I thought “hoagie” and “sub” were just different words for the same thing. But yesterday I saw in the frozen section of the grocery store a “complete hoagie kit,” and the meat in the thing seemed to be some kind of patty, with some kind of sauce dripping off of it.
Is a hoagie something different from what I thought?
Or can subs actually have patties (rather than deli slices) and I just didn’t know that?
They are the same. The naming difference is regional, like “pop” and “soda”, and “hoagie” is typically a Philadelphia-region word.
Hoagie, sub, grinder, po-boy, hero—All seem to be regional names for what are more-or-less the same general thing, with enough minor differences that will keep wannabe foodies and semantic nitpickers happily arguing for weeks about the trivial distinctions of each.
In other words, a perfect food subject for the good ol’ SDMB…
Subs aren’t always sliced deli meat. Meatball subs and chicken Parmesan subs, for example.
What’s expected on a hoagie varies from place to place. I’ve seen the same type of thing described in the OP. I’m not sure where that would be considered a normal hoagie though.
‘Hoagie’ allegedly derives from the Philadelphia Hog Island Shipyard, where workers would bring such sandwiches for lunch.
I guess I think of those as abberations from the standard. The most delicious possible abberations, to be clear.
I beg to differ. The most delicious possible variants are the Po-Boys made with fried catfish, shrimp, or oysters and served in my native swampland.
I haven’t tried it, but I’m eager to do so. What else goes on one of those?
A “dressed” Po-Boy will include sliced tomato, lettuce and mayo, and often pickle slices as well.
Sometimes you’ll have one where the mayo/pickle combo is replaced by tartar sauce.
Either way, IMO, shrimp ones are best. But only with fresh shrimp.
No argument there, fresh Gulf Shrimp are one of my favorite foods in the world…
They’re certainly standard for a NY hero, even if they may not be for a sub in some places.
And I’ll be one of those nitpickers. A sub has the roll sliced all the way through, so you have a bottom piece, then the fillings, then a top piece. A hoagie has the roll sliced most of the way through, but with a hinge, sort of like a hot dog bun. The hoagie style of slicing is clearly superior, since it makes it much easier to keep the fillings from falling out, and you can easily eat it with one hand.
Oh but no no no. By far the best is an Italian torpedo with all those Italian deli meats, cheeses, lettuce, peppercinis, olives, red onions, and lots of Italian dressing on a toasted foot long roll.
I’d kinda go with that. With the addition that a sub is more often a sandwich type thing with sliced meats and stuff while a hoagie is capable and more often contains stuff that two seperate pieces of bread are inferior for carrying like meatballs and sauce and the like.
Of course I am from the deep south and I suspect the hoagie/sub wars are kinda a northern big city, northeast america kinda thing.
So Subway actually sells hoagies, not subs!
Actually they are just too cheap to pay the employees to cut the bun all the way through 
Yeah, I don’t think the nomenclature is nearly that well-defined. Around here, subs can be cut all the way through or not. We don’t have anything termed a “hoagie,” so far as I know.
Now I want a Subway BMT. It’s ten til 3 AM here. I hope you’re all happy.