The Hoagie

Nobody really knows where the name comes from, but we know for sure that Philadelphia is the cultural center of the Hoagie World. You need a nice Italian roll, a lot of lunchmeat and cheese, showers of lettuce, tomato, onions, peppers, vinegar, oil, dressing, etc.

And you have to know how to put it all together. It is a skill. Do it wrong and it may fall apart or become a soggy mess. Yuck.

Let's get back to the origin of this great sandwich because I'll bet that you absolutely know how it got name. Most people believe one of these explanations.

1. It was named after Hog Island or the workers on Hog Island to describe their big lunch sandwiches.

2. It is a corruption of the term "hokey-pokey man." Hokey-pokey men sometimes sold food and drink in much the fashion of a hotdog vendor.

3. It comes from the term "on the hoke." You were on the hoke if you needed a handout. New Orleans has a similar explanation for their po' boy sandwiches.

4. It is derived from a description of a sandwich as big as a hog's head. That would make it similar to the origin of cat's head biscuits, which are, naturally, big biscuits.

In any case, the great statesman Ed Rendell officially declared the hoagie to be the "Official Sandwich of Philadelphia."

Isn't that just like a politician? He tells us something that we already know, and he expects us to cheer like the dickens.
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Sir Chelf the Search Elf searches the Internet for your amusement.