March 20, 2011

David's Café On Collins Avenue, South Beach

There are so many places you can get a Cuban sandwich in Miami, I know, we are lucky... but I often feel bad when I see people from out of town ordering the Cuban classic at the wrong place. You can find them all the way from five star gourmet restaurants to Publix supermarket but if you want a superb Cuban sandwich I recommend you start walking towards David's Café on Collins Avenue. This place is an institution run by the same family for decades - and although they have two locations, my favorite one is on Collins as it on a classic mediterranean building with a big "ventanita" For those who are not Spanish speakers, a ventanita is a "little window" and in almost every Cuban restaurant/cafeteria style, you can order almost everything from the window while you stand outside watching people go by which can be very entertaining on this corner of Collins and 11th Street - you might see things you will not see anywhere else in the country... like women on skinny bikinis drinking out of plastic cups, that whole thing...

Cuban Medianoche Sandwich

The Cuban Medianoche Sandwich is a bit different than the Cuban classic one as the bread is made with yolks making the bread sweeter than the regular Cuban bread which by the way, the difference between Cuban bread and Italian, French or even the regular American bread is that Cuban bread has lard. The one you see on the picture is the medianoche that has pork, ham, Swiss cheese, mustard, pickles and comes with those tiny french fries called fritas. The price for one is not even $7 and what you see on the picture is only one half so when you get one of these ones you can call it a lunch.