nevermind that “Italian” cuisine isn’t just one thing, there’s a lot of regional varations. A former co-worker of mine was from Genova, and apart from pasta a lot of what he was familiar with would be unrecognizable as Italian dishes to most Americans.
I certainly wouldn’t reject one.
Try Monti’s…salivating…
Indeed. You can use any grade of meat whatsoever for a cheesesteak, and top it with any at least vaguely cheese-ish substance. But the roll, that you absolutely have to get right.
Corned beef and cabbage (yum) is a purely Irish-American thing. Lived in Ireland for a long time, saw it once, in a tourist hotel with a greatly American clientele. It’s bacon and cabbage in Ireland.
It’s not snobbery; I want to know what I’m getting when I go into a restaurant. I know what I’m getting from Taco Bell, which I like, despite it not being Mexican food. I have to take my mother to a “Mexican” restaurant for her birthday; it’s pretty tasty, but if I went there (“El Charro” in your neck of the woods) expecting Mexican food, I’d be disappointed as fuck. Their queso fundido is nacho cheese, for fuck’s sake!
Yeah, NOT snobbery. I love Italian-American food and cook it a lot…my kids love my “Sunday Gravy” — but I’ve visited Italy many times and can tell the difference between Genoese, Sicilian, Tuscan, Pugliese, Apulian, and Emilia-Romagna cooking. And it ain’t schpagootz wit’ meatballs.
My understanding is that the swap came about because Irish immigrants to the U.S. discovered that the type of bacon usually used for the dish in Ireland (back bacon) wasn’t easily available (or inexpensive) in the U.S., and they substituted a meat that was (corned beef brisket).
Yeah…the Irish moved into neighborhoods in NYC where the butchers were Jewish, so they needed to switch from pig to cow.
Also, Irish bacon is cured from the pork shoulder, which is fatty, but much leaner than pork belly, the source of regular American bacon. So the bacon you get in Eire (and England) has more meat to it.
Canadian bacon (aka “back bacon”) is cured from the loin, which is quite lean, so comes out more like ham than bacon.
Everyone can pile on me now, because I know this is a contentious issue.
Ham , salami, and provolone with lettuce tomato onion oil and vinegar is the classic with the addition of cappacola and pepperoni being the next level up.
More proof that the best food is often the result of the fusion of disparate cultures.
Now I feel like an Italian bánh mì.
Sounds pretty good, actually.
There’s a barbecue place not too terribly far from me in Northwest Indiana that pulls off quite a nice smoked brisket banh mi (as an occasional special): smoked brisket, bbq and hoisin sauce, sriracha mayo, jalapeño, cilantro, and pickled carrot and daikon on a Vietnamese baguette.
I wouldn’t be surprised if somewhere out there, there is a bahn mi being served with Italian deli meats.
What/where is it? I’ve got a kid living in Valpo and would love to give that a try.
It’s Bombers BBQ in Munster, IN. The bahn mi is a very intermittent special. They had it for two days a few weeks ago here it is on their Facebook page, but I don’t know when they’ve had it before that.
That said, Bombers is worth a stop for any of their barbecue. I especially like their brisket and burnt ends (I’m usually a pork barbecue kinda guy, but their beef barbecue is particularly exceptional, and I like it better than any beef barbecue I’ve had here in Chicago, although Smoque’s brisket is neck-and-neck with Bombers, but I give the slight edge to Bombers.)
“Authenticity” is usually a painful word in cooking, but Italians don’t always like changes to traditional foods. I’m no expert on Italian food.
I agree with the descriptions of cappicola and provolone on panini. But I’ve had a crusty bun with meatballs, peppers, onions and tomato sauce described as an Italian sub too, at an Italian place which specializes in groceries from Italy. I’ve also had an amazing sandwich in Chicago with beef, peppers, giardinera (pickled vegetables) dipped in hot beef stock.
An “Italian beef!” It wasn’t until I went to college and met people from other parts of the US that I realized that Italian beef wasn’t a universal food, but rather a Chicago-area specialty (though you’ll find versions dotted here and there elsewhere in the US, but always at a “Chicago-style” type eatery.) And even the Chicago version of giardiniera is a bit different than your traditional Italian giardiniera. Ours is pickled, too, but packed in oil, and usually has a spicy component to it. (And sometimes has olives and/or capers in it, which I don’t think you’ll usually find in Italian giardiniera.)
If you want to be extra gluttonous, you order a “combo” – an Italian beef with an Italian sausage (a fresh, uncured fennel-flecked sausage here in much of the US) nestled in it.
Italian beeves are delicious and about 95% of the reason I bought a proper, used commercial (deli) meat slicer. I mean, yes, I still go to my favorite places to grab a sandwich when I can, but, sometimes, I feel like having three pounds of Italian beef to myself to eat over the course of a week or so, whenever I want to. 
In St. Louis, it’s whether you leave the stems on the pepperoncinis, or cut them off!