Posted on 09/27/2008 6:54:13 PM PDT by Chet 99
PHILADELPHIA—Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin takes her cheesesteak with Cheese Whiz and onions.
The Republican vice presidential candidate made a brief campaign stop at Tony Luke's steak shop in South Philadelphia on Saturday evening. Wearing jeans and a beige raincoat, Palin greeted curious onlookers, signed autographs and posed for pictures before ordering two steaks to go.
"Sarah, your steak is ready," a cashier said over the loudspeaker a few minutes after she ordered.
As dozens of onlookers crowded around her, Palin headed back to the window to pick up the order. The cashier told her the order was on the house, so Palin tossed her cash into a donation jar outside the window. A smiling Palin signed autographs on scraps of paper at the window while she waited.
"Thank you so much for letting me stop in," she said before picking up the bags and heading back to her SUV with 14-year-old daughter Willow at her side.
Ordering cheesesteaks at a Philadelphia steak shop is a longtime tradition in the City of Brotherly Love, where the sandwich is a cultural icon.
Palin said she thinks Arizona Sen. John McCain was "awesome" and "absolutely on his game" in Friday night's presidential debate with Democratic Sen. Barack Obama. Both candidates have been campaigning heavily in Pennsylvania, expected to be a key battleground in the November election.
One undecided voter at Saturday's stop said she was charmed after a brief talk with Palin, and more inclined to vote for McCain. Shannon Sampere, 24, of Newark, Del., said she and Palin talked about good bakeries in the area, adding that she found her to be very down to earth.
"She's a very genuine person," Sampere said.
One more point, it's refreshing to know that with all that is going on in the world and here in the US, we can still take the time for a civil debate over the best cheesesteak on a Sarah Palin inspired thread. Maybe that's a true testament to her normalcy.
No such thing as a grinder in Philly. It’s a hoagie and it’s served cold with or without oil.
We do have tuna melts, however.
Not true...many of the pizza shop in S. Philly will make a grinder if you want it.
Ah, that was my second favorite.
When I was a grad student at Penn, lunch was either a pizza-steak, a meatball sandwich, or a kielbasa from Frieda’s truck, or something from the Lebanese or Vietnamese lunch trucks down near the U.Penn Hospital.
When I went back on sabbatical two years ago, Frieda was still there, but you had to trek to the west end of campus to get good Lebanese food. (And I didn’t find good Vietnamese street food.)
I agree that the search for the best cheesesteak is a never ending quest.I’ve been in your shoes, although it was many many moons ago, after a night of partying, trying to find something to eat at 3am and ending up on 9th Street. I’ve never had a Chinks cheesesteak as I don’t get up into the Northeast as much as I used to, but the other day while driving on Columbus Blvd, I noticed a little breakfast shop along the Delaware has a sign that they serve Chinks steaks. I am afraid to try it as I don’t know if it would be the same as having a Chinks from the actual Chinks shop and a bad experience would taint Chinks for me. I’ve heard good things about Campos on Market street, but have never had one.
My problem with Tony Lukes is that on my first experience, I tossed my cookies before finishing it, right in the street along side the building. Not good.
Sarah has us discussing cheesesteaks. The coolest woman I’ve ever seen.
First Howard Eskin, now Ed Snider on the McCain/Palin bandwagon. Who’d have thunk it?
Well she is a hockeymom. Maybe she was negotiating a contract for her soon to be son-in-law.
I still like the quote of Theodore Roosevelt at Geno’s
“In the first place, we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin.
But this is predicated upon the person’s becoming in every facet an American, and nothing but an American…There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn’t an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag…
We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language… and we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people.”-Theodore Roosevelt 1907
I completely agree. For all the fuss that’s made about them, I was shocked when I first had a Pat’s steak. They were awful by comparison to the places I regularly go.
We usually put ketchup on the ones we made at home, though now, if I make one at home I use spaghetti sauce.
Cheese steak hoagies are also good.
their=they’re. : )
Yep!
We're talking late '60s, early-to-mid '70s. It sounds like you're as young as me.
I hear ya'!!!
I showed hubby that picture. Judging from his reaction, I think he’s going to divorce me and marry that sandwich. ;-)
Do I miss those cheese steaks living in Pittsburgh.
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