It’s Saturday night in the big apple. Right at this very moment I should be over the Atlantic, but due to the apocalypse that appears to have gripped London, my flight was cancelled. So instead, I’m gonna hang out with my blog and share with you this photo, which may not look all that appetising, but I won’t apologise because if there’s one thing you don’t want to be too neat? It’s a traditional cheese steak hoagie from Philadelphia.
I went to Philly for work on Thursday and my co-worker, Samantha, insisted (not that it took all that much insisting) that I should try a traditional Philly “cheese steak hoagie” before I left. Didn’t take much to get me to agree. I mean, a cheese steak hoagie is basically grilled slices of beef with drippy oozy cheese in a bread roll. What’s not to like?
So after work on Thursday, she takes me into the heart of Philly and explains to me the history of the Philly cheese steak. I won’t drag you through the details but basically there’s this place called Pat’s King of Steaks. Pat’s claims to have invented the cheese steak hoagie. And then there’s this other place called Geno’s Steaks. They claim to have first added cheese to the steak hoagie, making it a cheese steak hoagie. I know, it’s a rager this battle (it’s even documented in wikipedia) and all you want to do is tell them to settle down boys, you both taste pretty damn fine.
But you can’t do that. Located directly across the road from each other, no one (strictly no one) is allowed to play both teams. You pick your team, your favourite cheese steak hoagie, and you stick to it. You loyally buy your hoagie, camp your butt on one of the steel outdoor settees and glare venomously at your nemeses as you chow down, wiping the oozing cheese from your chin like you’ve never tasted anything so awesome.
It turns out Sam likes Pat’s, so that’s where we went.
Despite the icy conditions, Sam and I queued and ordered our cheese steak hoagies. There are instructions (cheat notes) for the plebs amongst us. Pat’s runs a tight show you see, and if you get to the window and stumble on your order well sorry mate, back of the queue for you. That all made me a bit nervous so I pretended to have to take a photo and made Sam do the ordering.
Sam and I both had a “wit whiz”. See if you can figure out what that means
Anyway, so it’s like snowing in Philly and freee-eeeeee-zing, but we still camped our butts on the icy steel benches and gorged on the oozy, cheesy, juicy cheese steak hoagies and boy did I enjoy it a little too much. I mean, sure I’m curious about what Geno’s might taste like, but I’m a little scared to venture over there. Having now been branded by Pat’s, I think I’ve inadvertently picked my camp!
Pat’s King of Steaks
1237 East Passyunk Avenue
Philadelphia, 19147
215 468 1546
website
