- Hey everybody! Welcome to another exciting episode of Dining on a Dime. I am your host, Lucas Peterson. We are standing on Southwest 8th Street, heading to a place called El Mago De Las Fritas. A Cubana frita is a traditional Cuban sandwich, that dates back to the beginning part of the 20th century in Cuba.
The best way to describe it would be, sort of like a Cuban hamburger. El Mago de las Fritas, which means the magician of the fritas, was started by a man named Ortelio Cárdenas in the 1980s. He is recently taken somewhat ill, and so, unfortunately, he will not be able to speak with us today, but we will be able to speak with his daughter. So I'm really excited to try this Cubana fritas, I'm really excited to get a taste of what a real, traditional Cuban hamburger tastes like. Let's go.
(light flamenco music plays) Hi, Danielle. - Hello. - I'm Lucas.
- Nice to meet you. - Nice to meet you, too.
Hi, I'm Lucas. - George - Hi George, nice to meet you guys. George, I understand that you've been coming here for a long time. - Since 1984, since I graduated high school. I keep coming back and later on invited my parents to come, then my friends and it's been like a tradition forever.
And now my daughters. It's always been consistent and excellent.
Always fresh, like a family restaurant, everybody knows everyone, even my first name. - Did you grow up in Miami? Yup, native, I'm a native.
My parents are from Cuba, I was born here. So out of me and my sisters, I was the only one born here. - What is it about Miami in particular, like why didn't Orlando become the center of the Cuban population in Florida? - I know from my parent's perspective, they just knew it 'cause they would come on vacation here. Florida, Miami Beach, and see the sights and go back.
So, when the revolution began, decided to move here and live here, this is what they knew. - Danielle, do you like the food here? (Lucas laughs) - When I first came here, all I ate were rice and beans here on Wednesdays, 'cause they used to have a specials sign. - Nice. - And my dad would get bored of it.
He'd be like, "Danielle, when are you gonna eat something new?" I was like, "croquetas". So that's all I ate, croquetas and rice and beans, and then my dad was like, "You got to try a frita!" So then I tried it, and I was like, "It's actually really good." So next thing you know, after a while, my dad goes like, "You got to try this Pan con Bistec, it's good!
" I was like, "Okay." I tried it, it's good too.
It's really good. - So it sounds like everything you've had here is pretty good. - Juicy.
- Did you learn a lesson that when you're dad says you should try this thing, and you're kind of like "ugh, I don't want to try it" but then you tried it. Did you learn a lesson that you should trust your father? - Yes. (Lucas laughing) - 'Cause that's important. (upbeat Cuban music) - [Lucas] Martha.
- Nice to meet you. It- Very nice to meet you. You're the daughter of Ortelio. - Yes. I am.
- Is that correct? - Yes, Ortelio, you said it very well. - Well thank you very much. (both laughing) - That's a difficult one. - [Lucas] He is the original Mago de las Fritas, right?
- Yes he is. - [Lucas] So he's the magician.
- He's the magician. - [Lucas] Why did he open this restaurant in the 1980s? - My father was never in the restaurant business, he was never a cook, he didn't even know how to cook at home.
And my uncle reached out to him, offered him, you know, why don't you learn? I think you'll be a really good businessman. Eventually, you'll become a good cook, and my father learned and liked it. Worked with him for a couple of years, and then he came and opened here. And my mother would cook, and my mother would take orders.
My father would do more of the griddle stuff, more of the fritas, more of the pan con bistec. A few months later, they hired a waitress, and little by little, they started growing and growing. And it is what it is today. It's a small family business.
- So there are a lot of places that make frita Cubanas, but a lot of people say this is the best in the whole city.
What do you do that makes it really good? - We make it ourselves. My father and I. We are the only ones making the recipe. We make it fresh when you order it.
Fresh meat, the potatoes are fresh. The bread is fresh, made for us daily. On top of that, it's made with a lot of love and caring. We're always on top of things, making sure things are done right.
(light Cuban music) - Ladies and gentlemen, I do present to you the Cubana Frita.
I'm gonna dig in here and have a bite. You guys, I love the Cubana Frita. It is on the list of favorite sandwiches of all time. You've got the nice spiced meat of the patty smashed flat on that flattop griddle. You've got that beautiful runny fried egg.
The shoestring potato is so nice because it adds a crunch.
Certainly, if you like spiced meat and chorizo pork, you would really love the Cubana Frita. This is great. Now we have a creation of El Mago de las Fritas. They've experimented with different sandwiches and came up with something which is going to be a frita that incorporates a Medianoche sandwich.
So a Medianoche sandwich is another Cuban sandwich that has ham and pulled pork. We haven't really done traditional Cuban sandwiches while we've been in Miami. We've been trying to get a real representation of all different kinds of cuisines. So it's sorta nice that we can get this mash-up of the frita and the medianoche.
This is very good.
So here you have a bunch of different things going on. You've got that traditional frita patty. But then you've also got this pork infusion. It just adds another nice dimension. It adds that salty, nitrite.
You can taste the bread is a little bit sweeter. The difference is subtle, but it just gives a nice complement to what's going on within the sandwich, which is extremely salty.
We'll take a little batido break. Batido is just a shake. And this is the Mamey sapote.
I think this is really good. To me, it tastes like dulce de leche. It has a natural creaminess and caramelizes. Last but not least, pan con bistec. This is just gonna be a steak sandwich.
(crunch) It's got that heavily spiced flavor, not quite as strong as the chorizo. But still a lot of garlic and onion. Really salty, hearty meat. The steak is patted so thin, that it really just kinda melts when you take a bite into it. (crunch) It's a great sandwich.
I don't know if I would take this over the frita, maybe if I came here every day, maybe one day a week. I would get the pan con bistec. To recap, we're here at El Mago de las Fritas which has been around since 1984, more than 30 years. Ortelio, the owner, the Mago, the magician have really developed a relationship with the clientele, with the neighborhood. And it's not something you see as often in restaurants that are purely profit-driven.
When you've got these old school places, mom and pop family places, they really do care about the community, they really do develop relationships with people, so the love of the restaurant, the love of the dish, is actually handed down from generation to generation. And we saw that tonight. It's a special familial environment. That's not something you can fake. And that's not something you can manufacture.
I really hope you enjoyed this episode of Dining on a Dime from El Mago de las Fritas in Miami, Florida. If you'd like to watch more, please click here.
Danielle! - [Dad] Hey take a little picture with the crew, Danielle. - Let's take a little photo.
Say "pan con bistec". - Pan con bistec! (laughing).
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