Nobody's noded
hoagie yet.
Nobody.
Ever.
ARE YOU PEOPLE ALL MAD?!
I only lived in
Philly for four or five years, but
according to my limited understanding, a hoagie is composed of the following:
It all goes in an oblong roll -- ideally from the
Amoroso bakery -- and I've been told that
in principle it should be prepared by somebody from Souf Phiwwy who says "Ey, yo, Ant'ny".
I can't vouch for that.
Elsewhere in the country they'll sell you things called "
Italian subs", usually made with
American "cheese",
balogna, and
Polish ham. That's just plain wrong, in so many ways that I can't bear to start counting.
It's a hard, cruel world out here, at least around
lunchtime. It's not just hoagies, either: If you ask for a
cheesesteak in
Boston, they'll look at you like you're a
Martian. You have to say "
steak and cheese", and then they stop muttering.
Etymologically, I've read that the word "hoagie" comes from
Hog Island, apparently an island somewhere near the
Philadelphia Navy Yard or some other
shipyard in the area, where somebody many decades ago started selling
antipasto in hollowed-out bread. It's as good a theory as any.