I thought why not get U.S.A. out of the way. So what is a Cubano? It is a pressed sandwich on Cuban style bread, with mojo marinated slow-cooked pork, ham, swiss cheese, dill pickles and yellow mustard. The mojo marinade is amazing, with lime/orange juice, mint, serrano peppers and a host of other ingredients, its incredibly fragrant, a beautiful colour (see video below) and extremely tasty! I marinated the pork shoulder overnight and then dumped the shoulder and all the marinade in a slow cooker for 7 hours, but you can definitely do it in a dutch oven as well. I bought some Spanish-style ham and fried that in some butter quickly to get it just a little crisp. I toasted the inside of the Cuban bread first before spreading yellow mustard and layering the pickles, pork, ham and swiss on top and putting it a panini pan to press. Overall it tasted great, just like how I've had them before. Only slight hiccup was that I let the panini pan get a little too hot so it was slightly darker on the bottom than I would have liked but you live you learn, next time they'll come out perfect!

Overall, I loved making this and it's fairly easy if you look for a mojo marinade online, or if you can find one in the city your in definitely try it out! (and let me know where you found it).

Thank you for reading and see you again for country/meal six.

See that mojo marinade and the updated map below: