“…This Tampa bakery says yes.” Paul Guzzo (Tampa Bay Times) writes, “Open five years this month, La Creacion Bakery makes Cuban sandwiches with a twist.” [Many thanks to Peter Jordens for bringing this item to our attention.]
The Cuban sandwich might be delicious, but it’s also contentious. Debates have raged for decades about whether a real Cuban includes Genoa salami and where the sandwich comes from: Tampa, Miami or Cuba?
The co-owner of La Creacion Bakery would not weigh in on the origins of the sandwich but has a strong “no salami” stance.
That’s the popular opinion in Puerto Rico, where he was born and raised, Kelvin Cruz said. So it’s also how Cuban sandwiches are prepared at his bakery, which serves Puerto Rican fare at locations in Tampa, Wesley Chapel and Brandon.
Here’s a new debate: What about the bread?
La Creacion Bakery uses Puerto Rican bread rather than Cuban bread. Does that mean it’s still a Cuban sandwich?
“Yes,” said Cruz, who opened his bakery with business partner Ramon Ruiz five years ago this month. “We call it a Cuban sandwich.”
La Creacion Bakery makes two types of Puerto Rican bread — pan soboa, which means “kneaded bread” and is sweet and soft, and pan de agua, which means “water bread” and is like Italian bread with a crust that is hard yet slightly softer than Cuban bread.
A sandwich of marinated roasted pork, ham, Swiss cheese, dill pickles and mustard on pan soboa is considered by many to be a medianoche, which is basically a Cuban sandwich on sweet bread, Cruz said. But those same ingredients on pan de agua undoubtedly make a Cuban sandwich, and that’s how La Creacion Bakery serves theirs. [. . .]
What do Tampa’s Cuban sandwich experts think?
“Is it an authentic Cuban sandwich? No,” said Victor Padilla, who holds a Cuban Sandwich Festival in cities, including Tampa, throughout the state. “It has to have the original style Cuban bread. Puerto Rican bread is good, but it is not Cuban bread.”
But Padilla admits to being a bit of a purist when it comes to bread. He doesn’t even consider Miami’s Cuban bread to be authentic. He said it’s flakier and softer than what is baked here in Tampa.
“Miami’s bread is not as good,” Padilla said. “It doesn’t have the consistency of ours.”
His festival has a contest for the best Cuban sandwich. If La Creacion Bakery were to enter theirs in the May 26 event in Ybor City, Padilla said, it would be placed in the nontraditional category, where past entrants have used donuts for bread and included Cuban sandwich sushi rolls.
But unlike such unique variations, said Andy Huse, co-author of “The Cuban Sandwich: A History in Layers,” using Puerto Rican bread for Cuban sandwiches is “pretty common.” [. . .]
For full article, see https://www.tampabay.com/life-culture/history/2024/03/20/cuban-sandwich-puerto-rican-bread-tampa
La Creación Bakery Tampa
11258 W Hillsborough Ave, Tampa, FL 33635
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Check out this hidden gem: La Creación Bakery in Tampa
Brianda Villegas, WFLA, May 1, 2023
https://www.wfla.com/news/around-town/check-out-this-hidden-gem-la-creacion-bakery-in-tampa
“…This Tampa bakery says yes.” Paul Guzzo (Tampa Bay Times) writes, “Open five years this month, La Creacion Bakery makes Cuban sandwiches with a twist.” [Many thanks to Peter Jordens for bringing this item to our attention.] The Cuban sandwich might be delicious, but it’s also contentious. Debates have raged for decades about whether a
