Food

[geoffbot]

Sounds epic. I wonder what the best sandwich is?

[Nokie]

All cuban variations on that sandwich are usually very good in my experience. We have a Puerto Rican place close by that does fantastic pressed cuban sandwiches.

[Donf]

Have you asked her?

After feeding her something that forced the evacuation of everything she'd eaten in the last 3 days, made her contend with the "dry heaves" for a considerable period of time, and having to hand wash her sweater, I decided that the best tactic was not to bring it up.

[Henry Krinkle]

Which is...?

Sorry, I missed that. I see Cadstraps covered for me. I've got a pic of one here somewhere.

[geoffbot]

Thread is useless without pics!

[Henry Krinkle]

Essentially a ham and cheese sandwich, but gussied up. Actual origin is murky, but I don't believe it hails from Cuba though, it's 'murican (Florida, to be specific). Starts with Cuban bread, which is a lot like a French or Italian loaf but is made with lard, then filled with ham, roasted pork, white swiss-like cheese, mustard, and sometimes pickles. Apparantly in Tampa they put salami in as well, which sounds good but I've never tried it that way. You then have to grill it (panini). Very good.

Thread is useless without pics!

We marinate, sear and then braise our pork. Orange and lime juice, oregano, cumin, chile and garlic. Here is the picture I previously posted. I only had to hunt through 60 or 70 pages.



There are no panini marks as I squish 'em the old fashioned way. One flat bottomed cast iron pan inside a slightly larger cast iron pan.

One double cheeses a cuban as the pickles and the pork are very wet.

[geoffbot]

[CanadianStraps]

There are no panini marks as I squish 'em the old fashioned way. One flat bottomed cast iron pan inside a slightly larger cast iron pan.

One double cheeses a cuban as the pickles and the pork are very wet.

Before I went out and actually obtained a panini press, that's exactly how I used to do it as well: 12" and 10" cast iron skillets. Actually worked really well.

[Henry Krinkle]

Before I went out and actually obtained a panini press, that's exactly how I used to do it as well: 12" and 10" cast iron skillets. Actually worked really well.

It does. I did Cubans for 40 people at a party. I did them on a gas grille 12 sandwiches at a time. I had a giant cookie sheet and two le Creuset roasting pans filled with water. That worked spectacularly well.

[FuzzyB]

Last week, I had the pleasure of going to an event with the CEO of Montblanc, Jerome Lambert, that was held at Eleven Madison Park, a three-star Michelin rated restaurant that is supposedly one of the five best restaurants in the world. We were treated to a 5-course meal with intermissions between courses for Mr. Lambert to speak and pass around watches. I still need to find the time to write up the event and post the pictures, but in the meantime, I thought I'd toss the food pictures up here.

Unfortunately, they took away the little menus that they had printed up for the event, so I couldn't tell you half of what was on the plate beyond the obvious, but the food was exquisite.



The first course was a foamed concoction served in an eggshell. Light and fluffy and full of smokey flavor. It had bits of shellfish at the bottom, but for the life of me, I could not tell you what else went into it.



Next up was the salad course with pear and creme fraiche with a balsamic dressing.



Third course was a scallop dish.



For the main course, we had the choice of beef or tilefish. The beef was served with beets prepared two ways and marrow. I'd love to know how the beef was cooked.



For dessert, we had an unidentifiable, but delicious ice cream with a sour cream cake.



After dinner, they also brought out some homemade chocolate covered pretzels with sea salt.