Once upon a time, easily 20 years ago, there was a wonderful Cuban restaurant in the heart of all of the car lots off Shallowford Road, and it was there that I ate the best Cuban sandwich I’ve ever had.
It wasn’t like a typical Cuban sandwich with pork, ham, mustard and cheese. This one had tender, flavorful shredded pork with potato sticks. The only similarity between the typical Cuban sandwich and this sandwich was that both were/are served on Cuban bread.
Over the years, I’ve attempted to recreate this sandwich at home. For starters, finding potato sticks is not as easy as it used to be, though I did find some at Walmart not too long ago and even some at Tractor Supply a while back. Maybe farmers enjoy munching on them as they’re plowing their fields. I don’t know.
The sandwich is also similar to another favorite Cuban sandwich, Pan con Lechon. Although, again, the sandwich of my memory did not have pickles or cheese.
In making it at home, I started with my favorite recipe for mojo pork. Once it reached the perfect stage — fork-tender shreds of marinated pork with plenty of flavorful mojo sauce — I loaded it onto some good crusty Cuban bread, topped it with potato sticks and put it in my panini press to enhance the crustiness of the bread and warm up the sandwich. Then it was ready to devour.