Field Report: Piu Bello

Greetings, Loyal Readers!  I am officially welcoming myself back to the main land after a trip to beautiful Puerto Rico! 

While there I enjoyed some sun, fun, and sand(wiches). 

I didn't have much luck in finding a full fledged grilled cheese restaurant in San Juan (I doubt they made a tasty grilled cheese in the cockfighting ring across the street from my hotel), but I did still get the chance to taste a Caribbean themed classic: The Cuban Sandwich. 

As it turns out, Cuba is really just the communist doppelganger to our beloved little Puerto Rico.  Parallels include the fact that Bacardi was founded in Cuba, but is now headquartered in Puerto Rico; both islands have US military bases; classic movies set in Cuba tend to be filmed in Puerto Rico (i.e. Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights) and have you looked at their flags side by side?

So what better sandwich to try in Puerto Rico than The Cuban?  According to ye olde sandwich lore, The Cuban rose to fame as the choice lunch entree of cigar factory and sugar mill workers.  However, the sandwich originated back when travel between Cuba and the US was a bit more free flowing; meaning workers, wares and ideas tended to constantly pass back and forth from Cuba to southern Florida without restriction.  So it's impossible to say whether it truly originated in Cuba, or whether it has equally strong roots around Key West and Tampa.  With such vague origins, it's also safe to assume that the contents of the sandwich are hotly contested-- but purists know that a traditional Cuban must include pork, ham, mustard, dill pickles and Swiss cheese.

But enough blabbering, let's get to the good stuff!  I sampled the sandwich at "Piu Bello" a diner-style restaurant whose main feature was actually gelato.  I chose here because I didn't have a car and it was within walking distance to my hotel.  Done.

The sandwich was a no-frills Cuban: ham, marinated pork, Swiss cheese, pickles and yellow mustard on ciabatta bread.  There was A LOT of cheese, so even upon first glance I knew that this would definitely qualify as a grilled cheese (the abundance of pig product had left me dubious when I ordered).  The first bite was hijacked by the sweetness of the ham.  Luckily, the pickle and mustard were there to counterbalance. 

Again I'll say that the cheese is super gooey!  I loved that there was plenty of it so that I could get a good chunk with every bite (this made it easy to maintain a pretty solid cheese:pig product ratio).  Speaking of pig, I wasn't sure I could really distinguish between the pork and the ham.  My best guess is that the pork was a little more savory and marinated in herbs whereas the ham was sweet, but this might have just been because the pork was positioned adjacent to the very not sweet pickles.  I'm not really a big pickle person, so by the end I was removing some pickle slices here and there to keep the salt quotient to a minimum.

All in all this was a delectible treat perfect for my first lunch in a tropical paradise!  I immediately followed my meal up with a stroll on the beach and a tropical drink. 

Jealous?  I am too now that I'm back to reality.  It was so beautiful down there I might just have to fill the grilled cheese restaurant void and set up shop as a one-woman grilled cheese stand out in the Piñones food cart strip.

Two Cheese Mediterranean

First and foremost, sorry for the delayed post!  I came down with a nasty virus last week which means I had to put off uploading my photos and completing this post, so this sandwich was actually enjoyed a week ago (pre-illness).

As is sometimes the case, this week's sandwich was chosen based on the ingredients I happened to have on hand.  I had about a half of a loaf of sourdough bread and in reading through recipes I saw that one of the sourdough sandwiches also called for capers and spinach, both of which I also happened to have.  Sold.  Two cheese Mediterranean it was.

In addition to the sourdough, 1/2 cup baby spinach and 1 Tbsp capers that I had on hand, I purchased 2 ounces feta, 1 tsp finely grated lemon peel, 4 ounces Gruyere and 4 whole roasted red peppers.  The recipe also called for 1/2 cup kalamata olives, but those would have doomed this sandwich from the start since I don't like black olives.  Instead I got some "lemon artichoke pesto."  I figured artichokes have a bit of an acidic/salty taste to them and the sandwich already had lemon peel, so it must be a complimentary flavor!  Now let's get down to business.

Step one was mixing together the feta, artichokes, lemon peel and capers.  This in and of itself looked tasty enough to eat-- maybe as a dip of some sort?  But I suppose that's best left for another time.

Next I drained the red peppers and halved them so I had two nice flat pieces for each pepper instead of one big one.

That was basically the only prep work needed!  From there I buttered four slices of bread (well, really sous chef did the bulk of the work this week-- I wasn't having the best day) and spread the feta mixture evenly over the bread. 

Next came the Gruyere (applied more liberally than the 4 ounces the recipe called for) followed by the roasted red peppers. 

I wasn't sold on the inclusion of the baby spinach (nor was sous chef), so we opted to only add it to two of the sandwiches.

From there it was on to grilling!  This went smoothly for the most part save for the fact that the red peppers make the entire inside of the sandwich a little slipperier, so I had to be extra cautious when flipping (this one definitely called for the dual spatula method).

Taste Review:

There wasn't a distinctive aroma unless I got up very close to the sandwich in which case I could smell the red pepper pretty clearly.  The first flavor I notice is lemon, probably due to my decision to include the lemon-artichoke pesto (thus multiplying the sandwich's lemon content).  I wouldn't say it was overpowering at first, it just made its acidity known.  However, the more I ate the stronger the lemon taste became.  It made me wonder if I'm prone to notice the lemon more because I'm not used to lemon flavors in my savory foods, so it stands out as abnormal in addition to being a strong flavor on its own.  Colin actually lobbied for no lemon whereas I was an advocate for removing the capers.

Surprisingly the feta doesn't stand out like you think it would.  Feta is such a strong cheese that it's hard to imagine it being a muted flavor, but I guess an excess of lemon will do just that.  The same was true for the Gruyere-- in fact, the Gruyere was even less prevalent because it's a somewhat mild cheese to begin with.  You could tell there was cheese on the sandwich because of the texture, but if I hadn't made the sandwich myself there's no way I would've known that it was Gruyere.  The same was true for the spinach-- it was virtually non-existent.

The one ingredient in addition to the lemon that really stood out was the roasted pepper.  The peppers gave a subtle sweetness to the sandwich that was a good counterbalance to the acidity of the lemon.

FINAL RESULTS:

Sandwich:	Two Cheese Mediterranean
Gooey-ness:	2
Aroma:	2
Appearance:	Vivid red and white center.
Taste:	B

Overall it was tasty, but ultimately forgettable. 

Today is my birthday!  So I'll be headed out of town tomorrow for a birthday getaway, which means no sandwich this week.  But, I do promise to try for a field report from my exotic mystery location... oooh ahhhh.