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Happy National Hoagie Day!

Five Food Finds about Hoagies:

1. The original “hoagie” is what is now referred to as an “Italian Hoagie” which includes a variety of traditional Italian lunch meats, including dry salami, mortadella, capicolla, and provolone served with lettuce, tomato and onions with a light vinegar and oil dressing.
2. Former Philadelphia mayor (also once Pennsylvania governor) Ed Rendell declared the hoagie the “Official Sandwich of Philadelphia”.
3. Most hoagie shops offer single-meat hoagies (for example, ham or salami hoagies) as well as premium hoagies with upscale ingredients: prosciutto, imported Italian lunchmeats (cotechino, mortadella, sopressata, etc.). A popular variant is the grinder or cosmo, which is essentially a hoagie that has been toasted under a broiler.
4. Many takeout shops in Chicago sell a “hoagy” (sic.), usually containing steak and other ingredients, with the option of being “heated.” They also sell cheesesteak, referred to most often as “Philly Steak.”
5. In many areas the default cheese on a hoagie is Provolone, while in others it is white American cheese. Cheese-only hoagies (Provolone, American, or Mixed) replace the meat with extra slices of cheese.

Today’s Food History

on this day in…

1494 Columbus landed at Jamaica and met the Arawak Indians. The Arawak used Jamaican pimento (allspice) to season and smoke meat (usually pigs), the foundation upon which Jamaican Jerk developed.

1854 Asa Fitch was appointed as New York state entomologist, the first such in the U.S. He studied insects and their effects on agricultural crops.

1942 War time food rationing began in the U.S.