The Tampa Cuban Sandwich, Officially

Argue Cuban sandwich origins anywhere in the country and you'll start a fight. In Tampa, it's settled. On April 3, 2012, the Tampa City Council passed a resolution naming the Cuban sandwich the city's signature sandwich and laying out, ingredient by ingredient, the proper components.

The ingredients (per the resolution)

• Cuban bread — long, soft loaf with a thin crust, baked locally
• Mojo-marinated roast pork
• Glazed Spanish ham
• Genoa salami
• Swiss cheese
• Dill pickles
• Yellow mustard
• Pressed flat on a plancha until the cheese melts and the bread shatters

That salami is the hill Tampa dies on. Miami-style Cubans skip it; Tampa's version, born in the immigrant kitchens of Ybor City, includes it as a nod to the Sicilian families who lived alongside the Cuban and Spanish cigar workers.

Where to try one

The traditional answer is La Segunda Central Bakery on 15th Street — they bake the bread, they have for over a century, and they sell the sandwich made with their own loaf. The Columbia Restaurant version, served since 1915, is the most photographed. West Tampa Sandwich Shop and Bricks are local favorites for an under-$10 lunch.

The bread test

The mark of a real Cuban sandwich is the bread. Authentic Cuban bread in Tampa is baked with a wet palmetto frond laid across the top of the loaf — it slits the crust as the dough rises and creates the signature thin, slightly crackly top. If your sandwich is on a hoagie roll, it's not Cuban; it's lunch.