Snacking State-by-State: Pennsylvania II - A cheese steak just isn't a cheese steak... (or "The Philadelphia [Cheese Steak] Story")

When food fans thinks of Philadelphia, two things come to mind: cream cheese and cheese steaks (twice with the cheese).  I've eaten much more of the former, on bagels, in cheesecakes, even in maki rolls.  But the famous cheese steak is a sandwich I haven't eaten many of.  That changes below.

Official Name: Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
State Nicknames: The Keystone State, The Quaker State
Admission to the US: December 12, 1787 (#2 - Delaware beat 'em to the punch)
Capital: Harrisburg (9th largest)
Other Important Cities: Philadelphia (largest), Pittsburgh (2nd largest), Allentown (3rd largest), Erie (4th largest)
Region: Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, Midwest; Middle Atlantic (US Census)
RAFT Nations: Maple Syrup; Clambake; Crabcake; Chestnut; Wild Rice
Bordered by: Maryland & the Mason-Dixon Line (south), West Virginia (southwest), Ohio (west), Lake Erie (northwest), New York (north & northeast), New Jersey & the Delaware River (east), Delaware (southeast)
Official State Foods and Edible Things: white-tailed deer (animal), milk (beverage), ruffed grouse (bird), chocolate chip cookie (cookie), brook trout (fish)
Some Famous and Typical Foods: German & Amish foods; Polish & Eastern European foods; pretzels, water ice, hoagies & Philly cheese steaks (particular to Philadelphia); city chicken, halupki & halušky, chipped ham, kielbasa (particular to Pittsburgh); scrapple; Hershey's chocolates; birch beer; Herr's Potato Chips, Hanover Pretzels & (yes) Utz Potato Chips; people (if you're an extra in a George Romero movie, that is - the big ones were all filmed near Pittsburgh)

Swing from western PA to eastern PA, and discuss the foods of Philadelphia, city of brotherly love.  This includes pretzels, water ice and of course Philly cheese steaks.

I've been to Philly enough - it's just two hours up 95 after all.  And yes, I've eaten a lot up there: Egyptian food, Irish food, ice cream, hot dogs, a myriad of plates full of whatever at the Reading Terminal Market (just before a visit to the Franklin Institute, or after a visit to the creeptastic Mütter Museum no less).  But I haven't really ever tried the cheese steaks.  This has spared me from making the fateful choice between the city's fabled competing cheese steak stands, Pat's vs Geno's (or were they actually fighting?  Maybe not after all...)  Yes, I know I'm not from Philly, and yes, I know that Baltimore, with its weird mish-mash of Northern, Southern and generic Chesapeake foods, is a major hub for "Philly (style) cheese steaks.  But since i haven't eaten many in Philly, I can only assume that ours are mere shadows of the real thing.  Probably the same can be said for the one I made below.  Actually scratch that - I know you can say that.

But I wasn't sure just how easy or difficult it was to make a Philadelphia cheese steak.  It can indeed be done - whole online forums are devoted to the subject.  The matter they debate is not about assembly, or even whether to use provolone or Cheez Whiz.  They debate how to slice the meat, and what meat to use.  Most forums, such as this one on Chowhound, specify a rib eye roast of at least a few pounds.  The rib eye roast, which is apparently the most tender to use, needs to be at least partially frozen to enable easier slicing.   In addition, the forums recommend a meat slicer.  I know my family has one, but I have no idea where this thing is.  And I don't have an extra $70 - $300 to buy a new one.  So a $20 electric knife will have to do.

The Recipe: Philadelphia Cheese Steak


The recipe I use is from Pat's King of Steaks.  They give an easy recipe to the Food Network that I attempt to replicate below.  You will need:

* beef roast (preferably rib eye; I got about 1 3/4 lbs of eye round for about $4 a pound)

* vegetable oil to fry up the veggies in; I had this)

* onion (had one)

* mushrooms ($2.50 for a small tub)

* green & red bell peppers (at first I planned to buy one each, roast them and fry them in oil, but buying the jar of pre-roasted pre-oiled peppers for about the same price - $4 - and this saved me an extra step or two at that)

* provolone and/or Cheez Whiz (I had neither, and wanted to try the cheese steak using both.  A half pound of provolone was about $4, as was one jar of Cheez Whiz, which I didn't realize was in the refrigerated section)

* ketchup (had it)

* Italian rolls (a package at Harris Teeter was another four bucks) 

First, leave your roast, uncooked, in the freezer for at least a few hours.  This will make it easier to carve.  Even after leaving it in for two hours, it didn't really get too hard.  I tried it in a semi-semi-frozen state.

I knew going in that the beef would never be truly as thin as I wanted it to be, since I didn't have a hand slicer.  But I did try my best to get it as thin as possible.

The pieces wound up being about this thin.  So already this won't be as thin as I want it.  But it's as good as I will get it.

Next, slice an onion thinly.

Heat some vegetable oil on a flat surface - a griddle, a grill or (once again) my trusty 12" cast iron skillet.

Fry the onions until slightly brown.

When they get like this, remove them...

...so you can fry the beef.

It won't take long to cook the beef through, though had the beef been thinner it probably would've cooked faster.

I wanted to try the cheese steaks with both provolone and Cheez Whiz.  The provolone is easy to use: just put it on the cheese steak.  But I don't usually work with Cheez Whiz, so I had to go the extra step of heating it up to a pourable consistency in the microwave.  I found that I had to reheat it since it re-solidified by the time I needed it.  That's just not natural, dude.

Take out the beef and cook the mushrooms.

Add the peppers, and what the hell, add the onions too.  Pat's recipe does not say to cook the onions with mushrooms or peppers.  It assumes those are already cooked.

Now to assemble your cheese steak.  First place the meat on your Italian roll, which of have to cut in half of course.

Next add the onions (had I cooked them separately, the mushrooms and peppers would go on last).

Then comes the cheese.  I decided to make half provolone and half Cheez Whiz, and divide the sandwich in half..

Top this with a little ketchup.  This didn't look right but the recipe never said where exactly to put it, so there it goes.

There you have it: my own version of Pat's King of Steaks' cheese steak.  Granted it's certainly nothing like the original, or their competitor's version.  I found it kind of messy to eat - had I put it inside some sort of paper wrapping I could have kept it from falling apart.  It didn't completely fall apart, though a few bits of beef did fall out, or off, here and there.  It was a jam-packed sub, that's for sure.  The beef was a little chewy, which would not have been a problem had I been able to slice it thinner.  As to the question of provolone vs Cheez Whiz?  I have to go with the provolone.  I found the Cheez Whiz to be surprisingly bland.  In comparison, provolone is too, but I just liked it better.  That said, I now have a jar of Cheez Whiz I need to find something to do with.

Sources:

Amish America.  "What do Amish eat?"  Copyright 2010 Amish America, All rights reserved.

Amish Homestead Cookbook.  Tourist cookbook, date of publication unknown.

AmericanCivilWar.com.  "American Civil War Recipes: Union Hardtack and Confederate Johnnie Cakes".  Date unknown.  Copyright 1997-2012 AmericanCivilWar.com, maintained by Central Design Lab. All articles are public domain and clearly credit and link to the author when possible.

Batz, Bob, Jr. "Pittsburgh sticks with loving 'City Chicken'".  Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, published March 30, 2012.  Copyright ©1997-2012 PG Publishing Co., Inc. All rights reserved.

Brieda, Luboš.  "Potato Dumplings (Halušky)".  Slovak Cooking, posted November 3, 2009.  Updated March 24, 2010.  Copyright 2009-2011 Slovak Cooking.

Chowhound.com.  "Slicing Ribeye roast for philly cheese steak".  Discussion on "Home Cooking" board, Chowhound.com. Thread started September 6, 2008.

Pat's King of Steaks. "Pat's King of Steaks Philadelphia Cheese Steak".  Featured on the episode "Best Sandwiches" of the show The Best Of.  Food Network, 1999.

Pennsylvania Dutch Convention and Visitors Bureau.  "Pennsylvania Amish history & beliefs".  Copyright 2012 Pennsylvania Dutch Convention and Visitors Bureau, site maintained by Cimbrian.

Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission.  Pennsylvania Cookbook Trail of History.  From the Editors of Stackpole Books and the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, foreword by William Woys Weaver.  Stackpole Books: Mechanicsburg, PA, 2004.

Pittsburgh.About.com (About.com). "How to Make Haluski (Cabbage and Noodles)"  Date unknown.  Copyright 2012 About.com.  All rights reserved.

Robinson, Douglas.  "City Chicken".  Recipe in I Grew Up in Southwestern Pennsylvania: A Nostalgic Look at Growing Up in the Pittsburgh Region.  Recipe featured in the article "Pittsburgh sticks with loving 'City Chicken'" by Bob Batz, Jr. (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, published March 30, 2012)

Some information also obtained from Wikipedia's "Pennsylvania" page and other pages, and the Food Timeline State Foods link to "Pennsylvania".

Sahara Grill

After my visit to Chinatown, I explored the city a little bit, eventually finding my way back to the Franklin Institute to catch that great Tutankhamun exhibit. It was fabulous! The only thing that disappointed me was that, from the stuff that was posted outside the exhibit, it led me to believe that the actual mummy, or at least physical reconstructions of the ancient boy-king, would be featured in the exhibit. Nope. Just a brief blurb at the end of the exhibit. But it was not a disappointing exhibition at all. There were so many great things shown from Tut's tomb, as well as those of his parents (Akhenaten and Tiye, according to one genealogy and this exhibition), stepparents (Nefertiti) and grandparents. There were canopic jars, chairs, staffs, shabti, busts and so many other great things out the wazoo. At $34, the price can be a wee bit prohibitive, but it will be worth it. It's there until September, so start saving now and go sometime in the next few months.

It seemed only fitting that such an exhibit be followed with some delicious Middle Eastern cuisine. So I headed back to Walnut St. and found the Sahara Grill. In the heart of Philly's "gayborhood" (the gay neighborhood of the city), I had accidentally stumbled upon this place once before. I've never mentioned it before because, well, I couldn't think of the name! Pretty sad, especially for food that was pretty memorable. All I knew was that it was in that area somewhere, so I started roaming around and luckily I found it.

It wasn't too obvious to me that I could seat myself, as the waitresses and all the staff are at the back of this small but lovely restaurant. I got seated by the window and was given a menu. Of course, it took me a while to figure out exactly what to eat. I finally settled on the lamb and beef shawerma, in this case chopped up and laid on top of a flavorful rice with some red onion and grilled vegetables (not many), and accompanied by some yogurt. I ordered a separate order of thick yogurt, labneh, which was covered with a little bit of olive oil and spices.

I had no idea just how much food I had ordered.

First came the labneh, a medium-sized bowl which came either with or at the same time as my salad (just lettuce and tomatoes, but at least none of that nasty iceberg lettuce) and pita. Then came my massive plate of shawerma about five minutes later. It took a while to eat this stuff and about halfway through I just gave up and boxed the rest. I also passed on dessert (they have baklava if you want dessert). I figured the food would survive a two hour drive home in the cold February weather. It must have, because I just finished eating it for lunch, and so far, I am feeling fine and groovy.

Galldarnit!

Okay, as irritating as she occasionally is, Rachael Ray did a $40 a Day episode in Philly. And it's on now. Wish I had caught it 36 hours ago! Not that I didn't make good - even inexpensive - food choices, but still. Could've been useful.

Sang Kee Peking Duck

Happy Year of the Pig! I celebrated it in Philly. I parked off of Walnut, a few blocks away from the Convention Center and Chinatown, and found that it wasn't that far. I've walked from Walnut to the Franklin Institute of Science before (it takes about 20 to 30 minutes), and I need the exercise. Don't we all?

Verity over at American Geisha had offered to get some good spots to eat from her friend in Philly, but I procrastinated (Oops! My bad, Verity). So I just relied on my Philadelphia travel guides. The one I got the most out of was the Philadelphia Access Guide, which gave me lots of good ideas. After much deliberation - Chinese, Vietnamese, Burmese, Malaysian - I chose the cheap eatery Sang Kee Peking Duck. Simple food that's a cut above similar establishments, Sang Kee has two locations, one in Chinatown and one very close by, in the massive Reading Terminal Market (pronounced "Redding"). Think our Lexington Market - there's even a photo collage of Lexington Market and other markets around the Western world.

I went to find the Chinatown location and ran into a barely moving mass of people around the sounds of fireworks. I had to go see the celebrations. This was a great way to bask in the Chinese New Year celebration. I took a few photos, but soon gave up. Yes, I did get one or two good shots purely by luck. But I eventually found that I am just not tall enough to see a dragon costume over 500 people! I likewise gave up on finding the restaurant in Chinatown itself, again, because of the massive, stationary throngs of people.

So I headed toward the Reading Terminal Market, which is very close to the Convention Center. In fact, I went to a convention there a few years ago, and only figured this out yesterday. The place, of course, has lots of stalls with fresh meats, fish, produce and sweets, plus cookbooks, pet supplies, and tons of other things (I bought a book of Marshmallow Fluff recipes). It also has stalls of raw oysters, Middle Eastern, Chinese, cheese steaks, soul food, Amish (yes, Amish) food, etc.

The Sang Kee stall was small, unimposing - much of what you'd expect in a typical stall eatery. After much deliberation, I went for (duh) duck. Actually, I went for duck and pork with rice and vegetables. Sounded tasty, all for about $6.85. The person behind me then ordered a "Peking Duck Roll." I wondered: anything like the Aroma duck "fajita" I got in London? It was, but they - not you - wrap up the duck. I didn't get one, but next time I'm up there I just might. It's about $1.50 if you do.

With a Diet Coke for about 75¢, the total came to $7.50. Pretty good for fresh duck, lots of rice and Chinese cabbage, and pork (hey, it is the Year of the Pig). I got my meal and tried to find a place to sit. Most of what was available and not icked over with half-eaten food was cafeteria-style seating. So I chose a corner at one table and opened up the styrofoam container. Prettily laid out, the food hid a large bed of white rice. My first bite was a large, fatty piece of duck with the skin - not a bright idea, mind you, to stuff this into your mouth all at once. After chewing it for a couple seconds, at least a tablespoon of liquid fat had to have gone down my throat. Yuck. But the rest, apart from the small bone pieces (I found myself spitting out more than a few), was pretty good. Even though the pork had been warmed in a microwave, it was still tasty. And the duck was, again, juicy (natch) and delicious, despite the bones. The many, many, small pieces of bone.

Three other people sat at my table - again, nowhere else to sit. We pretty much kept to each other. I was eying their chocolate and white chocolate-dipped pretzels, thinking about getting one of my own.

I didn't, but again there's always next time.

It just struck me... (or Year of the Pig, Covered in Cheese Whiz)

Thanks to all y'all for your suggestions about great places to eat in Philadelphia. But I just realized something: the same weekend I have scheduled for my Prez Day trip to Philly is Chinese New Year! Does anybody know what Philly's celebration is like? This may mean a pre-emptive re-scheduling of the Tut exhibit (it is there till September, after all) and a trip to DC or New York for Chinese New Year if Philly does not get really into it.

The Cheesesteak Project

Verity pointed this one out. How fun! Some guys sampled the cheesesteaks of Philadelphia for their senior project, to see which was best. Somebody needs to do this with steamed crabs here.

From the Philadelphia Enquirer.

President's Day Road Trip: Philly

I am traversing the Mason-Dixon line again soon, this time heading to Philadelphia to see the exciting King Tut exhibit at the Franklin Institute of Science. It just left LA, I think. Anyway, I will be sharing my food experiences up there. There won't be many; it'll just be a day trip.

But I am doing something I haven't done before. I am asking y'all if you could recommend a good place for lunch or dinner, maybe even breakfast. If there is any place up in Philly that you just crave whenever you go up there, let me know. I have a limited range of places. The last time I went, my best dining experience was at the Whole Foods. I can get that here. So help, please! Thanks.