Oh a well made Cubano is a thing of beauty. Too many places try to “improve” it. No, no, no. Stick to the basics, That’s what makes it good.
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Me too
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I’m going with a grilled cheese on my own homemade bread with my own homemade onion jam.
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EXACTLY. It’s perfect as is!
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I am intrigued by this homemade onion jam.
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Oh out here asking the hard questions eh?
Lets see… my contenders for favorite sandwich are:
- italian sub/hoagie
- french dip
- monte cristo
- cubano
- reuben
- BLT but only at the height of tomato season
The Monte Cristo is more like a dessert than a lunch though, and the Cubano is hard to find. A really good french dip with swiss cheese might be the winner for me but it depends on the weather. Clearly, this requires more research.
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You may live to regret asking me about jam!
Onion jam is basically carmelized onions in a preserveable state. You start by slicing up a whole bag of onions (two pounds will do it, they will cook down a lot) and sauteing them in a glug of olive oil for a good long while, then you add sugar and balsamic vinegar (roughly half a cup of each, or more to your own taste). Let that cook a bit longer until it thickens and starts to feel jammy.
At this point you can refrigerate for roughly a week, freeze for a few months, or can it (although if you’re hot water bath canning you want to check the pH first for safety).
It will be both sweet and tangy and massively delicious with cheese or on a burger or other sandwich. Also a nice addition to a charcuterie board, if you’re into that.
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Oh yeah, how could I leave them off? And I’d try one in different restaurants in every state I visited, like when I was touring, it kind of became a joke among the band (you should mail out a ‘french dip’ newsletter, with all you’re french dip thoughts and reviews)
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That sounds like something I would definitely want to try. Thanks for sharing that!
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This guy Massachusetts-es
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North Attleboro is my hometown.
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Hell yes.
Also the American sub at Pancho’s Pit, a local restaurant in my neighborhood growing up.
Today I like Philly Cheese or a good hot ham and cheese sandwich.
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Oh man how did I forget meatball subs! Adding that to my Sandwiches Requiring Further Study list.
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I am born and raised in Bucks County, in the Philadelphia suburbs. So while I feel pressure to pick cheesesteak as my favorite sando, I can’t. It’s fine, and I LIKE IT VERY MUCH (especially the chicken cheesesteak variety with mushrooms), but I’m always been a hoagie guy. And while Wawa hoagies are fine in a pinch, they’re far from the best in the area, mostly because of their bread sitch. It’s a cliche, but what makes a hoagie or a cheesesteak right is the roll.
An aside: a real cheesesteak will never include the word “Philly” in it…if you see that word in your food, run away
The Chicago Thin Crust pizza of Philly is the roast pork sandwich with sharp provolone and broccoli rabe.
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That’s the only thing they’re called around here. I suspect, however, that not all of them were made in Philadelphia but were assembled locally.
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It’s like Chinese Food. In China, it’s just called “Food”.
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Yeah but like are there non Philly cheesesteaks out there? Like if someone said “cheesesteak” to you in Lincoln, NE, what would you expect? A t-bone with cheddar?
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Yes. They let just enough of the cheese melt over the side of the steak and hit the grill edge…
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We’re getting into is-a-taco-a-sandwich territory here, I fear.
Like, is there non-Chinese Chop Suey? (Technically, all Chop Suey is non-Chinese since it was invented in America. Or was it 
)
Anyway, I think “Philadelphia” is meant not as a descriptor of content but as an indicator of quality, meaning genuine, authentic, hearkening back to the sweltering days of August 1776, when Ben Franklin and Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence and spilled cheese sauce on the first draft.
But! That could change at the drop of the hat, if some other locale invented a different kind of cheesesteak, and (like Pizza) we end up with some kind of cheesesteak diaspora. Think of a Chicago Deep-Dish Cheesesteak served in a casserole dish and layer with three inches of cheese and butter. Or California Cheesesteak, made with grass-fed soy! Or a (Canadian invented) Hawaiian Cheesesteak with back bacon and pineapple!
The mind boggles.
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