Willamette Week: The Buena Fiesta Social Club-New Cuban Restaurant Pambiche Goes Back to That Country’s Delicious Roots

August 23rd 2000 by Jim Dixon

Pambiche provides a taste of what Cuban cuisine once was and could be. John Connell-Maribona, Pambiche’s Cuban-American chef and owner, calls the food “comida criolla,” or creole cuisine. I call it delicious. The most well-known item in the stateside Cuban culinary repertoire is a pork sandwich, ex-pat fast food from Miami to New York. The Pambiche version includes a slice of adobo-marinated roast pork, Black Forest ham, Swiss cheese and dill pickle, all layered into a mustard-spread roll that’s toasted in a sandwich press. It comes out compressed, the cheese slightly melted, the hard outer crust of the roll cracked and warm and wonderfully tasty. The roast pork shows up again on the Plato Cubano, alongside black beans, rice and a side of yuca. The same lineup, without the meat and including a little of the cabbage salad, is called Plato Comunista and described as the “contemporary Cuban plate” without a hint of sarcasm.

Chef Connell-Maribona pays homage to Mama Ivonne with lengua en salsa, slices of tongue simmered fork-tender in a tomato and pimiento sauce flavored with mild chiles and toasted almonds.