What Makes An Italian Sub Authentic?

[Novelty_Bobble]

@jz78817

you had it correct, the name is just attached to the style of sandwich, there’s no sandwich I’m aware of called a “subway.” it’s just a play on words, they sell sub sandwiches and most people are familiar with the word “subway” in the rail sense.

That’s kind of you but I think the way you explain it means I’m wrong. I thought that a Sandwich shop called “Subway” sold that style of sandwiche that came to be known as “subs” for short. Whereas it seems to be the case that the style of sandwich called a “sub” predates Subway and their name was a play on that.

[Saint_Cad]

Is the provolone smoked or unsmoked?

[Novelty_Bobble]

@Colibri

“Subway” is a pun, indicating a shop that specializes in selling subs. I take it you don’t dine there often, since they do refer to their sandwiches as subs in the UK.

I eat there quite a lot but as I say above, I thought that “sub” was their equivalent of MacDonalds sticking “Mac” in front of anything and everything.

[Paintcharge]

@furryman

I wondered where the idea of putting vinaigrette on a sub came from. I don’t recall ever seeing it before 2000.

I grew up in southern Maine and it was definitely a thing as far back as mid 80’s.

In answer to the OP, I expect that an “authentic” sub is what you had as a kid.

[WOOKINPANUB]

@PatrickLondon

At the risk of sounding like Maggie Smith, what is a sub? I rather suspect it’s not something many Italians would be familiar with.

Or should one read the OP’s question as “What makes an Italian sub-authentic”? Which would bring into play all the stereotypes about parking, gesticulating and mamma-fixation.

Annnnnnd, just because you said that, that’s exactly how you sound (in my head). Not that there’s *anything *wrong with that.

[terentii]

@Paintcharge

I grew up in southern Maine and it was definitely a thing as far back as mid 80’s.

We had it in Minneapolis when I was in high school (1970–73).

[KneadToKnow]

According to an old joke about the Italian Navy, the answer to the question in the thread title is: they have glass bottoms.

[terentii]

@KneadToKnow

According to an old joke about the Italian Navy, the answer to the question in the thread title is: they have glass bottoms.

Yes, but that’s the *new *Italian navy.

[kaylasdad99]

The screen doors.

BaDUMP-tsshhhh.

[terentii]

@kaylasdad99

The screen doors.

BaDUMP-tsshhhh.

I thought that was in the Polish navy? :dubious:

How do you sink an Italian sub?

Knock on the hatch.

[kaylasdad99]

Ouch. Looks like I was ninja’d with my approach.

Twice.

[terentii]

@kaylasdad99

Ouch. Looks like I was ninja’d with my approach.

Twice.

I got a million of 'em!

[DPRK]

@bump

The sandwiches they have on the streets in Italy aren’t submarine style sandwiches, but more of a panini type thing. The ones I saw were generally cheese and cured meats, and without the typical American style lettuce, tomato and onions.

So it’s kind of like most Italian-American foods- there’s what they eat over there, and what the Italians who immigrated made with local ingredients. Neither is more or less authentic when you think about it - Italians made both, just in different places where things varied in availability and cost. Same for Mexicans in the SW US versus the interior of Mexico. Nobody’s going to claim that fajitas aren’t actually Mexican, just because Mexicans in Texas were the originator of that dish. Similarly, an “authentic” Italian sandwich probably depends on where it was originally made- is a muffaletta any less authentic than a grinder, hoagie, hero or sub?

I would claim that fajitas are not Mexican food. (They are usually encountered in a Tex-Mex restaurant, not Azteca.) Nor is a New York-style pizza an Italian pizza. Not that it is impossible to serve authentic cuisine in a foreign country, but if most Italians cannot recognize your panino then it is stretching things to call it an “Italian sandwich”. I am all for creativity in food, however.

[terentii]

@terentii

I got a million of 'em!

What’s it called when the Russian navy sends out two submarines?

A “surge.”

[kaylasdad99]

@kaylasdad99

Ouch. Looks like I was ninja’d with my approach.

Twice.

@terentii

I got a million of 'em!

As I believe I’ve noted before, there are few better posters to be ninja’d by (if you gotta be ninja’d).

[terentii]

@kaylasdad99

As I believe I’ve noted before, there are few better posters to be ninja’d by (if you gotta be ninja’d).

To quote Johnny Carson, “I’m flattered to death!”

[eunoia]

An authentic Italian sub must be built in the shipyards of Castellammare di Stabia and set new aesthetic trends while still respecting classical elegance.

But seriously. It would seem the spuckie is a submarine, but not analogous to subs hoagies and griders because it is specifically the Italian Sandwich. A sub-sub, if you will.

[Royal_Nonesutch]

@bump

The sandwiches they have on the streets in Italy aren’t submarine style sandwiches, but more of a panini type thing. The ones I saw were generally cheese and cured meats, and without the typical American style lettuce, tomato and onions.

In Parma a few months back, I had a “sub”, made on an Italian baguette with Parma ham, shaved Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, field greens and tomato, drizzled with balsamic vinegar and olive oil. Incredibly simple, perfectly excecuted.

It was not too much different from something you could get in any city USA, only the bread was much smaller in diameter than at a place like Subway, and as you might imagine, the ingredients were all obviously fresh and of exceedingly high quality, even though this place was far from upscale.

Sadly, it was probably the best (and cheapest) meal we had the entire time we were in Parma, which in my experience has the least impressive (and most expensive) food of any city I have ever visited in Italy.

[bump]

@DPRK

I would claim that fajitas are not Mexican food. (They are usually encountered in a Tex-Mex restaurant, not Azteca.) Nor is a New York-style pizza an Italian pizza. Not that it is impossible to serve authentic cuisine in a foreign country, but if most Italians cannot recognize your panino then it is stretching things to call it an “Italian sandwich”. I am all for creativity in food, however.

That’s silly. So if some guy from Italy immigrates to the US, and devises a new Italianate sort of food using slightly different ingredients, it ceases to be Italian? And by the same token, if I emigrate to Italy and devise a new sort of hamburger using Italian ingredients, it’s suddenly Italian?

Fajitas were originally devised by South Texas ranch hands, who were given the less desirable cuts of the cow- including the skirt steak, and who grilled it up and ate it on tacos, long before it became popular in the late 1970s/early 1980s in restaurants.

I’m failing to see how some guy named Giuseppe who came from Italy and makes pizza in NYC using local ingredients isn’t making Italian food.

[DPRK]

I would call it a “Neopolitan-American pizza” if it’s not the traditional food. (It’s not a geographical thing, but there are actual guidelines for the ingredients or techniques you may use, otherwise the “specialità tradizionale garantita” people start getting on your ass.)

Anyway, it’s not a bright line. I’m just suggesting that it may be possible to push things far enough so that any Italian will say, “That was good, but it was not an Italian sandwich/pizza.” Anecdotally, I have heard with my own ears an Italian apologize that she couldn’t make a bruschetta quite right because she couldn’t find the proper flour outside Italy…