[Sca-cooks] Dinner Tonight

[Phil Troy/ G. Tacitus Adamantius]

Also sprach Avraham haRofeh of Sudentur:
>  > >The term "Grinder" can be traced back to the east coast,
>>  >where during WWI, Italian immigrants set up sandwich shops
>>  >close to the shipyards.
>>
>>  I'd be curious as to whether this applies to area housing the
>>  Brooklyn Navy Yard, which once had a large Italian immigrant
>>  community, but where, so far as I know, these sandwiches are
>>  invariably known as heroes. But then other large Eastern port cities
>>  could have evolved grinders as described.
>
>No, Philly, Master A, is where Grinder is the local term.
>
>Avraham

Disputation of above notwithstanding, my point was just that the
quoted passage (doubtless written as part of a commercial, and not
educational, endeavor) suggested that "grinders" originated among
Italian immigrants on the Eastern seaboard. My own experience
suggests that this is not true of the area around the Brooklyn Navy
Yard, one of the most active shipyards on the Eastern Seaboard, and
probably in the history of the US, and where such sandwiches have
always been known, AFAIK, as "heroes".

On the other hand, one might easily argue that Philadelphia,
connected by river to the Atlantic, and a perfectly viable port,
_might_ be one such place that the passage refers to.

Again, disputation notwithstanding; I don't know nuthin' 'bout
birthin' no grinders.

So, not to change the subject too much, why are Philly Cheese Steaks
simply sandwiches, and not grinders, hoagies, subs, etc.? I had
gotten the impression that their cultural/ethnic foundation was
largely the same (in other words, that they had been introduced by
Italian-Americans, even if they have no direct counterpart in Italy).

Adamantius (noting that, I believe, a spiedie sandwich is also a
sandwich, and not a sub)