After all, the French classic croque-monsieur made with ham and brie is a variant, as is the Reuben, the tuna melt, and even the patty melt.
And now it will offer up table service and call some of its burgers "gourmet" – a word that should never be associated with the humble patty, even if seasoned well and made with fine beef.
At this combination neighborhood tavern and back-room restaurant with a half-dozen plastic-covered tables, jibaritos are typically filled with thin-sliced steak, but you can also get the sandwiches with jerk or honey-lime chicken or even a vegetarian patty.
You can further boost the amount of shrimp in the burger if you prepare the ground mixture in advance and chill (or even freeze) the patties overnight in plastic wrap, then remove them just before frying.
They aren't even all-beef patties; that's how scarce beef is in Havana.
Of course, the traditional reason for wrapping ingredients in pastry — be it Cornish pasties, Jamaican meat patties or even pizza pockets and knishes — is to make an edible container that facilitates transport and obviates the need for niceties like forks and plates.
One moment even resembled an elaborate game of patty-cake.
Even so, labelings for the Don Lee Farms patties reveal areas where the processed product is nutritionally inferior.
Some Haitians even built a micro-industry selling patties made from mud, oil, and sugar -- an ancient remedy to help alleviate hunger pangs.
I had imagined a thick steak and it was more of a sandwich patty, thin and cooked through even though it was ordered medium rare.
Beyond the patties — and there is a full menu, at $5.50 to $7.50, beyond the patties — the offerings are less even but not without merit.
