PrintThe Perfect Warm Weather Lunch
I had the perfect warm weather lunch at the Spotted Pig today.
A friend and I split the Cuban Sandwich and the Pork Tonnato. For dessert a bowl of Frog Hollow Farm Cherries in ice water.
The Spotted Pig Cubano is the best in the city and maybe the world. The Balthazar roll is crunchy and yeasty; chef-partner April Bloomfield uses heritage pork shoulder to sublime effect by brining it for three days, slow-roasting it, and then cooking it in duck and pork fat; the pickled jalapeno peppers add just the right amount of heat; Prosciutto de Parma or speck (smoked prosciutto) is a better quality ham than you will find in any other Cubano around the city; and the aged gruyere lends the whole thing a deeply funky flavor. How a British chef who worked at the very Italian River Cafe in London manages to produce the best Cuban sandwich I'll never know. Heritage Berkshire pork is used in the pork tonnato, which is creamy and salty and so damn porky. Both dishes came with a spritely arugula salad, properly dressed. The Frog Hollow cherries were perfect, each one cold and ripe and plenty sweet with just the right touch of acidity.
You have to go to the Spotted Pig for lunch during the week to get the Cubano, because that's the only time it's on the menu. But the SP is infinitely quieter and more comfortable at lunch, anyway. In fact, it's downright laid-back
Spotted Pig
314 West 11th Street (corner of Greenwich St.)
New York, NY 10014
Ph: 212-620-0393
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3 Comments:
i'm sorry, but maybe the best cuban sandwich in the world might be made in Miami.....by actual cubans.....and not at the Spotted Pig?
best Cuban sandwich in the world shouldn't cost you more than, like, $4.00, and it's probably found at Casa Larios, three locations in Miami.
the only thing that even comes close to a real cuban sandwich in all of New York City is the one at El Castillo De Jagua on Rivington St. $3.
please get off the haute high horse...
ELEDKA at 11:07AM on 06/04/07
Now this is damned bizarre. Ed, do you and I have some sort of telepathic connection?
http://offthebroiler.wordpress.com/2007/06/02/do-it-yourself-cubanos/
jperlow at 11:24AM on 06/04/07
Although I haven't had the "Cubano" sandwich at The Spotted Pig, so I can't really discern how good or authentic it actually is. Nonetheless I have to agree with the one poster that stated perhaps the best Cuban sandwich is made in Miami. Being of Cuban myself, I've had the opportunity to taste tons of cubanos made in some of NYCs innovative restaurants. Although delicious...they are not authentic. And really...to state that its the best in the world is matter of opinion. It still remains quite ballsy a comment.
Its nice to know that so many chefs hold such a simple sandwich in such high esteem that they try to replicate it on their menus. Anyway, I look forward to trying TSPs version, but it will never, ever replace the stupendous cubano I can get at Versailles in Little Havana.
ELEDave at 10:39AM on 06/05/07