The Jibarito! My new favorite sandwich.

THE JIBARITO! This is a popular sandwich served at Puerto Rican restaurants in Chicago. And it is also a sandwich that started here in Chicago and not Puerto Rico! Cool! I must admit, for years I did not like this sandwich, but I think it's because I had a shitty one the 1st. and 2nd. time I tried em. My one friend Mick loves em and would always encourage me to re-try em. But for yrs. i couldn't. The sandwich is made with fried plantains instead of using bread for the bun. Plantains are a savory banana. The first two times I ever had a Jibarito it was from a place here in Chicago that claims to have started the Jibarito. I went there very excited to try and it was awful. Both times. The plantains were dry, as was the meat. It tasted like a rush job sandwich made with 0 love. Then a few weeks ago my friend Michael Sanchez said he would buy one for me if I would just try it again. And I did, I loved it! This time though I had it from one of my all time favorite spots: Cafe Central, 1437 W. Chicago Ave. Since then I have had 8 Jibarito's in under 2 weeks!

The Jibarito is a sandwich made on plantains. Plantains are a savory type of larger banana from tropical regions. the Jibarito pictured above is a Lechon (pork) jibarito and it has American cheese, mayo and lettuce. It also comes with onions and tomato but I am not a fan of uncooked onions or tomatoes so I said "hold the onions and tomatoes, please!" I also added a little hot sauce on top of it. The hot sauce at Cafe Central is super hot! Be careful with how much you use.
By the way, the Lechon Jibarito is only available Thursday-Sunday at Cafe Central, but they have other meats available though for the sandwich and a vegetarian version is also available. The veggie one is made with avocado.