Cubano

– Haute Wheels Rolling Sandwich –

$13|December 2022

Compare and contrast, say, a hero/sub/grinder/hoagie pretty much anywhere in America with its baguette etc. equivalent pretty much anywhere in Europe. Whatever the filling, whoever the purveyor, the American take on the sandwich will be stuffed to the gills, that’s why it exists, ultimately. We do things … abundantly. We are heros/subs/grinders/hoagies, and heros/subs/grinders/hoagies are us. Go big or make your crustless tea sandwiches at home.

The Europeans, quite naturally, proffer smaller versions for a variety of reasons (tradition, the quality of the bread, and the cost of ingredients among them). If a sandwich of this type there is aiming for volume, the instinct is not to pile on the meat to half the height of the Eiffel Tower, but to simply use a longer piece of a baguette. It’s a horizontal, not vertical way of thinking, a 180-degree difference in the execution of what’s basically the same concept.

I’m not going to say one style is, as a rule, “better” than the other, since they meet different needs for different people at different times. I’d rather talk about a commonality.

I love, for example, the No. 7 at Jersey Mike’s; the ingredients aren’t heirloom but no apologies are necessary. The No. 7 is the one with turkey and provolone and of course all the Jersey Mike’s trimmings. No mayo, it doesn’t need it; the oil-and-vinegar mix carries it just fine. There’s just something about the coolness of the meat and the smoothness of the cheese that works. I’ve had it without the cheese, not the same. I’ve had it without the onions, not the same. The pickles…not the same. The vinegar demands the oregano. The sandwich works cause all the ingredients complement each other, and even though it’s a monstrosity on your ersatz placemat (the wrapping), everything is proportional within.

The best European versions are more likely to be upscale in the quality of the ingredients, but the commonality is that they also focus on proportionality. There’s less of the ham (it’s almost always ham, and it’s ham you want), less of the cheese (not provolone), less of the condiment (butter’s a good one, try to find that at an American sandwich chain), less of the pickles where applicable (cornichons), but with everything scaled down along with the smaller portion of bread, it works just the same. You can always order two if you’re thaaaat hungry.

Haute Wheels is an old school-bus food truck based in Dickson but liable to be found anywhere in the 40+ miles between there and Nashville. Like with most food trucks, the menu is small and simple but well-considered, priced toward the higher end of a Cheap Eats column … and worth every penny. Looking for lunch one day in Kingston Springs, workers in a local coffee shop tipped me to the truck, which was hanging out in a mostly hidden parking lot out back. Partial to Cubanos from my years in New York (massive) and a couple of visits to Miami (authentic?), I gravitated to it immediately. Soon enough, I’m back in my car, and there it is, a burnished Cubano…that’s lovely to look at and excellent to eat (I skipped the comeback sauce; it’s a nice flourish but I want this to be about the ham and the pork melded into the griddled bread, the cheese as connective tissue). There’s not a lot of any one thing in it, but enough of everything. And it’s sized for the European that’s buried somewhere deep inside many of us, whether we want to admit it or not.