A sandwich glossary
Half of America calls the same object a different name, and the other half is sure that half is wrong. Here is what the words on this map mean, and where to go and eat one.
- Subalso: submarine, hoagie, grinder, hero, wedge, zeppelin
- Cold cuts and cheese in a long roll. The name changes every hundred miles and the sandwich barely does: hoagie in Philadelphia, grinder in Connecticut, hero in New York, wedge in Westchester, zeppelin around Scranton. Arguing about which is correct is part of eating one.
- Hoagie
- Philadelphia's word for a sub, and the one people defend hardest. A proper Italian hoagie is cured meats, sharp provolone, shredded lettuce, tomato, onion, oregano and oil, built cold on a seeded roll. No mayonnaise, and the oil goes on last. See 1 in Massachusetts.
- Cheesesteak
- Thin-sliced ribeye griddled with onions and folded into a long roll with cheese. The cheese is the argument: whiz, American or provolone. Ordering runs 'one whiz wit' for cheese whiz with onions, and saying the whole sentence marks you as a visitor. See 2 in Pennsylvania.
- Banh mi
- A Vietnamese sandwich on a rice-flour baguette, light enough to shatter. Pate and mayonnaise, then pork or chicken, then pickled daikon and carrot, cucumber, cilantro and chili. The bread is the whole trick and it goes stale in hours, which is why the best ones come from bakeries. See 4 in California.
- Reuben
- Corned beef, Swiss, sauerkraut and Russian dressing, griddled on rye. Swap the corned beef for turkey and it becomes a Rachel. Both New York and Omaha claim to have invented it and neither can prove it. See 1 in New York.
- Pastrami
- Beef navel cured, coated in pepper and coriander, smoked, then steamed until it gives way. Served hot on rye with mustard. Anything else on it is a mistake, and the steaming is what separates a great counter from a good one. See 5 in California.
- Muffuletta
- New Orleans. A round seeded loaf split and filled with Italian cured meats, provolone and a chopped olive salad whose oil soaks down into the bread. Sold by the quarter because a whole one feeds four. See 1 in Louisiana.
- Po'boy
- Louisiana's sandwich, on New Orleans French bread: crisp shell, airy middle. Fried shrimp, oyster, catfish or roast beef with gravy. 'Dressed' means lettuce, tomato, pickle and mayonnaise, and you should say yes. See 5 in Louisiana.
- Italian beef
- Chicago. Thin roast beef in its own gravy, piled into a roll with sweet peppers or hot giardiniera. 'Dipped' means the whole sandwich goes back into the gravy before it is handed over. Eat it standing, leaning forward. See 5 in Illinois.
- Torta
- A Mexican sandwich on a soft telera or bolillo roll, usually pressed. Beans and avocado underneath whatever the filling is, then pickled jalapeño. The bread is softer than a sub roll and squashes down on the griddle. See 1 in Illinois.
- Pork roll
- A cured, salty pork product sliced thick, notched so it does not curl, and fried. New Jersey eats it with egg and cheese on a hard roll. It is called pork roll in the south of the state and Taylor ham in the north, and the line between them is roughly Trenton.
- Chopped cheese
- A Bronx bodega sandwich. Ground beef and onions chopped on the griddle with a spatula, melted with American cheese, served on a hero with lettuce, tomato and mayonnaise. Cheaper and better than it has any right to be.
- Grinder
- New England's sub, usually toasted, and that is the distinction people there draw: a grinder is hot, a sub is cold. Named either for the effort of chewing the crust or for the dockworkers who ate them, depending on who is telling it.
- Giardiniera
- Pickled vegetables in oil: celery, carrot, cauliflower, sport peppers. Chicago's hot version is chopped fine and goes on Italian beef. Not a sandwich, but it decides what several of them taste like.
Styles worth their own page: Cheesesteak, Italian Sub, Banh Mi, Pastrami, Reuben, Roast Beef, Meatball Sub, Cuban and more, listed on each state page.