Hungry Sam on the Road: Cuban Sandwiches and Guava Cheese Pastries in Miami

My travels continue! Last you heard, I was raving about excellent barbeque in Alabama and a ginormous ball of cheese from Mississippi. Since those storied days, I've been on similar work trips to California, West Virginia, Florida, and Illinois. Missouri is next weekend, and then, in rapid succession and for more personal reasons, I'm off to Arizona, home to Maine, then to North Carolina for a wedding.

In the midst of my travels, however, the only place where there's yet been a confluence of awesome food and decent pictures is Florida. After the business end of the trip, I spent the weekend with family down in Miami; Jen joined, and our friend Clare took us out for Cuban coffee and a bite on Sunday morning.

We hit up Cafe Versailles, a strange, vividly real Cuban cafe in Little Havana filled with locals out for brunch after church. Apparently it's an institution, and was filled to the brim with loud chatter in Spanish, little kids bouncing off the walls, and the occasional bemused tourist (played by Hungry Sam). The walls in the restaurant were mirrored, which means they were probably two-way glass so the CIA could watch us drink ultra-sweet coffee and complain about the Castro regime (or whatever it is we were supposed to be doing). I ordered with my weak but enthusiastic Spanish, and this guava and cheese pastelito is (part of) the epic result:

I ordered this pastelito mostly because the filling combo sounded too interesting to ignore -- sort of a Cuban version of a Danish. The pastry wrapping itself was crisp and buttery and flakey; the interior oozed sweet and savory flavor with just a little tang from the guava. It went perfectly with the cuban coffee and milk I ordered on accident. Very, very good.

Then, even though I wasn't hungry, because you have to when eating at a place like Cafe Versailles, I ordered a Cuban sandwich. Folks, THIS is where it's at: 

And this is also where it's at:

Imagine: melty, buttery cheese, with tangy mustard and pickles covered in ham and chopped pork on the most perfect crispy Cuban bread you can imagine. Crazy Cafe Versailles, Hungry Sam salutes you.

So damn good. 

Until we eat again, stay Hungry!