“…This Tampa bakery says sure.” Paul Guzzo (Tampa Bay Instances) writes, “Open 5 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 could be scrumptious, but it surely’s additionally contentious. Debates have raged for many years about whether or not an actual Cuban contains Genoa salami and the place the sandwich comes from: Tampa, Miami or Cuba?
The co-owner of La Creacion Bakery wouldn’t weigh in on the origins of the sandwich however has a powerful “no salami” stance.
That’s the favored opinion in Puerto Rico, the place he was born and raised, Kelvin Cruz stated. So it’s additionally how Cuban sandwiches are ready at his bakery, which serves Puerto Rican fare at places in Tampa, Wesley Chapel and Brandon.
Right here’s a brand new debate: What concerning the bread?
La Creacion Bakery makes use of Puerto Rican bread quite than Cuban bread. Does that imply it’s nonetheless a Cuban sandwich?
“Sure,” stated Cruz, who opened his bakery with enterprise companion Ramon Ruiz 5 years in the past this month. “We name it a Cuban sandwich.”
La Creacion Bakery makes two sorts of Puerto Rican bread — pan soboa, which suggests “kneaded bread” and is good and delicate, and pan de agua, which suggests “water bread” and is like Italian bread with a crust that’s arduous but barely softer than Cuban bread.
A sandwich of marinated roasted pork, ham, Swiss cheese, dill pickles and mustard on pan soboa is taken into account by many to be a medianoche, which is mainly a Cuban sandwich on candy bread, Cruz stated. However those self same elements on pan de agua undoubtedly make a Cuban sandwich, and that’s how La Creacion Bakery serves theirs. [. . .]
What do Tampa’s Cuban sandwich consultants suppose?
“Is it an genuine Cuban sandwich? No,” stated Victor Padilla, who holds a Cuban Sandwich Competition in cities, together with Tampa, all through the state. “It has to have the unique model Cuban bread. Puerto Rican bread is sweet, however it isn’t Cuban bread.”
However Padilla admits to being a little bit of a purist on the subject of bread. He doesn’t even contemplate Miami’s Cuban bread to be genuine. He stated it’s flakier and softer than what’s baked right here in Tampa.
“Miami’s bread shouldn’t be nearly as good,” Padilla stated. “It doesn’t have the consistency of ours.”
His competition has a contest for the perfect Cuban sandwich. If La Creacion Bakery had been to enter theirs within the Could 26 occasion in Ybor Metropolis, Padilla stated, it will be positioned within the nontraditional class, the place previous entrants have used donuts for bread and included Cuban sandwich sushi rolls.
However not like such distinctive variations, stated Andy Huse, co-writer of “The Cuban Sandwich: A Historical past in Layers,” utilizing Puerto Rican bread for Cuban sandwiches is “fairly widespread.” [. . .]
For full article, see https://www.tampabay.com/life-culture/historical past/2024/03/20/cuban-sandwich-puerto-rican-bread-tampa
La Creación Bakery Tampa
11258 W Hillsborough Ave, Tampa, FL 33635
https://la-creacion-bakery.sq..website
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https://www.instagram.com/la_creacion_bakery
Try this hidden gem: La Creación Bakery in Tampa
Brianda Villegas, WFLA, Could 1, 2023
https://www.wfla.com/information/around-town/check-out-this-hidden-gem-la-creacion-bakery-in-tampa