Habana

I am no stranger to Cuban-style sandwiches (see all the Sophie's posts). But the one sandwich that eluded me until this year (partially because of all the years I spent not eating meats like ham) was the Cuban sandwich (also known as a Cubano). Somehow, the Cuban sandwich we tried for WorldEats was the first real Cuban sandwich A and I have ever tried! 

The Barclays Center glows in golden light

We were at the Barclays Center for a basketball playoff game (yes, we are months behind on blogging) and I took advantage of that opportunity to grab a Cuban sandwich from the Habana kiosk on the concourse. Cafe Habana was one of the Cuban places on our "to try" list, so it was quite convenient that we could combine trying the sandwich with basketball.

Habana's Cuban sandwich

The Cuban sandwich at Habana consists of sliced ham, roasted pork, Swiss cheese, pickles and chipotle mayo on Cuban bread. I wasn't really paying that much attention to how they made the sandwich since my space was being forcibly invaded by some weird guy who kept acting like he was entitled to jump the line and trying to grab my sandwich even though I was ahead of him. I'm guessing that they compressed it or flattened it in some sort of panini press or something similar. It was a nice warm and melty sandwich.

We're no experts on Cubanos, so we definitely cannot proclaim whether this is the best in the city, but it was tasty, a good kind of salty, and creamy. I do feel safe in saying that it's probably one of the better options at the Barclays Center, having tried a bunch of different places at this point. We really enjoyed the combinations of flavors in this sandwich and would definitely return to the real Cafe Habana or another Cuban spot for another one.