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.
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