When I went off to flight training in the Navy, one of the first things I knew I would miss was good, authentic, Cuban bread. Ever since leaving for college in 1971, my access to Cuban bread was very limited and scant at best. There really is only one place to acquire the best Cuban bread, and that is in Tampa, FL. Now, there are those in Miami who will claim Miami is the only place to find Cuban bread – but don’t listen to them. Really, the only place to find great Cuban bread is Tampa.
The reason Tampa is the home of Cuban bread is that the first bakery to actually sell “Cuban bread” was La Joven Francesca Bakery, located in Ybor City, in the middle of Tampa. Two things made La Joven Francesca Bakery’s bread so special. The first and most important, according to many, is the makeup of the water in Tampa. The second is the use of a palm frond to “split” the top of the loaf as the bread is baked. These two practices give Cuban bread a very distinctive texture and taste not found in other breads.
In the early part of the last century, the bakery delivered directly to the homes of many in Ybor City. In addition, the bakery was a great place for the Cubans in Ybor City to meet, drink coffee, and dunk their Cuban bread into the Cuban coffee. Many Cubans consider dunking Cuban bread into Cuban coffee as a delicacy.
After a breakfast of Cuban coffee and bread, the next meal of the day would be a sandwich – a Cuban sandwich – made on Cuban bread, of course. This is another thing that once I left the Tampa Bay area, I was no longer able to acquire. Oh, there were restaurants that had a “Cuban Sandwich” on their menus, but it was not really a Cuban sandwich.
Again, the only place to find an authentic “Cuban” was in Tampa. Other cities purported to have Cuban sandwiches, but not really. The first problem with Cuban sandwiches away from the Tampa area was the bread; they did not use real Cuban bread. The bread they used was some form of French bread they called Cuban bread, but it was not really Cuban bread… The other problem was the actual recipe for the sandwich. In order to make an authentic Cuban, you have to use the appropriate ratio of ham and pork and cheese.
As I researched the information for this story, I talked with my in-laws and my wife. We discussed how new generations have been raised on this fake Cuban bread made of French bread. They really have no idea of how real Cuban bread tastes. I said I have not had a good Cuban sandwiches or a piece of good Cuban bread since I left for college.
Then I discovered La Joven Francesca Bakery closed their doors and stopped making authentic Cuban bread in 1973, about the time I began to really miss Cuban bread.
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©2010 J. Clark
