October 5, 2020 • 35 mins
This classic Cuban/Floridian sandwich includes various pork products, cheese, mustard, and pickles – but its exact makeup is as contested as its exact birthplace. Anney and Lauren get to the meat of the story behind the Cubano.
Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
Hello, and welcome to Savor production of I Heart Radio.
I'm Annie Rees and I'm Lauren Vocalbaum, and today we're
talking about the Cuban sandwich. Yes, I'm so excited. I'm
so excited, so hungry, oh yeah, yeah right now. Yeah,
I did just eat lunch, so I'm managing to not
be starving despite this was a very craving, heavy research
(00:31):
Oh yeah, section yeah, I it was bad. One of
the hazards of the job, Lauren. One of the hazards
of the job. It is. And so you know, I
just want y'all know that, like we feel you when
you write it and you're like, you're like, I love
your show, but stop making me hungry. I can't stop.
Won't stop. That's just what it does. That's just how
(00:54):
it is. As I say, it is what it is.
Thank you do your listener, Amanda for the suggestion, because yes,
this is one of my very favorite sandwiches. Although Laura
and I were discussing beforehand, small town rural Georgia girl,
I I've only had probably five in my life for
(01:15):
what Yeah, And so when we were talking, we're going
to talk about a very uh infamous rivalry city rivalry here,
And I can't tell you for sure which version I've
had if either of those who knows, I just know
pickles and mustard were involved in a lot of salty
(01:35):
meat and buttery bread. Yeah, well those are all things
that should be on there, yes, in either version or
any version I suppose. Um, I grew up close enough
to Miami that there were there there were a lot
of Cuban immigrants in the area. I grew up in
Fort Lauderdale or suburb of Fort Lauderdale called Coral Springs,
(01:57):
and um, and so yeah, we were very lucky to
have of just amazing Cabano food everywhere. And so when
you're like I've had it like five times, I'm like
five times a day, Like what I've like, what, Like,
what are you talking about? Um, I've had countless um
Cuban sandwiches and uh yeah one of my one of
(02:17):
my favorites as well. And uh gosh, yeah, like I
think I remember the first time that I ever had
when it was I moved to Florida when I was
in maybe fourth grade, and uh and yeah, like the
first time that I went to someone's birthday party, there
was a big platter of Cuban sandwiches, and I was like,
what is this magic? See I remember the first time
(02:43):
I had Cuban sandwich. I was we might not have
even been in the Buckhead office in Atlanta. We might
have been at our current office. Uh I, it was
sort of like you were saying when he went to
is h part the first time I went to Atlanta
from a small town. I made this list of all
these foods I want to try, and I still have it,
(03:03):
and sometimes I look at it and I get nostalgic
of like, oh but it was on there, and I
would just like work my way. But I didn't have
car in Atlanta. This is not a good city if
you don't have a car. So certain things just took
me like years to mark off that list. But do
you even sandwich is one of them? And I do
feel like, again, this could have just been me moving
(03:24):
from somewhere small to a city. I do feel like
there was a surge of popularity right around the time
I moved in the Cuban sandwich or maybe I was
just becoming aware of them for the first time. Hard
to say, hard to say, yeah, But I suppose this
brings us to our question. Yes, the Cuban sandwich. What
(03:48):
is it? Well, the Cuban sandwich, sometimes called the cubano,
is a type of sandwich that it can be made
in a number of ways. Um, but the perhaps traditional
makeup is um ham roast pork, salami, Swiss cheese, sliced pickles,
and yellow mustard um stacked up on a long, soft,
slightly crusty loaf of white wheat bread. That's a that's
(04:10):
then pressed flat on a griddle and heated until the
bread is toasty and the cheese is melty and everything
is warmed up, just resulting in this absolute ummmy bomb um.
And and the bread is um. It should be crunchy
on the outside and soft on the inside. And the
different pork products lends this depth of textures and flavors.
You get this bright twang from the mustard and the pickles,
(04:31):
a crunch from the pickles. Oh, it is such comfort food.
Absolutely Like every time I have one, I know I
love them, And every time I have one, I'm like,
this is even better than I remember. How is this possible?
So good? On a side of Medoro's? Oh my heck um? Okay, anyway,
that's that's a subject for another day. To the sandwich. Um,
(04:55):
people get very particular about the exact ingredients, very particular.
Um that the ham should be a sweet and salty
honeyed ham. The roast pork is marinated in a Cuban
style pork mojo, which is which is a type of
sauce made from fresh garlic paste, o regano, cumin, and
salt and pepper, all bound together with olive oil and
(05:15):
the juice of sour oranges. Um, ideally sour oranges. They're
sometimes hard to find in the US, and so I've
seen them like a combination of orange juice and lime
juice used, but sour orange is the best. It's really
like bright and garlic, spicy and herbal. So good. Um.
Some people smoke the pork roast as well. Uh. The
(05:37):
salami should be Genoa style, which is a type of
salt cured pork sausage seasoned with garlic and pepper and
wine and allowed to dry and ferment until it firms
up into like a mildly spicy product that's still tender
with that and has this really distinct tang from fermenting bacteria. Food. Wow.
(05:59):
Another surprise, yep, yep, it's it's everywhere it's The bread
involved should be Cuban bread, um, which is a type
of wheat flour bread made in these long baguettes with
them with some lard or shortening in the dough that
makes it really flaky and tender. And the crust is
(06:20):
so thin and crisp, like a almost like a cracker
and um. Depending on where it's made, it might be
a flattish and kind of squared off at the ends,
or rounder with bald dens. Uh. Different people disagree about
some of the other details as well. Um. Some say
that sour dill pickles are the only way to go,
(06:40):
only sliced long ways and sliced super thin. I have
had it with other types of pickles, though, oh yep,
well blasphemous. I love the specificity. You know, sliced long
ways is important, Okay, okay, Um. I've had it with
(07:03):
American cheese instead of Swiss. Oh oh dear. Some folks
don't include the salami, and that is in fact the
way that I had it growing up in Fort Lauderdale.
I didn't know that that was a thing the people
(07:23):
felt very strongly about. Now I really want to try
one with salami. Who um, The way that you slice
the roast pork can vary, like you can do like thicker,
chewy slices versus pulled chunks versus like paper thin, melty slices,
which is my preference. Um. Some people add a spread
of mayo or spread of butter. The way you stack
(07:46):
the ingredients matters. I do not even want to talk
about whether the mustard goes on both sides of the bread.
I don't have time today. Well, you're gonna have to
share that with me later. Now I'm just gonna be
wondering what does Lauren think about the mustard on the bread?
I'd be thinking about the mustard on the bread? Oh man,
(08:07):
what if I embarrass myself in front of someone? I
don't want that. I don't think you want that for me.
There's there's opinions. Um, some people, some people use a
panini press with ridges. Some people don't press the sandwich
at all. Uh. You can serve it room temperature, and
(08:30):
you can serve it with lettuce and tomato. I am
only reporting the facts. I like this. I like this,
like touch of horror and judgment that's happening. Do you
talk about serving a cubano room temperature? With lettuce and tomato,
And I'm like, what are you talking about. That's no
(08:51):
longer a cubano. That's a different sandwich. Leave my cubano alone,
Let us away from me. You come near me with
a fannini brustless weear Okay, you know you know it's
it's it's fine. It's fine. I eat eat food the
(09:14):
way that you like to eat it. Your choices are valid. Um,
it's you look physically pained to say it, but I
do believe you believe it, and I will say, like,
in every article I read, people have strong opinions about food,
you all, and we always encounter that when we researched.
But for this one, I feel like it was in
every article I read. Yeah, people came out strong with
(09:38):
don't you dare even talk to me? You've had three
more than three pickles? You're out here? Uh yeah, It's
it's something I and I found myself. It's so funny
because I I didn't know that I had such strong
opinions until I started reading all of these things and
(10:01):
and and seeing and like reading all these different recipes
and um, the photographs the people included with these recipes,
like some of them like I just looked. I looked
at the sandwich and it looked delicious. Okay, but like
I was like, that's not a Cuban something primordial with
the borrows. Yeah. My like lizard brain like reared up
(10:24):
and was like, no, okay, okay, I'll be with the
Cubans in front of you, with the Cuban sandwiches. Gosh,
but any anyway, Um, alright, alright, okay, what about the nutrition? Um? Well,
(10:48):
it depends on exactly how you make it, clearly, but
you know this, this tends to be a pretty calorie
dense food because of because of the facts that the
ingredients contain. Um. It's usually pretty high in salt content. Um.
But also how in protein. Um. It will fill you
up and it will keep you going. Um. As always,
I recommend eating vegetables when you can. Um. Yeah. Yeah, Well,
(11:11):
we don't have too many numbers for you. We have
two number related facts. Uh yeah, there's there. There is
a Cuban Sandwich Food and Art festival every year in
Ybor City, which is um near Tampa. It features international
entries into their sandwich competition. The sandwich competition, by the way,
(11:33):
is called a SmackDown and it includes categories for historic,
non traditional, traditional, slash World's Best, and there's a popular
vote as well. Oh that sounds like a delicious competition, right,
But then I bet it gets pretty intense in there.
Oh I'm sure. I'm I'm not positive that I would
(11:56):
want to figure out which sandwiches go in the non
traditional and the traditional category exactly exactly. And then I mean,
as we're about to get into the historic section, it
could be a little intentious as well. So well, if
anyone's ever been let us know. Yeah, yes, absolutely, Um,
(12:17):
I'm I'm not they're they're not sure as of right
now whether the festival is being held this year. It
was supposed to go off in May. Um, but uh,
right now it's rescheduled for November, I think November eight.
But um, but but well, we'll see, we'll see how
the world's doing. We'll see. Yeah. Um, I will say
there were this episode in a lot of ways reminded
(12:38):
me of about the muffle Lett episode we did. So
there were numbers on like how many pieces of slices
of bread in one city or one place makes for
these and it's a lot well in Miami and Tampa. Yeah,
but okay, I learned that some subways in Miami have
Cuban sandwiches and pot belly too, I think, which blew
(13:02):
my mind. Blew my mind. This is like when I
went to Australia the first time and there was avocado,
which back then you couldn't get that, at least to
the summer. Yeah. So that wow. Yeah, I had to
fight to get my first first keeping sandwich subways. I
(13:23):
can't speak for quality. I won't make a stand on that.
I I don't. I've never had one of those, Um
from a subway. I can't. I can't tell you. I
can't tell you what it's like. Mm hmm. I have
my thoughts, my suspicions, but I you know, I'm I'm
open minded in many areas. It's not all, but many.
(13:48):
But Okay, we've been hinting at this, this history behind
the sandwich for a while. Yeah, um, and we will
get into that as soon as we get back from
a quick break for a word from our sponsor, and
we're back. Thank you sponsors, Yes, thank you, so yes.
(14:11):
This episode is a tale of two cities, Miami and Tampa,
who both fiercely, fiercely like claim to the Cuban sandwich. However,
the sandwich, or at least the precursor to it, is
from Cuba. It's from Cuba. Yes, So I'm just gonna
(14:32):
say it. Oh, Okay, don't Lauren. I hope this doesn't
change of friendship. I'm fine, just trying to report the
facts as an unbiased outsider. I don't know it would
make sense that the Cuban sandwich is somehow from Cuba.
It does. Indeed, so the Cuban sandwich are the beginnings
(14:55):
of it probably dates back five hundred years. Historians think
it the invention of the Taino tribe on Cuba before
the arrival of Europeans. The Chino tribe was one of
these three cultures that lived on Cuba. Tampa food chemists
Jorge astar Kisa believes that the tribe used a cracker
(15:15):
like bread product made from yucca to sandwich either fish
or some type of bird into this early Cuban sandwich.
When the Spanish arrived on the island, they brought pigs
with them, and not long after that, the indigenous people
were introduced to things like ham and pork, and those
meats found their way into the sandwich and the bread
(15:36):
was swapped out for something more joey, more Bready. The
Cuban tobacco industry spread to Florida in the mid nineteenth century,
first arriving at Key West and then on up to Tampa.
And Tampa is a growing port city with the right
climate for tobacco and a fancy new railroad, so it's
(15:56):
kind of ideal for this, this whole jump for for
the tobacco story. And from eighteen eighty to eighteen ninety,
the population of Tampa went from about seven hundred to
five thousand mm hmm. Thousands of folks of Cuban, Italian
and Spanish descent settled in Ibor City, which yes, is
a neighborhood founded by Cuban cigar manufacturers. Yeah. These immigrants
(16:20):
in Key West and then Tampa were the first major
populations of Cubans in America. UM, mostly working class people
fleeing the struggle for independence in Cuba. Um and Ebor
City was named for the cigar factory owner um One
Vincente Martinez Ibor who um who moved his operation to
the Tampa area after a fire destroyed his original factory
(16:40):
in Key West. And Ibor City was once known as
the cigar capital of the world at its peak, producing
more than Havana, and most of the people that lived
there worked in these factories and needed a lunch that
was quick and convenient and inexpensive like a sandwich. Ahaps mayhaps.
(17:02):
And this is where it takes a turn. This is
our big twist in the Cuban sandwich episode. So the
Cubans who immigrated to Florida brought their Cuban sandwich with them,
where it was influenced by the Spanish and Italian cuisine
in the area, which explains the salami for instance. Yeah,
(17:22):
one of the original bakers of Cuban bread and Ebor
was a sicilian um when Francisco for Litha, who opened
this bakery there called Lahoven Francesca In. The bakery would
close in the nineteen seventies, but it ran for that
entire time and now houses the Ebor City Museum. Yeah. Um,
(17:42):
So at this time, to set the sandwich apart from
the new Florida take on it, Cubans living in Florida
started calling it the Cuban sandwich. You wouldn't need to
call it that Cuba because it was just sandwich or
or by some accounts, English speakers started calling it the
Cuban sandwich because they mostly sell Cubans eating it, while
Spanish speakers called it mixed oh because of the assortment
(18:05):
of meats on sandwich mixed beats. Speaking of at the time,
the sandwich probably came with ham, pork, turkey, Genoa salami,
pickle slices perhaps three which I love so much, um, mustard,
Swiss cheese, served on a long white bread loaf. According
(18:25):
to the menu at Columbia restaurant, a Ibor City institution,
the sandwich, which they called quote a Tampa Treasure, began
as a lunch for cigar workers in the eight nineties.
It's been on their menu since they opened in nineteen
o five. They come up. This restaurant comes up pretty
much every article I read about the Cuban sandwich, and
the menu continues quote the sandwiches under which changes as
(18:48):
immigrants from different countries came to Ebor City. The Spanish
brought the fine ham, the Sicilians at the Genoa salami,
the Cubans the Moho marinated rose pork, the Germans and Jews,
the Swiss cheese, pickle and mustard, which is the lovely story. However,
some food stories point out that this maybe the stuff
of sandwich legend rather than actual history. Um, there's not
(19:09):
any real proof to anything they said. I mean it
makes sense in some ways, but there's nothing like concrete
to back it up. And you know, certainly pickles were
probably around. I know. One of food to stories was like,
you know, you can't really say figules were probably there.
And also of note, Miami was still pretty new city
(19:30):
in nineteen o five when Columbia opened up. I was
trying to stir up anything. I'm just uh, yeah, Miami
was only incorporated in eight six UM, whereupon it only
had like three d residents UM. And it would not
have a large population of Cuban immigrants until the nineteen
sixties UM when many were fleeing the revolution. So right,
(19:53):
so just just saying that, just saying it right there. Yeah,
I'll just leave that there. There's a popular legend that
says that the sandwich was actually the result of a contest,
and I love how many episodes we have where contests
are involved amongst ebor cities. Cigar factory owners they offered
(20:13):
a reward to the chef that could come up with
something that could fill their workers up and keep them
going as you say, Lauren, uh and not make them sleepy,
which also fun. Also no record of that high the
so sure. Yeah. Then in nineteen fifteen, a Spanish immigrant
by the name of One More opened a bakery and
(20:35):
ebore called La Primera, and they specialized in Cuban style
baked goods, including Cuban bread. And they scored their bread,
you know, like gave it the cut along the top
so that some steam can can escape during baking, so
that the bread will rise more evenly. They did that
by placing this the thin sharp strip of palmetto leaf
lengthwise along the loaf before baking. Um and the offshoot,
(20:59):
Lasagunda Akery still makes it to this day, still owned
by the same family. They're one of the one of
the Cuban bakeries that like, certainly if you have had
a Cuban sandwich in Tampa, possibly if you've had one anywhere. Yeah,
there's a decent chance that they baked that bread. Yeah,
I think that was the place I was thinking of
when I mentioned how I reminded me of the muffle
(21:21):
Ata and those stats of how much bread that they
sit out every day. Yeah, it's wild. Yeah, that came
up in the there was a SmackDown between two like
MPR writers, one from Tampa, one from Miami, and one
of them, the one from Tampa bought that up. It's
like probably in Miami you were having yeah this bread. Yeah,
(21:44):
it was so good. Um So. Ibor City took a
hit during the Great Depression when cigarettes became a cheaper
tobacco alternative, and then during the nineteen fifties again as
more and more automobiles took the street. The streets in
that neighborhood were largely too narrow for cars. Um So,
a lot of it unfortunately ended up getting destroyed, but
(22:04):
in nineteen seventy four it was designated a National Landmark.
The first Miami style Cuban sandwich might have been served
that same year in nineteen seventy four at a restaurant
called the Latin American Cafeteria in Miami. In twelve, Tampa
(22:25):
put forth an official resolution to name the sandwich. The
quote historic Tampa Cuban Sandwich. Oh yeah, bald move rolls
right off the tongue. Um. And it came with a
very specific recipe for what it entails like, It's like
ten steps uh ingredients methods. I loved it. The order
(22:47):
in which you stack everything, that these three pickles no more,
no less imper picualty. There's I could come up with
that later. Yeah, yeah, and it's really fun. I love
recipes that read like you're reading a science experiment or something.
(23:11):
I loved it, But anyway, Miami didn't. They were not
having it. In response to the resolution, the mayor of
that city, Thomas Regulado, said, the Cuban sandwich came in
our raft from Cuba and asar Kisa, which is a chef,
the chef we mentioned earlier. When asked about this, he said,
to call Miami the originator of the Cuban sandwich is
(23:31):
the biggest lie ever. It has absolutely no roots. There
were no Cubans in Miami at the time. It was
all swamp lands. Yeah, the biggest lie ever ever period
that it. It might be one of the biggest sandwich
lies ever. I'm not coming out. I'm not saying, I'm
(23:52):
just saying, if it were true, un get so much angry. Um.
Food storians say that do to the large Cuban population
in Miami, many of them arriving after the Cuban Revolution.
Like you said that the sandwich went mainstream because of that,
so it might not have originated there, but Miami certainly
(24:15):
propelled it to stardom. And there are a lot of sassy, angry,
outraged news pieces, um that came out of both of
these cities from all of this. Oh yeah, yeah, and
it can it continues. Um. One of one of my
(24:36):
favorite pieces that I read was back in twenty nineteen,
the New York Times Crossword Sunday cross Words specifically had
had a clue that read a city famous for its
Cuban sandwiches, and it was five letters long and the
answer was not Miami. Oh cross retrol. Wow. I can't imagine,
(25:04):
like I go, you know, I wake up in the morning,
having my cup of coffee, trying to relax, Yeah, and
then getting trolled by the dying crossword, by the New
York Time Crossword. I'm sure they got a lot uh. Um.
(25:27):
But yeah, yeah, and I'd say that, I'd say that
right right around when, um, when Tampa tried to pass
that resolution. Uh, it really started rising to start them
in a lot of different ways. The Cuban sandwich had
a starring role in Jon Favreau's film Chef Um. And
(25:47):
there's this really cute scene of John like Amo, like
like making the roast pork, like making them all home
and making the pork. And it's like it's like inappropriately sexy.
I'm like John, like was Emma'll get out of here. Um.
But yeah. And then in a group of students from
the University of Miami made a documentary about the sandwich
called a Mixed Ocubano The Origin of the Cuban Sandwich. Yeah.
(26:11):
People are determined to like claim to the sandwich in
a very specific way. And it just makes me laugh,
um because we can relate. Oh sure, yeah, and there
you know, like like the Sunday or um, what are
some of the other ones. Yeah, like just hey, it's
it's cool. It's cool to be passionate about stuff. It's
(26:33):
cool to have, you know, local pride. Yeah. I feel
that Cuban sandwich in your heart. Yeah. Oh man, oh
I definitely have a Cuban sandwich in my heart or
at least my arteries. I don't know either way. I
want one right now, so much? Oh so much. Okay,
(26:57):
that's fine though, um yeah, yeah, and uh you know
I also um uh being from the from the east
coast of Florida, South Florida, Um, I didn't really get
over to Tampa ebor area until I was in college.
I went to University of Florida up in UM up
in Gainesville, Uh, and I had some friends from the
(27:18):
Tampa St. Pete area. But um so I've I've hung
out in ebor Um, but I've never had a Cuban
sandwich there, which I'm now shocked about. I'm like, because
I'm like, I'm pretty sure I don't. I'm like, did
I eat there or did we just go to clubs?
I'm not positive? Yeah, yeah, But now I'm like, oh, man,
(27:43):
I need to go. I need to go, and I
need to have some of this Cuban sandwich that has
salami on it and and I will accept it however
they make it, and I'm sure it will be delicious. Oh,
I'm sure about that. Would you say that? Would you think,
like in Atlanta, which version would I be getting? The
(28:04):
Miami style? So the Miami one is perhaps like more mainstream,
like I think it's probably more ubiquitous. Yeah, okay, well
then I'll have to seek it out as well to
a taste test. Yeah. And if any listeners know the
answer to these Cuban sandwich questions or have Cuban Sandwich
opinions are from these cities. Oh please send them their away,
(28:28):
Oh my yeah, yeah, or I don't know, like if
you also have like memories of guaboween and like you know,
if you are also a golf of a certain age
um and uh you know hung out in ebor um.
You know, I don't know right right, and let us
let us know how all that went. The Golf of
a certain age needs to be a book or something.
(28:49):
I'm just gonna throw that out there. But yeah, we
always love hearing from you speaking up. We have some
listener mail, we do, but first we got one more
quick break for a word from our sponsor. And we're back.
(29:12):
Thank you sponsor, Yes, thank you, and we're back with
sack Down Sandwich City. SmackDown. Uh, Chloe wrote, I recently
listened to your episode on box Bag Wine and I
was surprised that good and wasn't given an honorable mention.
(29:36):
Goon is the name effectually given to box cast wine
in Australia, with Golden Oaks fruity Alexia being a prominent brand,
even as a phrase that goes with it food Alexia
makes you sexia love it? Um, but onto the main
point of this email. You briefly touched on gage related
to cast wine in your podcast and going a Fortune
(29:56):
was missing, Yes, sweet a. In Australia, this is a
game commonly played at eighteenth birthdays and New Year's Eve parties.
Partygoers will each bring a box of wine. We then
remove the inner bags, known as goon sacks, from the
boxes and pin them to the hills hoiselotheline. Players stand
underneath the hills Hoise, which is then spent around. When
the hills Hoys comes to a stop, each player that
(30:18):
happens to be below below a goon sack must drink
a previously designated amount of goon from the sack that's
landage above their head. I don't know many party games
more quintessentially aussy than Goon of Fortune. Okay, I love this.
I love it, and I wanted to read it because
I know we've read several about it, but I feel
like each one has slightly different rules. Um, which like
(30:42):
the specific brand and then this was a designated amount,
whereas others it was like not a designation. Yeah um yeah,
yeah yeah. I've very much enjoyed reading about this. I'm
still shocked we didn't because clearly it's a big it's
a big thing. I think I think it was one
of those you know, search term issues because you know,
(31:04):
not not knowing the term goon right and generally searching
box or bagged wine instead of cask wine. Right. Sure, yeah, yeah,
sometimes you make those Google mistakes. We all know about
those googles. Oh gosh, oh gosh. Lauren made one this
very episode when she looked up the subway cuban sandwiched
(31:26):
in an ad break. I regretted it, y'all. Um, Yeah,
it's so that minor existential crisis aside, all right, um,
Amanda wrote, I usually don't have much to contribute when
it comes to writing in but after hearing your boxed
wine episode and the throwaway snippet about alternative methods to
(31:47):
opening wine, I knew my time had come back when
going traveling and pregaming before parties were a thing. Me
and some friends were getting ready in our hotel rooms
in Vegas. One of the girls was kind enough to
bring a sickeningly sweet muscato for the rest of us
who preferred not to immediately jump into Jack Daniels and coke.
The only problem was it wasn't a screw top, and
(32:08):
none of us had a wine opener. Now, granted, we
could have most likely gone down to the gift shop
and bottle wine open area in hindsight, maybe even ask
the concierge. But I had seen all sorts of nifty
ways to open a wine bottle without an opener, and
what better scenario to test them out than right now.
I tried the shoe trick, banging away at walls and
floors with the bottom of the bottle to no avail,
(32:31):
but the chagrin of our neighbors, I tried wrapping it
in a towel and also hammering it out, surprised to
no one. Still, no dice um gravity was not working
for us, and we didn't have a screw to try
that trick. But we're a bunch of ladies in Vegas,
and I, being the mom friend, came prepared with tweezers.
I plunged those poor tweezers straight into the cork and
(32:53):
tried to wiggle it out, only to have another problem
on my hands. The cork was falling to pieces everywhere.
After several agonizing minutes of hacking away at this poor cork,
completely ruining my tweezers. We got the bottle open with
a few cork pieces left floating in there and all
over the bathroom floor. It might not have been the
(33:13):
quickest or easiest wine cork hack, but it got the
job done and gave us all a pretty hilarious story
to look back on. I have been there, um, and
it's funny. There are a few times I've ever felt
so I ended up using a brush like a the
(33:35):
handle of a brush. Okay, And there are a few
times I've ever felt more like a monkey or some
kind of creature trying to get into something than that. Uh,
But I mean I feel Amanda, who also was You're
the she was the listener that recommended the keeping sandwich,
So thanks for that. I feel it was pretty ingenious. Tweezers. Tweezers. Yeah,
(33:59):
I don't know, Gosh, I don't know what I would
have done. I would have called the concierge. I definitely
have done that before. I also once was in Vegas
and I had a qurkscrew and it broke and instead
of like all my friends were like, we can just
go get into when we can call the concierge, But
(34:19):
I was like, I'm going to fix this, and I
spent like way too long I did, but like by
then everybody sort of moved on. I'm still They're like,
I'll get it. No, I can get it, it can
still function. I'm man, the toolmaker. I am clever. Yes,
(34:40):
and no, I see you, I see you know, but
but but his good job. You got it. Hey, you
got your wine. Yes, and I hope that sweet Muscado
was as a worthy of effort as you put into it. Ye.
Thanks to you both of those listeners for waiting to us.
If you would like to write to us, that you
(35:01):
can or emails hello at savorpod dot com. We're also
on social media. You can find us on Twitter, Facebook,
and Instagram at savor pod, and we do hope to
hear from you. Savor is a production of I Heart Radio.
For more podcasts to my heart Radio, you can visit
the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you
listen to your favorite shows. Thanks as always to our
super producers Dylan Fagan and Andrew Howard. Thanks to you
(35:23):
for listening, and we hope that lots more good things
are coming your way.
Hello, and welcome to Savor production of I Heart Radio.
I'm Annie Rees and I'm Lauren Vocalbaum, and today we're
talking about the Cuban sandwich. Yes, I'm so excited. I'm
so excited, so hungry, oh yeah, yeah right now. Yeah,
I did just eat lunch, so I'm managing to not
be starving despite this was a very craving, heavy research
(00:31):
Oh yeah, section yeah, I it was bad. One of
the hazards of the job, Lauren. One of the hazards
of the job. It is. And so you know, I
just want y'all know that, like we feel you when
you write it and you're like, you're like, I love
your show, but stop making me hungry. I can't stop.
Won't stop. That's just what it does. That's just how
(00:54):
it is. As I say, it is what it is.
Thank you do your listener, Amanda for the suggestion, because yes,
this is one of my very favorite sandwiches. Although Laura
and I were discussing beforehand, small town rural Georgia girl,
I I've only had probably five in my life for
(01:15):
what Yeah, And so when we were talking, we're going
to talk about a very uh infamous rivalry city rivalry here,
And I can't tell you for sure which version I've
had if either of those who knows, I just know
pickles and mustard were involved in a lot of salty
(01:35):
meat and buttery bread. Yeah, well those are all things
that should be on there, yes, in either version or
any version I suppose. Um, I grew up close enough
to Miami that there were there there were a lot
of Cuban immigrants in the area. I grew up in
Fort Lauderdale or suburb of Fort Lauderdale called Coral Springs,
(01:57):
and um, and so yeah, we were very lucky to
have of just amazing Cabano food everywhere. And so when
you're like I've had it like five times, I'm like
five times a day, Like what I've like, what, Like,
what are you talking about? Um, I've had countless um
Cuban sandwiches and uh yeah one of my one of
(02:17):
my favorites as well. And uh gosh, yeah, like I
think I remember the first time that I ever had
when it was I moved to Florida when I was
in maybe fourth grade, and uh and yeah, like the
first time that I went to someone's birthday party, there
was a big platter of Cuban sandwiches, and I was like,
what is this magic? See I remember the first time
(02:43):
I had Cuban sandwich. I was we might not have
even been in the Buckhead office in Atlanta. We might
have been at our current office. Uh I, it was
sort of like you were saying when he went to
is h part the first time I went to Atlanta
from a small town. I made this list of all
these foods I want to try, and I still have it,
(03:03):
and sometimes I look at it and I get nostalgic
of like, oh but it was on there, and I
would just like work my way. But I didn't have
car in Atlanta. This is not a good city if
you don't have a car. So certain things just took
me like years to mark off that list. But do
you even sandwich is one of them? And I do
feel like, again, this could have just been me moving
(03:24):
from somewhere small to a city. I do feel like
there was a surge of popularity right around the time
I moved in the Cuban sandwich or maybe I was
just becoming aware of them for the first time. Hard
to say, hard to say, yeah, But I suppose this
brings us to our question. Yes, the Cuban sandwich. What
(03:48):
is it? Well, the Cuban sandwich, sometimes called the cubano,
is a type of sandwich that it can be made
in a number of ways. Um, but the perhaps traditional
makeup is um ham roast pork, salami, Swiss cheese, sliced pickles,
and yellow mustard um stacked up on a long, soft,
slightly crusty loaf of white wheat bread. That's a that's
(04:10):
then pressed flat on a griddle and heated until the
bread is toasty and the cheese is melty and everything
is warmed up, just resulting in this absolute ummmy bomb um.
And and the bread is um. It should be crunchy
on the outside and soft on the inside. And the
different pork products lends this depth of textures and flavors.
You get this bright twang from the mustard and the pickles,
(04:31):
a crunch from the pickles. Oh, it is such comfort food.
Absolutely Like every time I have one, I know I
love them, And every time I have one, I'm like,
this is even better than I remember. How is this possible?
So good? On a side of Medoro's? Oh my heck um? Okay, anyway,
that's that's a subject for another day. To the sandwich. Um,
(04:55):
people get very particular about the exact ingredients, very particular.
Um that the ham should be a sweet and salty
honeyed ham. The roast pork is marinated in a Cuban
style pork mojo, which is which is a type of
sauce made from fresh garlic paste, o regano, cumin, and
salt and pepper, all bound together with olive oil and
(05:15):
the juice of sour oranges. Um, ideally sour oranges. They're
sometimes hard to find in the US, and so I've
seen them like a combination of orange juice and lime
juice used, but sour orange is the best. It's really
like bright and garlic, spicy and herbal. So good. Um.
Some people smoke the pork roast as well. Uh. The
(05:37):
salami should be Genoa style, which is a type of
salt cured pork sausage seasoned with garlic and pepper and
wine and allowed to dry and ferment until it firms
up into like a mildly spicy product that's still tender
with that and has this really distinct tang from fermenting bacteria. Food. Wow.
(05:59):
Another surprise, yep, yep, it's it's everywhere it's The bread
involved should be Cuban bread, um, which is a type
of wheat flour bread made in these long baguettes with
them with some lard or shortening in the dough that
makes it really flaky and tender. And the crust is
(06:20):
so thin and crisp, like a almost like a cracker
and um. Depending on where it's made, it might be
a flattish and kind of squared off at the ends,
or rounder with bald dens. Uh. Different people disagree about
some of the other details as well. Um. Some say
that sour dill pickles are the only way to go,
(06:40):
only sliced long ways and sliced super thin. I have
had it with other types of pickles, though, oh yep,
well blasphemous. I love the specificity. You know, sliced long
ways is important, Okay, okay, Um. I've had it with
(07:03):
American cheese instead of Swiss. Oh oh dear. Some folks
don't include the salami, and that is in fact the
way that I had it growing up in Fort Lauderdale.
I didn't know that that was a thing the people
(07:23):
felt very strongly about. Now I really want to try
one with salami. Who um, The way that you slice
the roast pork can vary, like you can do like thicker,
chewy slices versus pulled chunks versus like paper thin, melty slices,
which is my preference. Um. Some people add a spread
of mayo or spread of butter. The way you stack
(07:46):
the ingredients matters. I do not even want to talk
about whether the mustard goes on both sides of the bread.
I don't have time today. Well, you're gonna have to
share that with me later. Now I'm just gonna be
wondering what does Lauren think about the mustard on the bread?
I'd be thinking about the mustard on the bread? Oh man,
(08:07):
what if I embarrass myself in front of someone? I
don't want that. I don't think you want that for me.
There's there's opinions. Um, some people, some people use a
panini press with ridges. Some people don't press the sandwich
at all. Uh. You can serve it room temperature, and
(08:30):
you can serve it with lettuce and tomato. I am
only reporting the facts. I like this. I like this,
like touch of horror and judgment that's happening. Do you
talk about serving a cubano room temperature? With lettuce and tomato,
And I'm like, what are you talking about. That's no
(08:51):
longer a cubano. That's a different sandwich. Leave my cubano alone,
Let us away from me. You come near me with
a fannini brustless weear Okay, you know you know it's
it's it's fine. It's fine. I eat eat food the
(09:14):
way that you like to eat it. Your choices are valid. Um,
it's you look physically pained to say it, but I
do believe you believe it, and I will say, like,
in every article I read, people have strong opinions about food,
you all, and we always encounter that when we researched.
But for this one, I feel like it was in
every article I read. Yeah, people came out strong with
(09:38):
don't you dare even talk to me? You've had three
more than three pickles? You're out here? Uh yeah, It's
it's something I and I found myself. It's so funny
because I I didn't know that I had such strong
opinions until I started reading all of these things and
(10:01):
and and seeing and like reading all these different recipes
and um, the photographs the people included with these recipes,
like some of them like I just looked. I looked
at the sandwich and it looked delicious. Okay, but like
I was like, that's not a Cuban something primordial with
the borrows. Yeah. My like lizard brain like reared up
(10:24):
and was like, no, okay, okay, I'll be with the
Cubans in front of you, with the Cuban sandwiches. Gosh,
but any anyway, Um, alright, alright, okay, what about the nutrition? Um? Well,
(10:48):
it depends on exactly how you make it, clearly, but
you know this, this tends to be a pretty calorie
dense food because of because of the facts that the
ingredients contain. Um. It's usually pretty high in salt content. Um.
But also how in protein. Um. It will fill you
up and it will keep you going. Um. As always,
I recommend eating vegetables when you can. Um. Yeah. Yeah, Well,
(11:11):
we don't have too many numbers for you. We have
two number related facts. Uh yeah, there's there. There is
a Cuban Sandwich Food and Art festival every year in
Ybor City, which is um near Tampa. It features international
entries into their sandwich competition. The sandwich competition, by the way,
(11:33):
is called a SmackDown and it includes categories for historic,
non traditional, traditional, slash World's Best, and there's a popular
vote as well. Oh that sounds like a delicious competition, right,
But then I bet it gets pretty intense in there.
Oh I'm sure. I'm I'm not positive that I would
(11:56):
want to figure out which sandwiches go in the non
traditional and the traditional category exactly exactly. And then I mean,
as we're about to get into the historic section, it
could be a little intentious as well. So well, if
anyone's ever been let us know. Yeah, yes, absolutely, Um,
(12:17):
I'm I'm not they're they're not sure as of right
now whether the festival is being held this year. It
was supposed to go off in May. Um, but uh,
right now it's rescheduled for November, I think November eight.
But um, but but well, we'll see, we'll see how
the world's doing. We'll see. Yeah. Um, I will say
there were this episode in a lot of ways reminded
(12:38):
me of about the muffle Lett episode we did. So
there were numbers on like how many pieces of slices
of bread in one city or one place makes for
these and it's a lot well in Miami and Tampa. Yeah,
but okay, I learned that some subways in Miami have
Cuban sandwiches and pot belly too, I think, which blew
(13:02):
my mind. Blew my mind. This is like when I
went to Australia the first time and there was avocado,
which back then you couldn't get that, at least to
the summer. Yeah. So that wow. Yeah, I had to
fight to get my first first keeping sandwich subways. I
(13:23):
can't speak for quality. I won't make a stand on that.
I I don't. I've never had one of those, Um
from a subway. I can't. I can't tell you. I
can't tell you what it's like. Mm hmm. I have
my thoughts, my suspicions, but I you know, I'm I'm
open minded in many areas. It's not all, but many.
(13:48):
But Okay, we've been hinting at this, this history behind
the sandwich for a while. Yeah, um, and we will
get into that as soon as we get back from
a quick break for a word from our sponsor, and
we're back. Thank you sponsors, Yes, thank you, so yes.
(14:11):
This episode is a tale of two cities, Miami and Tampa,
who both fiercely, fiercely like claim to the Cuban sandwich. However,
the sandwich, or at least the precursor to it, is
from Cuba. It's from Cuba. Yes, So I'm just gonna
(14:32):
say it. Oh, Okay, don't Lauren. I hope this doesn't
change of friendship. I'm fine, just trying to report the
facts as an unbiased outsider. I don't know it would
make sense that the Cuban sandwich is somehow from Cuba.
It does. Indeed, so the Cuban sandwich are the beginnings
(14:55):
of it probably dates back five hundred years. Historians think
it the invention of the Taino tribe on Cuba before
the arrival of Europeans. The Chino tribe was one of
these three cultures that lived on Cuba. Tampa food chemists
Jorge astar Kisa believes that the tribe used a cracker
(15:15):
like bread product made from yucca to sandwich either fish
or some type of bird into this early Cuban sandwich.
When the Spanish arrived on the island, they brought pigs
with them, and not long after that, the indigenous people
were introduced to things like ham and pork, and those
meats found their way into the sandwich and the bread
(15:36):
was swapped out for something more joey, more Bready. The
Cuban tobacco industry spread to Florida in the mid nineteenth century,
first arriving at Key West and then on up to Tampa.
And Tampa is a growing port city with the right
climate for tobacco and a fancy new railroad, so it's
(15:56):
kind of ideal for this, this whole jump for for
the tobacco story. And from eighteen eighty to eighteen ninety,
the population of Tampa went from about seven hundred to
five thousand mm hmm. Thousands of folks of Cuban, Italian
and Spanish descent settled in Ibor City, which yes, is
a neighborhood founded by Cuban cigar manufacturers. Yeah. These immigrants
(16:20):
in Key West and then Tampa were the first major
populations of Cubans in America. UM, mostly working class people
fleeing the struggle for independence in Cuba. Um and Ebor
City was named for the cigar factory owner um One
Vincente Martinez Ibor who um who moved his operation to
the Tampa area after a fire destroyed his original factory
(16:40):
in Key West. And Ibor City was once known as
the cigar capital of the world at its peak, producing
more than Havana, and most of the people that lived
there worked in these factories and needed a lunch that
was quick and convenient and inexpensive like a sandwich. Ahaps mayhaps.
(17:02):
And this is where it takes a turn. This is
our big twist in the Cuban sandwich episode. So the
Cubans who immigrated to Florida brought their Cuban sandwich with them,
where it was influenced by the Spanish and Italian cuisine
in the area, which explains the salami for instance. Yeah,
(17:22):
one of the original bakers of Cuban bread and Ebor
was a sicilian um when Francisco for Litha, who opened
this bakery there called Lahoven Francesca In. The bakery would
close in the nineteen seventies, but it ran for that
entire time and now houses the Ebor City Museum. Yeah. Um,
(17:42):
So at this time, to set the sandwich apart from
the new Florida take on it, Cubans living in Florida
started calling it the Cuban sandwich. You wouldn't need to
call it that Cuba because it was just sandwich or
or by some accounts, English speakers started calling it the
Cuban sandwich because they mostly sell Cubans eating it, while
Spanish speakers called it mixed oh because of the assortment
(18:05):
of meats on sandwich mixed beats. Speaking of at the time,
the sandwich probably came with ham, pork, turkey, Genoa salami,
pickle slices perhaps three which I love so much, um, mustard,
Swiss cheese, served on a long white bread loaf. According
(18:25):
to the menu at Columbia restaurant, a Ibor City institution,
the sandwich, which they called quote a Tampa Treasure, began
as a lunch for cigar workers in the eight nineties.
It's been on their menu since they opened in nineteen
o five. They come up. This restaurant comes up pretty
much every article I read about the Cuban sandwich, and
the menu continues quote the sandwiches under which changes as
(18:48):
immigrants from different countries came to Ebor City. The Spanish
brought the fine ham, the Sicilians at the Genoa salami,
the Cubans the Moho marinated rose pork, the Germans and Jews,
the Swiss cheese, pickle and mustard, which is the lovely story. However,
some food stories point out that this maybe the stuff
of sandwich legend rather than actual history. Um, there's not
(19:09):
any real proof to anything they said. I mean it
makes sense in some ways, but there's nothing like concrete
to back it up. And you know, certainly pickles were
probably around. I know. One of food to stories was like,
you know, you can't really say figules were probably there.
And also of note, Miami was still pretty new city
(19:30):
in nineteen o five when Columbia opened up. I was
trying to stir up anything. I'm just uh, yeah, Miami
was only incorporated in eight six UM, whereupon it only
had like three d residents UM. And it would not
have a large population of Cuban immigrants until the nineteen
sixties UM when many were fleeing the revolution. So right,
(19:53):
so just just saying that, just saying it right there. Yeah,
I'll just leave that there. There's a popular legend that
says that the sandwich was actually the result of a contest,
and I love how many episodes we have where contests
are involved amongst ebor cities. Cigar factory owners they offered
(20:13):
a reward to the chef that could come up with
something that could fill their workers up and keep them
going as you say, Lauren, uh and not make them sleepy,
which also fun. Also no record of that high the
so sure. Yeah. Then in nineteen fifteen, a Spanish immigrant
by the name of One More opened a bakery and
(20:35):
ebore called La Primera, and they specialized in Cuban style
baked goods, including Cuban bread. And they scored their bread,
you know, like gave it the cut along the top
so that some steam can can escape during baking, so
that the bread will rise more evenly. They did that
by placing this the thin sharp strip of palmetto leaf
lengthwise along the loaf before baking. Um and the offshoot,
(20:59):
Lasagunda Akery still makes it to this day, still owned
by the same family. They're one of the one of
the Cuban bakeries that like, certainly if you have had
a Cuban sandwich in Tampa, possibly if you've had one anywhere. Yeah,
there's a decent chance that they baked that bread. Yeah,
I think that was the place I was thinking of
when I mentioned how I reminded me of the muffle
(21:21):
Ata and those stats of how much bread that they
sit out every day. Yeah, it's wild. Yeah, that came
up in the there was a SmackDown between two like
MPR writers, one from Tampa, one from Miami, and one
of them, the one from Tampa bought that up. It's
like probably in Miami you were having yeah this bread. Yeah,
(21:44):
it was so good. Um So. Ibor City took a
hit during the Great Depression when cigarettes became a cheaper
tobacco alternative, and then during the nineteen fifties again as
more and more automobiles took the street. The streets in
that neighborhood were largely too narrow for cars. Um So,
a lot of it unfortunately ended up getting destroyed, but
(22:04):
in nineteen seventy four it was designated a National Landmark.
The first Miami style Cuban sandwich might have been served
that same year in nineteen seventy four at a restaurant
called the Latin American Cafeteria in Miami. In twelve, Tampa
(22:25):
put forth an official resolution to name the sandwich. The
quote historic Tampa Cuban Sandwich. Oh yeah, bald move rolls
right off the tongue. Um. And it came with a
very specific recipe for what it entails like, It's like
ten steps uh ingredients methods. I loved it. The order
(22:47):
in which you stack everything, that these three pickles no more,
no less imper picualty. There's I could come up with
that later. Yeah, yeah, and it's really fun. I love
recipes that read like you're reading a science experiment or something.
(23:11):
I loved it, But anyway, Miami didn't. They were not
having it. In response to the resolution, the mayor of
that city, Thomas Regulado, said, the Cuban sandwich came in
our raft from Cuba and asar Kisa, which is a chef,
the chef we mentioned earlier. When asked about this, he said,
to call Miami the originator of the Cuban sandwich is
(23:31):
the biggest lie ever. It has absolutely no roots. There
were no Cubans in Miami at the time. It was
all swamp lands. Yeah, the biggest lie ever ever period
that it. It might be one of the biggest sandwich
lies ever. I'm not coming out. I'm not saying, I'm
(23:52):
just saying, if it were true, un get so much angry. Um.
Food storians say that do to the large Cuban population
in Miami, many of them arriving after the Cuban Revolution.
Like you said that the sandwich went mainstream because of that,
so it might not have originated there, but Miami certainly
(24:15):
propelled it to stardom. And there are a lot of sassy, angry,
outraged news pieces, um that came out of both of
these cities from all of this. Oh yeah, yeah, and
it can it continues. Um. One of one of my
(24:36):
favorite pieces that I read was back in twenty nineteen,
the New York Times Crossword Sunday cross Words specifically had
had a clue that read a city famous for its
Cuban sandwiches, and it was five letters long and the
answer was not Miami. Oh cross retrol. Wow. I can't imagine,
(25:04):
like I go, you know, I wake up in the morning,
having my cup of coffee, trying to relax, Yeah, and
then getting trolled by the dying crossword, by the New
York Time Crossword. I'm sure they got a lot uh. Um.
(25:27):
But yeah, yeah, and I'd say that, I'd say that
right right around when, um, when Tampa tried to pass
that resolution. Uh, it really started rising to start them
in a lot of different ways. The Cuban sandwich had
a starring role in Jon Favreau's film Chef Um. And
(25:47):
there's this really cute scene of John like Amo, like
like making the roast pork, like making them all home
and making the pork. And it's like it's like inappropriately sexy.
I'm like John, like was Emma'll get out of here. Um.
But yeah. And then in a group of students from
the University of Miami made a documentary about the sandwich
called a Mixed Ocubano The Origin of the Cuban Sandwich. Yeah.
(26:11):
People are determined to like claim to the sandwich in
a very specific way. And it just makes me laugh,
um because we can relate. Oh sure, yeah, and there
you know, like like the Sunday or um, what are
some of the other ones. Yeah, like just hey, it's
it's cool. It's cool to be passionate about stuff. It's
(26:33):
cool to have, you know, local pride. Yeah. I feel
that Cuban sandwich in your heart. Yeah. Oh man, oh
I definitely have a Cuban sandwich in my heart or
at least my arteries. I don't know either way. I
want one right now, so much? Oh so much. Okay,
(26:57):
that's fine though, um yeah, yeah, and uh you know
I also um uh being from the from the east
coast of Florida, South Florida, Um, I didn't really get
over to Tampa ebor area until I was in college.
I went to University of Florida up in UM up
in Gainesville, Uh, and I had some friends from the
(27:18):
Tampa St. Pete area. But um so I've I've hung
out in ebor Um, but I've never had a Cuban
sandwich there, which I'm now shocked about. I'm like, because
I'm like, I'm pretty sure I don't. I'm like, did
I eat there or did we just go to clubs?
I'm not positive? Yeah, yeah, But now I'm like, oh, man,
(27:43):
I need to go. I need to go, and I
need to have some of this Cuban sandwich that has
salami on it and and I will accept it however
they make it, and I'm sure it will be delicious. Oh,
I'm sure about that. Would you say that? Would you think,
like in Atlanta, which version would I be getting? The
(28:04):
Miami style? So the Miami one is perhaps like more mainstream,
like I think it's probably more ubiquitous. Yeah, okay, well
then I'll have to seek it out as well to
a taste test. Yeah. And if any listeners know the
answer to these Cuban sandwich questions or have Cuban Sandwich
opinions are from these cities. Oh please send them their away,
(28:28):
Oh my yeah, yeah, or I don't know, like if
you also have like memories of guaboween and like you know,
if you are also a golf of a certain age
um and uh you know hung out in ebor um.
You know, I don't know right right, and let us
let us know how all that went. The Golf of
a certain age needs to be a book or something.
(28:49):
I'm just gonna throw that out there. But yeah, we
always love hearing from you speaking up. We have some
listener mail, we do, but first we got one more
quick break for a word from our sponsor. And we're back.
(29:12):
Thank you sponsor, Yes, thank you, and we're back with
sack Down Sandwich City. SmackDown. Uh, Chloe wrote, I recently
listened to your episode on box Bag Wine and I
was surprised that good and wasn't given an honorable mention.
(29:36):
Goon is the name effectually given to box cast wine
in Australia, with Golden Oaks fruity Alexia being a prominent brand,
even as a phrase that goes with it food Alexia
makes you sexia love it? Um, but onto the main
point of this email. You briefly touched on gage related
to cast wine in your podcast and going a Fortune
(29:56):
was missing, Yes, sweet a. In Australia, this is a
game commonly played at eighteenth birthdays and New Year's Eve parties.
Partygoers will each bring a box of wine. We then
remove the inner bags, known as goon sacks, from the
boxes and pin them to the hills hoiselotheline. Players stand
underneath the hills Hoise, which is then spent around. When
the hills Hoys comes to a stop, each player that
(30:18):
happens to be below below a goon sack must drink
a previously designated amount of goon from the sack that's
landage above their head. I don't know many party games
more quintessentially aussy than Goon of Fortune. Okay, I love this.
I love it, and I wanted to read it because
I know we've read several about it, but I feel
like each one has slightly different rules. Um, which like
(30:42):
the specific brand and then this was a designated amount,
whereas others it was like not a designation. Yeah um yeah,
yeah yeah. I've very much enjoyed reading about this. I'm
still shocked we didn't because clearly it's a big it's
a big thing. I think I think it was one
of those you know, search term issues because you know,
(31:04):
not not knowing the term goon right and generally searching
box or bagged wine instead of cask wine. Right. Sure, yeah, yeah,
sometimes you make those Google mistakes. We all know about
those googles. Oh gosh, oh gosh. Lauren made one this
very episode when she looked up the subway cuban sandwiched
(31:26):
in an ad break. I regretted it, y'all. Um, Yeah,
it's so that minor existential crisis aside, all right, um,
Amanda wrote, I usually don't have much to contribute when
it comes to writing in but after hearing your boxed
wine episode and the throwaway snippet about alternative methods to
(31:47):
opening wine, I knew my time had come back when
going traveling and pregaming before parties were a thing. Me
and some friends were getting ready in our hotel rooms
in Vegas. One of the girls was kind enough to
bring a sickeningly sweet muscato for the rest of us
who preferred not to immediately jump into Jack Daniels and coke.
The only problem was it wasn't a screw top, and
(32:08):
none of us had a wine opener. Now, granted, we
could have most likely gone down to the gift shop
and bottle wine open area in hindsight, maybe even ask
the concierge. But I had seen all sorts of nifty
ways to open a wine bottle without an opener, and
what better scenario to test them out than right now.
I tried the shoe trick, banging away at walls and
floors with the bottom of the bottle to no avail,
(32:31):
but the chagrin of our neighbors, I tried wrapping it
in a towel and also hammering it out, surprised to
no one. Still, no dice um gravity was not working
for us, and we didn't have a screw to try
that trick. But we're a bunch of ladies in Vegas,
and I, being the mom friend, came prepared with tweezers.
I plunged those poor tweezers straight into the cork and
(32:53):
tried to wiggle it out, only to have another problem
on my hands. The cork was falling to pieces everywhere.
After several agonizing minutes of hacking away at this poor cork,
completely ruining my tweezers. We got the bottle open with
a few cork pieces left floating in there and all
over the bathroom floor. It might not have been the
(33:13):
quickest or easiest wine cork hack, but it got the
job done and gave us all a pretty hilarious story
to look back on. I have been there, um, and
it's funny. There are a few times I've ever felt
so I ended up using a brush like a the
(33:35):
handle of a brush. Okay, And there are a few
times I've ever felt more like a monkey or some
kind of creature trying to get into something than that. Uh,
But I mean I feel Amanda, who also was You're
the she was the listener that recommended the keeping sandwich,
So thanks for that. I feel it was pretty ingenious. Tweezers. Tweezers. Yeah,
(33:59):
I don't know, Gosh, I don't know what I would
have done. I would have called the concierge. I definitely
have done that before. I also once was in Vegas
and I had a qurkscrew and it broke and instead
of like all my friends were like, we can just
go get into when we can call the concierge, But
(34:19):
I was like, I'm going to fix this, and I
spent like way too long I did, but like by
then everybody sort of moved on. I'm still They're like,
I'll get it. No, I can get it, it can
still function. I'm man, the toolmaker. I am clever. Yes,
(34:40):
and no, I see you, I see you know, but
but but his good job. You got it. Hey, you
got your wine. Yes, and I hope that sweet Muscado
was as a worthy of effort as you put into it. Ye.
Thanks to you both of those listeners for waiting to us.
If you would like to write to us, that you
(35:01):
can or emails hello at savorpod dot com. We're also
on social media. You can find us on Twitter, Facebook,
and Instagram at savor pod, and we do hope to
hear from you. Savor is a production of I Heart Radio.
For more podcasts to my heart Radio, you can visit
the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you
listen to your favorite shows. Thanks as always to our
super producers Dylan Fagan and Andrew Howard. Thanks to you
(35:23):
for listening, and we hope that lots more good things
are coming your way.
Savor News
Hosts And Creators
Anney Reese
Lauren Vogelbaum
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.