Hardly. At Bongos Cuban Caf??, a sleek sandwich bar owned by Gloria Estefan, the Cubano was well-pressed but devoid of flavor. At the Casa Bacardi lounge, it was inedibly dry ??? which was probably the point. The drier your mouth, the more Bacardi rum mojitos you???ll consume.
By the time I reached La Carreta, I was nearly in despair. Sure, this outpost of a Miami mini-chain looked appropriately shacklike, with a stand-up coffee counter and a cheap-looking backlit menu that included a host of tropical-fruit shakes. It certainly felt like Little Havana. But I???d been fooled before.
Not this time. The roast pork was juicy, garlicky and chock-full of real roasted flavor, and the cheese tasted as if it had actually been produced from the milk of a cow. La Carreta???s was a Cubano I would happily eat ???off-campus,??? as airline employees refer to the world outside the airport, even though the bread was oddly chewy and I wanted more pickles. Then again, I always want more pickles.
No one likes to eat in airports, but eat in airports we must, since we???re spending more time there than ever. Around one in four air passengers experienced trip delays averaging an hour and 54 minutes in 2007, according to a report from the Center for Air Transportation Systems Research at George Mason University. And it only gets worse during the holidays, said Lance Sherry, the center???s executive director, since airlines are running at maximum capacity and therefore can???t easily recover from delays and cancellations.
???Small delays will have a big impact,??? he said.
At the same time, he added, the airports ???perversely??? benefit from the delays. By offering cheap leases to airlines, he said, the airports have to make money somehow, and they do so through concessions. Which is why that ice-cold turkey sandwich costs $9, the bottle of water is $3, and the delays never seem to get any shorter.
???They???re incentivized to keep passengers longer,??? Professor Sherry said.
