Hoagies & Zeps from Pudge's in Blue Bell

So my dad wanted to have an "East Norriton Birthday" the other week which meant tomato pie from Corropolese (apparently my father has been going to Corropolese for 30 years, but I never heard about it because my mother says it tastes like "ketchup on wonder bread") and hoagies from Pudge's.


If you remember the post on Spor's in Trumbauersville you'll understand my parents are the kings of secret small town PA food spots. When I tell them about some place I read about "on-line" they usually say "Oh yeah we've been going there since before you were born".


So... what the hell is a Zep you ask? A regional subgenre of hoagie found mostly in Norristown. At some places or to simple people it's just another name for a Hoagie.

A classic Zep has thick sliced pinkish cooked salami (think bologna with peppercorns) and mild provolone on a roll from Conshohocken Bakery that's sometimes wider and flatter than a Philly hoagie roll. One of the signatures of the Zep is NO LETTUCE and lots of onion, some tomato, oregano, and maybe hot pepper spread.


Another rule of the Zep is only one meat. You can get a turkey zep or cheesesteak zep or chicken salad zep but if there's more than one meat (or lettuce) it becomes a "special" or a hoagie, depending on where you are.

I have yet to hit the legendary Eve's Lunch or Lou's Lunch one or both of which invented the Zep. But the one pictured above from Pudge's was damn good. The cooked salami is really different and more refreshing, reminded me more of a White House sub or Lee's hoagie than the salty meats, sharp provolone and crusty rolls of Philadelphia Hoagies. They use the authentic Conshohocken Bakery rolls - softer than a seeded italian, but sturdier than a squishy steak roll, and delicious.



Also tried a turkey hoagie and the "Ultimate Italian" (genoa salami, proscuitto, sopresatta and sharp prov) which was more like the Philly sandwiches I'm used to. Good stuff and it's got me ready to go on a Zep tour of Norristown.

Pudge's
1510 Dekalb Pike, Blue Bell, PA 19422-3300
pudgescheesesteaks.com

Pizzaz Benedict

Pizzaz - Celebre's
Eggs - The Family Cow
Sauce - Corropolese


The Best!

Corropolese Bakery

I recently wrote up Corropolese for Daily Slice on Serious Eats but thought I'd post some more photos here. The tomato pie is some of the best I've had but they do so much more. Bread, rolls, doughnuts, hoagies and zeps, and that amazing stromboli bread. Best place ever. Checking out every tomato pie bakery in the tri state area might have to be my next mission.








More about Tomato Pie and Bakery Pizza-

Daily News: Tomato pie is the region's signature dish by Rich Pawlak
Slice: Tomato Pie From Conshohocken Bakery
Drawingforfood: Cacia Bakery
Roadfood: Pusties & Pies A-Plenty in Rome/Utica, NY

More Philly Sandwich Madness - Navy Yard Dinic's, Porky's Point and Bizini's Seafood Steaks and Hoagies.

The last (for now) in a series of crazy Philadelphia sandwich posts for Serious Eats, we did Hoagies and Cheesesteaks a couple weeks ago and this time it's Roast Pork, Cutlets, and all the rest. You can read the real thing on Serious Eats - this is basically just an excuse to post more pictures.



Starting off with the best - Dinic's in the Navy Yard made some of the most delicious sandwiches of the 40+ places we tried over the last couple of months. Not "the best" as in "I don't know what else to write" or "I'm saying it's better than everything else because it's really obscure" but actually THE BEST.


Hard to compare with John's Roast Pork or Nick's Roast Beef's Pork (also in the article) because the pork we had was pulled rather than sliced. Definitely better than Dinic's in the Reading Terminal and even Porky's Point that I want to be the best because it's so freaking cool.


Speaking of Porky's Point this place is incredible, I first went there last year with the amazing Rose Luardo to shoot some video of us eating pigs ears. The owner / manager was nice enough to hang out and tell us the history of the place, which in the 70's was a regular cheesesteak and roast pork stand in what was then an Italian neighborhood. When the area went Puerto Rican instead of getting bitter and racist they changed the menu.



The Roast Pork on the sandwich is the same they put on the classic PR platter with rice and beans and whatever else. Ask for the sandwich covered in "gravy" which is the slightly spicy red sauce they put on everything. It's terrific.


And seriously try some mofungo and pig's ears too... so good.


Another awesome find was Bizini's. If you read this blog often you're probably aware of my obsession with Fish Hoagies. I've been trying to find some really good ones and Bizini's is up there. Most I've had have been relatively small, flat filets but these were thick, dinner sized portions of perfectly fried, fresh flounder. Insane. If we do another one of these slideshows I'd love to do all fish hoagies.





Read more on Serious Eats.
Philadelphia: Roast Pork, Cutlets, Meatballs and More Sandwiches You Should Eat

Night Market Chinatown - Dueling Pizza Trucks and Hotdog Skewer

I missed the last couple of these things since the first one on Passyunk where everything was closed by the time I got there and ended up eating wings at the Adobe Cafe. Anyway Chinatown is an AWESOME location for the Night Market and it really felt like a real market and not just a foodie PR event. They should do this once a week.

nomad's margherita
margherita from pitruco
One highlight was definitely the dueling brick oven pizza trucks. I wrote up Pitruco for Daily Slice but Nomad was good too, although it's a bit of a bummer that their truck is not going to be a full time thing (sit down restaurant opening next year or whatever). After that were several startlingly weak bandwagon asian-fusion things made by white people that didn't taste like anything. Then pulled pork sandwich from Geechee Girl that was DELICIOUS.


One of the best bites came from the front of Solo, a Chinatown skewer bar a few blocks south of the whole thing that had giant speakers blasting Chinese dance music and a skewer grill set up out front surrounded by a bunch of drunk dudes downing bottles of Coors Light.


The "mini hot dog" skewer was one dollar and the dogs were scored into a crazy pattern and basted in some delicious salty sweet glaze. The lamb was super spicy and sort of fatty in a couple bites but what do you want for 2 bucks?


And of course no trip to Chinatown is complete without a visit to our favorite asian-fusion hotel / bus terminal / sports bar Tazia for shots of "Drunken Pineapple Longsex".

The Sundowner

Lots and lots of pictures of The Sundowner - hamburger topped with "Coney Sauce", yellow mustard, super finely diced onions and a fried egg - from Coney Island Lunch in Johnstown.






Also "Delicious Coffee"...



Read about their hot dogs on Serious Eats-
Hot Dog Of The Week - Coney Island Lunch in Johnstown, PA

Coney Island Lunch
coneyislandjohnstownpa.com
127 Clinton Street Johnstown, PA 15901-2129
(814) 535-2885

Cheesesteak Madness

cheesesteak with american from john's roast pork

big daddy from carmen's in bellmawr

dont be scared- donkey's is awesome and probably safer than where you live

Check out our Cheesesteak roundup over on Serious Eats. Definitely got some new favorites - Carmen's, Donkey's, Chinks... Philip's is still way up there. Something about the way these places do it... the instant you taste it you know you're eating one of the top 10 in the city, and it's sort of sad to ever go back to eating some pile of frozen "chopped and formed" steak that tastes like cardboard.

Serious Eats: Philadelphia Sandwich Tour: 10 Cheesesteaks We Love

donkey's steak on round del buono poppy seed rolls, beer is a dollar

quit worrying about the name and go eat one the best in the city

giant mint shake barely thinned down from ice cream, good luck

apparently chink's didnt serve whiz until 1 year ago.. delicious

philip's pepper steak... awesome

Of course the article got a lot of "why the hell didn't you go to Jim's or Tony Luke's" (yawn) plus a couple that I keep hearing about over and over that look damn good- Mama's Pizzeria in Bala Cynwyd (read about them on Roadfood) and Chick's Deli in Cherry Hill (read about them on Beef and Buns, awesome blog)

The future is definitely not "fancy" cheesesteaks on baguette with gruyere truffle wiz but instead ethnic cheesesteaks like the korean bulgogi "Koagies" and Mexican pizzeria cheesesteaks.... There's others out there too - some real some imagined - so if you know about some hole in the wall in the back of a Cambodian fish market that makes shrimp paste cheesesteaks feel free to let me know!

$5.00 Fish Hoagie

Somewhere in West Philly...


All the sights along the Cheesesteak Highway.. we're working on a Cheesesteak round-up similar to last week's Hoagie slideshow looking for fresh Cheesesteak magic all over the city....


Almost stopped at this one but we had already eaten 3 or 4 different cheesesteaks that day. Love the hand lettering and wish I had the time to stop at every place like this in the city.