Cuban Food isn’t Spicy

(No joke, signage and menus at these places really did label the above sandwiches as “Cuban”)

The chef I interviewed seemed excited to talk at first, but gradually became uncomfortable as I asked about his choice of ingredients, and prodded to find out what he actually knew about Cuban food. It turned out he learned about the sandwich from a Puerto Rican chef he met in Canada, and he was really pretty ignorant about Latin-American cultures.

WTF, Batali? Just call it a goddamn panini.

Not even a week after we printed up this zine, Mark came across a lifestyle magazine with some sexed-up sandwich recipes, and they had a Reuben and a Cuban only a page apart from each other. Note the jalapeños.

Welp, the foodie industrial complex has decided it’s the Cuban Sandwich’s turn. It should go without saying that if you want real Cuban food, you should look for a Cuban restaurant with a Cuban chef. But since many people look instead to celebrity chefs on TV, and accept American restaurant versions as the real deal, my husband and I put together this PSA. Putting pork on your panini doesn’t make it Cuban any more than putting mandarin oranges on your salad makes it Chinese.

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