Cubano Challenge

Since I don't get out as often as I used to, I only found that one of my standbys, Havana Chelsea, had closed after reading about it in the Village Voice food blog Eat for Victory. (The closing last year of the ersatz but delicious Kitchen Market and a tip from a friend that Sucelt, one of my other area favorites closed a month or so ago, means that now there is only one Latin destination left for me in all of Chelsea: La Taza de Oro).

Through EfV, I have been following the yo-mama beef between Casa Havana (what the new owners have renamed the old Havana Chelsea locale) and the old owners of the spot. For the installments of that telenovela, check here, here and here.

But now the new people have declared war. In this post, EfV conveys the words of Casa Havana owner Thomas Vicari, claiming that his place makes the best Cuban sandwich in the city. He writes,

I have eaten and tested over a thousand of these so called cubanos. I have perfected the perfect cuban sandwich.I would like to challenge anyone who says they have the best cuban sandwich! I would like to have your paper The village Voice hold the contest and let the people vote.

I'll have to swing by and check it out, but something about the tone makes me doubt. When someone needs to boast so loud, he runs the risk of being mucha espuma y poco chocolate.

I take cubanos seriously, ever since my dad got me hooked on them arriving on Saturday nights with a bagful of thin-as-an-envelope freshly-pressed beauties from La Lechonera #7 on Junction Blvd. (now a Colombian spot). There were also the family must-stops at El Mambi on trips to Washington Heights, and the obligatory cubano in Union City (I forget at which place). Yes, I know that Tampa cubanos are supposed to be the non-plus ultra, but I rarely go there, so my Platonic ideal resides here.

Meantime, I refer you kind readers to the Nueva York list of Top 5 Cuban sandwiches in the city, which included Havana Chelsea's (the others, in order of my preference, are: Mambi Express in Wash. Hts., Margon in midtown El Rey de los Cubanos near City College and El Sitio in Woodside).

Let me know which are YOUR favorite cubanos -- I'll be making a mini-tour in the next couple of days to send EfV my picks, as well as eating Vicari's words, er, sandwich.

[drool-inducing cubano photo courtesy of tasteofcuba.com]

Comments

[papupu]

In Union City/West New York area, the freshest, crispiest cubano is at Las Palmas on Bergenline, in WNY.

[Caro]

Thanks, papupu. I'll take the bus from Port Authority for the field trip...