As a person who has spent his entire life living a 10-minute drive from
Philadelphia, I like cheesesteaks. A lot. They’re not something I need on a daily or even weekly basis, but I do get cravings now and again, and I’ve yet to find anything in
State College that satisfies my hunger.
Granted, I haven’t yet tried
every rendition of a cheesesteak in the area, but because I’m naïve and easily forgiving, I’ve tried a lot of them—and I’ve cursed myself each time for giving State College yet another chance to let me down.
It’s not a complicated sandwich to prepare—it’s
literally just meat and cheese and bread. But for some reason, you just can’t get a good one anywhere that’s more than a short drive from Philly. Whatever it is about the cheesesteak, they do something in
Philadelphia that they don’t do anywhere else. But we’re not
that far from there—only a few hours. Beyond that, there should be enough Philadelphian transplants in
State College that
someone could competently make one.
I mean, Tastykakes are widely available here, and a Rita’s Water Ice just opened up on
Beaver Ave., so why can’t
anybody make me a dang cheesesteak?
Philadelphia natives may argue over the merits of Geno’s and Pat’s and Jim’s and a thousand other places, but while all these vendors have their own idiosyncrasies, they’re all infinitely better than anything you can get here.
That’s not the point though—anyone could tell you the best of Philly is better than anywhere else.
My point as that, even at its worst, you can walk into
any hole in the wall within an hour of center city, and you can find yourself a steak sandwich better than anything anywhere else.
This doesn’t make any sense.I can’t stress enough the fact that it’s just meat and cheese and bread. And it’s not like the preparation is some kind of secret: most places actually let you watch them as they make it.
This is all part of a bigger, upsetting trend, though, and that is
State College’s lack of culinary identity. Yeah, we have ice cream, and it’s awesome, but what beyond that? I’m not calling for any sort of fine dining establishment; I just want somewhere good to eat. Pizza, wings and Chinese food can only go so far. While I’m here, there are about 600 different food items I pine for, but when I’m home, there’s really nothing food-wise that I miss about
Penn State.
