# My heart needed a workout, or 22" of cheesesteak **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [June 12, 2003, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-heart-needed-a-workout-or-22-of-cheesesteak/181380 "2003-06-12T17:10:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Frank\_2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8c91f0/32.png) [@Frank\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frank_2)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2003, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-heart-needed-a-workout-or-22-of-cheesesteak/181380/1 "2003-06-12T17:10:57Z")
Yep, I just ate 2 full cheesesteaks, 22" in total. I don’t know what the fat content or the calorie total was and I don’t care. It was delicious. It’s been far too long since I had a cheesesteak that I decided I needed 2. Upon some investigation, it seems a cheesesteak has approx 100 calories for every inch. Woo Hoo! 2200 calories for me and that was just lunch. :eek: ---
**Author:** ![joemama24\_98](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ce7236/32.png) [@joemama24\_98](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joemama24_98)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2003, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-heart-needed-a-workout-or-22-of-cheesesteak/181380/2 "2003-06-12T17:43:23Z")
with or without mayo? ---
**Author:** ![Frank\_2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8c91f0/32.png) [@Frank\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frank_2)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2003, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-heart-needed-a-workout-or-22-of-cheesesteak/181380/3 "2003-06-12T17:52:23Z")
Ewww, who puts mayo on a cheesesteak? ---
**Author:** ![White\_Lightning](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f04885/32.png) [@White\_Lightning](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/White_Lightning)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2003, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-heart-needed-a-workout-or-22-of-cheesesteak/181380/4 "2003-06-12T17:53:06Z")
Mayonnaise on a cheesesteak? Are you high? ---
**Author:** ![Meros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8797f3/32.png) [@Meros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meros)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2003, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-heart-needed-a-workout-or-22-of-cheesesteak/181380/5 "2003-06-12T17:53:42Z")
Sounds like the lunch of champions to me **Frank**. I could only handle one. ---
**Author:** ![joemama24\_98](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ce7236/32.png) [@joemama24\_98](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joemama24_98)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2003, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-heart-needed-a-workout-or-22-of-cheesesteak/181380/6 "2003-06-12T18:26:45Z")
Are you all serious? I love mayo on my cheese steak. Mayo, onions and mushrooms. Hy heart’s worst nightmare. ---
**Author:** ![pipper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c2a13f/32.png) [@pipper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pipper)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2003, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-heart-needed-a-workout-or-22-of-cheesesteak/181380/7 "2003-06-12T20:09:15Z")
joemama- 1. Don’t tug on Superman’s cape 2. Don’t piss into the wind 3. Don’t even suggest to a person from Philly that a cheesesteak ought to contain mayo. They go a bit nutty when you start messing with their pride and joy. Next thing you’ll be talking about how you put ketchup on your hot dogs… ---
**Author:** ![zoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zoid/32/336_2.png) [@zoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zoid)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2003, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-heart-needed-a-workout-or-22-of-cheesesteak/181380/8 "2003-06-12T21:08:48Z")
I’ve never had a good cheesesteak - does anyone know where to get a good one in Chicago (Oak Park area preferrably)? ---
**Author:** ![Doomtrain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/0ea827/32.png) [@Doomtrain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doomtrain)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2003, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-heart-needed-a-workout-or-22-of-cheesesteak/181380/9 "2003-06-12T21:20:08Z")
Mayo on a cheesesteak? Mayo is Satan’s own sperm. ---
**Author:** ![Casey1505](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dc4da7/32.png) [@Casey1505](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Casey1505)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2003, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-heart-needed-a-workout-or-22-of-cheesesteak/181380/10 "2003-06-12T21:29:16Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by pipper \* > Next thing you’ll be talking about how you put ketchup on your hot dogs… Let’s not give him any ideas. ---
**Author:** ![Cleophus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a88e57/32.png) [@Cleophus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cleophus)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2003, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-heart-needed-a-workout-or-22-of-cheesesteak/181380/11 "2003-06-13T00:47:47Z")
Details, please. What type of cheese? Where? Incidentially, I had a cheesesteak craving today. Ended up walking around various parts of South Philly, but that’s a story for later. ---
**Author:** ![Aholibah](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Aholibah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aholibah)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2003, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-heart-needed-a-workout-or-22-of-cheesesteak/181380/12 "2003-06-13T03:11:53Z")
The first time I saw someone put mayo on a cheesesteak, I started frantically looking around for some holy water to try to purify the unclean thing. There being a calamitous dearth of sacred H2O in the immediate vicinity (we were in a pool hall at the time), I figured I’d better just take cover, because the Almighty was sure to smite that blasphemer. Although he was spared the smiting (apparently all that forgiveness stuff is not a crock), I still consider a cheesesteak with mayo to be one of the marks of Satan. For those of you who are not from Philly but who have read Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House, think of the horrible, ineffable, mind-jarring wrongness attributed to the architecture of Hill House and now apply it to this culinary monstrosity. And **Zoid** , there are no good cheesesteaks outside of Philadelphia. I now live in DC and have found a place that makes an almost ok cheesesteak, a cheesesteak that will do when it’s been three months since my last trip to Philly and I won’t be getting up there any time soon, and I need a cheesesteak. But I spent two years in South Bend, IN, and have roamed over much of Chicago (including Oak Park), and for those of you out there who see something claiming to be a “Philadelphia cheesesteak” on a menu and are thinking of ordering it, I can only say, “For the love of all that is holy, don’t do it!” Any place that has to call it a “Philadelphia” cheesesteak is too far away from the source to know how to make one. And all of this is not even to touch on the crucial fact. The key fact. The true essence of cheesesteakness. It’s not the cheese. It’s not the “steak.” It is, of course, the bread. It’s got to be Amoroso’s. And if you’re not in Philly, you’re not going to get it. [/takes her blood pressure and realizes she must stop now] ---
**Author:** ![koeeoaddi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/koeeoaddi/32/408_2.png) [@koeeoaddi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/koeeoaddi)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2003, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-heart-needed-a-workout-or-22-of-cheesesteak/181380/13 "2003-06-13T03:25:55Z")
Thanks ever so much **Frank#2**. I’m hungry now. I want a cheesesteak and only an honest to God Philly cheesesteak will do. Unfortunately, the best I can hope for is an ersatz homemade one with Minute Steaks, pizza sauce and provolone on french bread. Philly expatriate in the Pacific Northwest. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![White\_Lightning](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f04885/32.png) [@White\_Lightning](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/White_Lightning)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2003, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-heart-needed-a-workout-or-22-of-cheesesteak/181380/14 "2003-06-13T03:26:12Z")
I’ll agree that ordering a cheeseteak off the menu at some other restaurant will get you what I call “not a cheesesteak.” But there are places. Here in Northern California we have a series of joints called “The Cheesesteak Shop” and they are pretty damn good. And faithful, from what I gather. ---
**Author:** ![BadBaby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/71c47a/32.png) [@BadBaby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BadBaby)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2003, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-heart-needed-a-workout-or-22-of-cheesesteak/181380/15 "2003-06-13T04:18:07Z")
I had a cheesesteak sammich once and I suspect it wasn’t a very good one or they wouldn’t be so popular. How far from heaven is the Jack in the Box version? ---
**Author:** ![GraceTX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c4cdca/32.png) [@GraceTX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GraceTX)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2003, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-heart-needed-a-workout-or-22-of-cheesesteak/181380/16 "2003-06-13T04:41:04Z")
There’s a great philly cheesesteak place here in Plano, TX. The guy who owns the place is from Philadelphia and knows what a real philly should taste like. ---
**Author:** ![pilot141](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e0b2c6/32.png) [@pilot141](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pilot141)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2003, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-heart-needed-a-workout-or-22-of-cheesesteak/181380/17 "2003-06-13T05:17:22Z")
**Grace** where is this cheesesteak shop in Plano? I spent 3 1/2 years in south Jersey and did not realize how good a cheesesteak could be until I was close to/in Philly. Now I’m in Valley Ranch, TX (a DFW metroplex suburb). They have these restaurants here called “Texadelphia”. Yes, they serve cheesesteaks. But it has “Tex” in the name, so they come with…tortilla chips. And the bun is…evil. I long for a Gaetano’s “small” cheesesteak that is 11" long and weighs a pound. ---
**Author:** ![GraceTX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c4cdca/32.png) [@GraceTX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GraceTX)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2003, 5:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-heart-needed-a-workout-or-22-of-cheesesteak/181380/18 "2003-06-13T05:47:29Z")
It’s in Plano on W. 15th and Custer Road. There’s also another off of Inwood in Dallas. ---
**Author:** ![LeeJam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ee7513/32.png) [@LeeJam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LeeJam)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2003, 6:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-heart-needed-a-workout-or-22-of-cheesesteak/181380/19 "2003-06-13T06:14:35Z")
Ignorant Aussie chiming in 😃 what the heck is a Cheesesteak and how would I make one? ---
**Author:** ![pilot141](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e0b2c6/32.png) [@pilot141](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pilot141)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2003, 6:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-heart-needed-a-workout-or-22-of-cheesesteak/181380/20 "2003-06-13T06:30:48Z")
**LeeJam** no problem. While many might think that a cheesesteak is a piece of steak with/covered in cheese, it is actually a sandwich. The meat is called “steak” while in reality it is finely sliced beef. For thickness think of roast beef from the deli, but then take that piece and cross-cut it until you get small strips. Grill this meat, mix in provolone cheese and (depending on your preference) onions, green peppers, and mushrooms. Put it all on a hoagie bun. Some people like pizza sauce or lettuce on the bun as well - YMMV. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-heart-needed-a-workout-or-22-of-cheesesteak/181380.md?page=2)