Plantain District: Cuban sandwiches on wheels
Call this my lucky day: After standing in line for five minutes at the window of the one-month-old Plantain District food truck — parked today near Research Medical Center — I got the last Cuban sandwich of the day. The time? 12:30 p.m. The truck had been serving only since 10:30 a.m.
“It was the first time we’ve ever run out of anything since we started in October,” says Jakob Polaco, the chef who runs the Cuban restaurant on wheels with his girlfriend, Lauren Robertson. “We had a fluke mix-up getting together with our bread purveyor in Olathe. When you’re making Cuban sandwiches, you can’t just run out and buy Wonder Bread!”
A young woman standing in line eyed my sandwich enviously. “I’ve been craving a real Cuban sandwich for months,” she told me. I gave her half of my Cubano. Even a half of a Jakob Polaco is an embarrassment of riches. It’s a glorious Cuban sandwich, certainly as delicious as anything I’ve eaten in Miami, Florida — a mecca for excellent Cuban cuisine.
It’s also a labor-intensive creation: Polaco brines and cold-smokes his own ham, braises and slow-roasts his pork, even makes his own pickles. The ice-cold, quick pickles are steeped in coriander, juniper, peppercorns, fresh dill and garlic. Even the bread is made to his specifications, from a recipe that includes lard. (“The rich flavor comes from the lard,” Polaco says.)
The sandwich is the top-selling dish on a limited menu that also currently features sopa de la calabaza, a pumpkin and winter squash soup (but it’s not vegetarian — it’s made with chicken stock) and a braised beef dish served with rice, Ropa Vieja, and garnished with roasted bell peppers. The ropa is a new addition to Polaco’s winter menu, which he introduced last week. It replaces a flank-steak sandwich. Another celebrated Plantain District dish, papas rellenas — fried croquettes of mashed potatoes and beef picadillo — will also be changed next week to a plantain baked with beef picadillo and topped with a queso fresco foam.
A graduate of the Oregon Culinary Institute, Polaco returned to his hometown of Joplin, Missouri, to work in a family-owned Thai restaurant, Kinnaree Thai. In 2011, Polaco was in his second-floor apartment with Robertson, his niece and his mother when the tornado of May 22 hit. The quartet huddled under a stairwell, but the apartment complex was nearly destroyed. But that wasn’t the reason that Polaco moved to Kansas City the following year. “I always wanted to live in Kansas City,” he says.
After stints in several local restaurants, including two months at the American Restaurant, and two years working for a personal chef service, Polaco was approached by two investors who wanted him to start up a Cuban sandwich truck. Polaco says the work is very hard; if he’s not cooking or prepping dishes in the truck, he’s cooking in a commercial kitchen in Independence, Missouri. Robertson cooks there, too, making desserts for the truck; it’s currently a mango-chocolate-chip cookie.
“But we’re really enjoying it,” Polaco says. “Lauren and I have never worked together in such close quarters, but we love working together.”
Plantain District can typically be found on Mondays and Wednesdays on Hospital Hill from 10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. The truck’s current location can always be found on its Facebook page
