Suzville: Get Your Cuban On

Guarapo (Juiced sugar cane)

One major reason that Mr. Big and I went to Florida was to touch base with our Cuban roots. Although I am half Cuban, I've been raised in a home where Cuban culture was not much more than "why my mom has an accent and speaks Spanish". Case in point: my sister (closest in age) and I thought that Mexican food was Cuban food because my mom cooks wonderful Mexican food. I did know tostones were Cuban, but that was about it.

Part of our education consisted of eating our way through as much Cuban food as physically possible. Upon landing, we ate Cuban food at La Carreta within Miami International Airport. We stayed in beautiful Naples, which is a completely different world than Miami, but still managed to eat breakfast at a terrific Cuban deli there most mornings.

But our forays into Miami were the most gastronomically memorable. One of the first things I noticed as we drove down Calle Ocho was this:

A Cuban fast food place, a Cuban fast food chain to be more precise.

Of course we didn't go in there. Fast food is never comparable to a carefully prepared meal, like those at the famous Versailles, where we lunched on incredible Cuban fare such as freshly made plantain chips with garlicky mojo sauce, lechón asado (roast pork) with a crispy fried pork skin proudly placed on top, arroz amarillo, some kind of beef stew with potatoes, and sweet fried plantains - yum.

Eating was half the fun!

For one thing, Cuban food is one of the most cost effective ways to sustain yourself on a vacation budget. Unless we shared plates, we rarely left a restaurant without leftovers to be enjoyed later.

One of my favorite experiences was after we had driven through beautiful Coral Gables. It had started to rain what I would call cats and dogs here in California, and some accident had slowed traffic to a state of molasses. Our little car tour was not quite what we had in mind at the moment, so when we spotted a Cuban deli, we jumped at the chance to escape the rain and take in some more "Cuba". Having only recently stuffed ourselves at Versailles, we ordered one Cuban sandwich and had it cut into thirds. The sandwich you see below is what all sandwiches want to be when they grow up.

Roast pork and ham, Swiss cheese, pickles and mustard on Cuban bread, pressed and toasted on a plancha. I have got to try this at home, which means mastering Cuban bread.

Anyway, I spied one of the workers shoving a raw sugar cane into a big machine and saw a glass of chartreuse liquid come out of the bottom, and I knew I had to try one of those (shown in the top image). This may well be my favorite taste of the trip. The juice of a raw sugar cane is known as guarapo.

It was sweet, as you would expect, but not much sweeter, in my opinion, than, say pineapple juice. It was a refreshing and delicious drink, one I long to have again. Alas, unless my mom's Vitamix can handle the job and I can find some sugar cane here in Central California, guarapo will remain a savored memory. I keep thinking of how good it would be with a squirt of lime and a little club soda added.

The last wonderful place we ate at was on our way to the Keys. After the Everglades became Miami and Tamiami Trail became 8th Street, we spied a busy bakery in a strip mall called La Sin Rival. We found a parking place as we contemplated what the name meant. This tiny shop was as busy as an In-n-Out joint at lunch hour (it's a California thing), but faster.

When I told my mom about our adventures with Cuban pastries, she said they were the best. I believe that. The sweet pastries shown above were divine. The concoction on the left is made up of thick layers of cream between crispy, flaky layers, and the cream oozed out the sides when you took a bite.

The savory pastries shown below were delectable. Our favorite was the chorizo squares. I don't quite know what to call these to hunt for something similar online. They were made in a big pan and consisted of a soft roll-type glazed bread with a chorizo filling that was spicy, but not hot, if that makes any sense. Don't mistake the chorizo Cubans use with the chorizo common to Mexican food. There is a world of difference between the two. Cubans use a Spanish chorizo that I don't think I can buy locally other than online.