Elena Ruz (The Sandwich)

Elena Ruz
Cuba History pre Castro at its best - I found this explanation of the name of this popular sandwich on Chowhound Florida, must be true ;-)

Robert Creamer, author of the definitive Babe Ruth biography, explained in a 1960’s interview for the Saturday Evening Post how the Babe went to Cuba to play baseball in the off-season at least twice with his first wife, Helen. Helen, who was of frail health and who rarely went out, asked the head waiter at the Hotel Nacional in Havana, where they were staying, to prepare her a sandwich that her grandmother used to make: turkey slices with cream cheese and strawberry jam on toasted white bread. The head waiter obliged the babseball star’s wife, and thus the sandwich was named Elena (or Helen) Rus (pronounced “Roos”, a literal spelling of how non-English speaking Cubans pronounced “Ruth”). This story was confirmed by that head waiter, whose name was Valsar, and who went to exile in Miami after 1960, and died shortly thereafter.

Of course you can enjoy this Plancha at Maimi Grille here in San Diego and eat a little history.
$ 9.50 served with our mixed fries (half sandwich available M-Th 11am-1pm $ 4.75)