The Great Philly Cheesesteak (Philadelphia, Reading: employment, schools, college)

[Jo48]

Originally Posted by cremebrulee

I do so miss the Poconos, when we lived there, it was really quiet, not a lot of people, moved up there 30 years ago...bought a house on a small lake, it was a great community...at that time, we had to drive into Stroudsburg to do our grocery shopping because there were no stores in the west end....but it built up quickly....does Sherry's Steak hogies park at the same place all the time, or does she move around?

Stays in the salvation army parking lot permanently

[quiet life]

Originally Posted by cremebrulee

I do so miss the Poconos, when we lived there, it was really quiet, not a lot of people, moved up there 30 years ago...bought a house on a small lake, it was a great community...at that time, we had to drive into Stroudsburg to do our grocery shopping because there were no stores in the west end....but it built up quickly....does Sherry's Steak hogies park at the same place all the time, or does she move around?

Would like an answer on the bold. I'll give it a shot.

[quiet life]

Originally Posted by Jo48

Stays in the salvation army parking lot permanently

Thanks for the answer. I will get to it.

[TomJones123]

Originally Posted by cremebrulee

Please someone from the East Coast, come out here to Bowling Green, KY and open a diner, not a restaurant, just a diner, you'd make a killing, b/c people out here love to go out to eat...a lot of people tell me the food here is awful so they go to Nashville.....to eat, which has great food, but it's over an hour away in awful traffic....

Former New Yorker currently living in Cincinnati. Ive enjoyed many an authentic Cheese Steak and I can tell you that there are few and far between options in Cincinnati for the real deal. Most folks use provolone or swiss and don't offer whiz at all, and the dang rolls arent the right type. In Cincinnati, there is one solid option (Im sure there more than one but one that I frequent) AJ's Cheesesteaks. He runs a truck and its as authentic as you will find outside Philly...well, maybe, thats my huff n puff anyway...lol

https://www.yelp.com/biz_photos/ajs-...aks-cincinnati

Few pics so you can see what he's working with.

I have no earthly idea who in the AF came up with putting pizza sauce on a Philly, but they do that stuff out here in the Nasti- Nati and it's just nasty.

[cremebrulee]

Originally Posted by TomJones123

Former New Yorker currently living in Cincinnati. Ive enjoyed many an authentic Cheese Steak and I can tell you that there are few and far between options in Cincinnati for the real deal. Most folks use provolone or swiss and don't offer whiz at all, and the dang rolls arent the right type. In Cincinnati, there is one solid option (Im sure there more than one but one that I frequent) AJ's Cheesesteaks. He runs a truck and its as authentic as you will find outside Philly...well, maybe, thats my huff n puff anyway...lol

https://www.yelp.com/biz_photos/ajs-...aks-cincinnati

Few pics so you can see what he's working with.

I have no earthly idea who in the AF came up with putting pizza sauce on a Philly, but they do that stuff out here in the Nasti- Nati and it's just nasty.

LOL, I put the sauce on the philly cheesesteak, or once in a while when I'd go get one, I'd ask them for sauce mixed in with the steak...but that's just me....and apparently I wasn't the only one, b/c he kept sauce there for others who asked for it.

We'd drive down to Philly or take the R5 down and go for Cheese steaks....boy they were delicious....but my hometown made them to, and they were just as good, we lived only about 45 minutes North of Philly. We used to go to NYC and go into China Town, we'd all get different foods, and share, then we'd to to another place for dessert...lol....

Now mind you, I know it isn't a philly cheese steak if you put sauce on it or anything other than cheese wiz, but I love American Cheese on mine.....

and you think putting sauce on them is bad, you should taste the so called Philly cheese steaks they make out there, (terrible) I think one place uses Steak ums....and the other place who calls it a philly cheese steak serves it in chunks of steak on a roll....awful!

Oh and btw, thanks so much for the pictures, yup those look like authentic Italian rolls....

You can't get them out here, that's for sure....

Bowling Green years ago, was a tiny college town, my cousin went there and every year we'd come out to the Kentucky Derby and his girlfriends parents would put us up and we'd leave Bowling Green, drive into see the Derby and then drive home to PA, (we saw Secretariat win) so I was very familiar with BG and how wonderful and hospitable the people were here....but the place is really growing and now there are a lot of transplants here as myself, so I'm sure given time, the food will get better, it has to....lol

seriously, thank you for the pictures. That is the kind of place we'd go to across the bridge into NJ from Easton, there was a hot dog shack there, I think it was called Jimmy's Hot Dogs and not far away was the Philly Cheesesteak place.

[MarketStEl]

Originally Posted by TomJones123

Former New Yorker currently living in Cincinnati. Ive enjoyed many an authentic Cheese Steak and I can tell you that there are few and far between options in Cincinnati for the real deal. Most folks use provolone or swiss and don't offer whiz at all, and the dang rolls arent the right type. In Cincinnati, there is one solid option (Im sure there more than one but one that I frequent) AJ's Cheesesteaks. He runs a truck and its as authentic as you will find outside Philly...well, maybe, thats my huff n puff anyway...lol

https://www.yelp.com/biz_photos/ajs-...aks-cincinnati

Few pics so you can see what he's working with.

I have no earthly idea who in the AF came up with putting pizza sauce on a Philly, but they do that stuff out here in the Nasti- Nati and it's just nasty.

Originally Posted by cremebrulee

LOL, I put the sauce on the philly cheesesteak, or once in a while when I'd go get one, I'd ask them for sauce mixed in with the steak...but that's just me....and apparently I wasn't the only one, b/c he kept sauce there for others who asked for it.

(snippage)

Now mind you, I know it isn't a philly cheese steak if you put sauce on it or anything other than cheese wiz, but I love American Cheese on mine.....

and you think putting sauce on them is bad, you should taste the so called Philly cheese steaks they make out there, (terrible) I think one place uses Steak ums....and the other place who calls it a philly cheese steak serves it in chunks of steak on a roll....awful!

Oh and btw, thanks so much for the pictures, yup those look like authentic Italian rolls....

You can't get them out here, that's for sure....

(more snippage)

Well, we now have two exceptions to my rule of thumb, and what they have in common for certain is:

Both use Amoroso rolls for their sandwiches.

Sure you don't want to reconsider your "if they get the meat right, the bread doesn't matter" position, selhars? The rolls made those Texadelphia cheesesteaks less than they could have been.

I think I have seen some shops even here that offer "pizza steaks" with a marinara sauce added to the steak and cheese.

And as for the cheese, yes. the originals use Cheez Whiz – the story I heard was that Pat Oliveri was persuaded by a Kraft salesman to use it because it could be heated in its can on the grill while keeping the grill kosher for Jewish customers (the Whiz goes on the roll, not the meat, so meat and dairy don't mix on the grill) – but it's been my understanding that both American and provolone cheeses are acceptable to use on a cheesesteak.

Swiss, as John Kerry learned to his chagrin, isn't.

Now let me introduce you to an interesting variation.

On my one trip to date to San Francisco (which included a visit to a shop in Berkeley that claimed it sold hoagies as well as cheesesteaks but didn't even get the definition of a hoagie right), I stopped in a place in the Mission District run by Mexicans that churned out Latino street food.

One of the items on the menu was a "quesadilla Suiza."

On the grill was a mound of thinly sliced beef steaks and another mound of onions. I ordered one of these.

The cook slapped a flour tortilla on the grill, then topped it with cooked steak from the mound, then topped that with the onions, then layered slices of cheese (it wasn't Swiss, despite the name) on the thing and topped it with a second flour tortilla. Then he flipped the sandwich over and let the other tortilla cook before serving it to me.

Thus I concluded that "quesadilla Suiza" was Spanish for "cheesesteak." It was really tasty, too.

[selhars]

I don't know where that cheese Whiz stuff started.

I'm Philly born and raised -- south Philly. Grade school 18th and Passyunk. Favorite cheesesteak was Cabana's at Dorrance and Passyunk. I never saw anyone ask for or use Cheese Whiz. It was strictly white American cheese (or provolone, maybe).

I never heard about Cheese Whiz until tourist places like Geno's and Pat's started pushing it in the 1980s. The media played it up...as "cheesesteak "wit" -- as in with. UGH.

ETA: Favorite deli was Rita's at the corner of Garnet and Passyunk (pa-shunk). Tight. Small. Corner place that was great for lunch meat.
(I think that was it. It was a woman's name. Forgive me. it was more than 50 years ago.)

It galls me (a little) that tourists think Geno's/Pat's and Tony Luke's are good cheesesteaks when they started that Cheese Whiz crap. But that's OK let tourists go to those places. I'm more than happy with my great neighborhood places they know nothing about. Makes the line shorter for me.

[thedirtypirate]

Originally Posted by selhars

I don't know where that cheese Whiz stuff started.

I'm Philly born and raised -- south Philly. Grade school 18th and Passyunk. Favorite cheesesteak was Cabana's at Dorrance and Passyunk. I never saw anyone ask for or use cheese Whiz. It was strictly white American cheese (or provolone, maybe).

I never heard about Cheese Whiz until tourist places like Geno's and Pat's started pushing it. The media played it up...ans "cheesesteak "wit" -- as in with. UGH.

That's where it comes from. I remember being generally surprised when I learned most people think people in Philadelphia eat them with cheese wiz. If you order a cheesesteak from 95% of places in the Delaware Valley, and don't specify the cheese, it's coming with American

[selhars]

^ Yes! The ignorance about cheesesteaks is astounding. And I can't believe some Philly folks bought into that. Maybe they tried it with Cheese Whiz and liked it.

You couldn't pay me to eat that. Something about it just ain't right. IMHO.

[cremebrulee]

Originally Posted by selhars

^ Yes! The ignorance about cheesesteaks is astounding. And I can't believe some Philly folks bought into that. Maybe they tried it with Cheese Whiz and liked it.

You couldn't pay me to eat that. Something about it just ain't right. IMHO.

Well come to Bowling Green and get their so called Philly Cheesesteaks, and I promise you, you won't finish it....and be extremely disappointed....