Cuban Sandwich or Frita? Miami's Two Essential Sandwiches

Miami runs on Cuban coffee and two Cuban sandwiches. One is pressed flat and hot and eaten at a counter window. The other is a burger with a pile of crunchy potato sticks on top. If you only have a day in the city, eat both.

The Cuban sandwich

What's in it: roast pork, sweet ham, Swiss cheese, dill pickles and yellow mustard on Cuban bread, a long, light loaf traditionally made with lard. The whole thing goes into a hot sandwich press (the plancha) until the bread is crisp and flat and the cheese melts into the meat.

Where it came from: the sandwich's roots are in Cuba, where a ham-and-pork mixto was standard café fare. It came to Florida with Cuban workers, first to Key West and Tampa's cigar factories, and became a Miami staple as the city's Cuban community grew after 1959.

The salami fight: in Tampa, a Cuban sandwich traditionally includes Genoa salami, likely an influence of the Italian immigrants who worked alongside Cubans in Ybor City. In Miami, that's not a Cuban sandwich. Don't bring it up at the ventanita.

Its cousin, the medianoche: the same fillings on soft, sweet egg bread. It's named for "midnight," when Havana's nightlife crowd used to eat it.

Where to get one

• Versailles, Calle Ocho. The landmark, open since 1971. For a quick one, skip the dining room and order at La Ventanita, the walk-up window on the side.
• Sanguich de Miami, Calle Ocho. Bread, lard and pork all made in-house. The original shop has a line. The Coral Gables branch is usually calmer.
• Latin Cafe 2000, Brickell. A Cubano near the office towers. Want more? Order the Croqueta Preparada, which is the same sandwich with ham croquetas inside.

The frita

What's in it: a thin patty of seasoned ground beef (often mixed with chorizo or pork, depending on the shop), raw onion, a sweet, ketchup-based sauce, and a heap of crispy shoestring potatoes (papitas), all on a small, soft Cuban roll. It's smaller than an American burger, and you'll want two.

Where it came from: the frita was a Havana street food, sold from stands starting around the 1920s and '30s. After the revolution, private food stands disappeared from Cuba, and the frita nearly went with them. Exiles brought it to Little Havana in the early 1960s, and it has been a Miami sandwich ever since.

Where to get one

• El Rey de las Fritas, Calle Ocho. Benito and Angelina Gonzalez made fritas in Cuba and opened this counter in 1979. Their children run it now. Start with the original. The Frita a Caballo adds a fried egg.
• Cuban Guys, West Flagler. A local chain whose papitas stay crisp under the bun.
• Amelia's 1931, Kendall area. The sit-down version: a big beef-and-chorizo patty with sweet plantains and homemade shoestring fries. It's dinner only most days and closed Monday and Tuesday.

A one-afternoon plan

Versailles, El Rey de las Fritas and Sanguich's original shop are all on Calle Ocho in Little Havana. Order a Cubano at one, a frita at another, and have a cafecito in between. That's the whole lesson.

See every spot in our Cuban Sandwich and Frita Cubana sections.