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Great American meltdown

columnist writes about lifelong love affair with cheese steaks

Date published: 6/3/2009

By Kurt Rabin

S UMMER'S RIGHT around the corner and to me, that means one thing: steaks on the grill.

Not on the barbee, mind you, I mean the grill at the nearest sub shop.

If there's one thing this Philly-area kid has always been passionate about, it's his cheese steaks.

Some folks like their steaks thick and juicy; I like mine thin and flat and covered with Provolone cheese.

I'm sure it dates back to the smells that emanated from our community pool's snack bar and grill.

Our parents dug for pocket change so their kids could buy colored wax shaped into tiny bottles, or candy cigarettes and necklaces.

Grilled items, however, remained the exclusive province of grown-ups. And the coveted cheese steak was the flagship of the sandwich line.

For a child, snagging a poolside bite of one of those babies was like getting access to a forbidden world of unimagined luxury reserved only for adults.

The cheese steak--along with the soft hot pretzel and the TastyKake cupcake--comprised for me the first triumvirate of Philadelphia haute cuisine.

New England has its lobster roll, the South its barbecue, and the City of Brotherly Love its beloved cheese steak. (My apologies to that city's Italian hoagie lovers.)

Made popular in South Philadelphia at places like Pat's King of Steaks and Geno's, the cheese steak is essentially a mound of sliced rib-eye or top round, grilled with onions, slathered with cheese, and heaped on a warm sub roll.

Top it, like a Philadelphian, with some Heinz 57 and you're in business.

On our weekend forays to center city Philadelphia, we Cherry Hill, N.J., teens would first stop at the nearest sub shop. Before shopping for penny loafers and Ban-Lon shirts, or the latest raunchy record album by Doug Clark and the Hot Nuts, we'd fortify ourselves by scarfing scrumptious cheese steaks.

Today, I use a universal shortcut to reach that cheese steak sensation when the real deal isn't close at hand. I keep a box of frozen Steak-umm steak slices handy.

STEAK-UMM "PHILLY CHEESE STEAK" SANDWICH Prep time: 5 minutes Cooking time: 10 minutes Makes 4 servings 4 Steak-umm sliced steaks4 slices mild American cheese 4 steak rolls Yellow onion, to tasteGreen pepper, to taste Directions: 1. Cook Steak-umm Sliced Steaks for about 45 seconds on one side, about 15 seconds on the other. 2. Melt mild American cheese over the steak and place in a steak roll. 3. Add onions and peppers. Recipe from: steakumm.com STEAK-UMM ITALIAN CHEESE STEAK SANDWICH Prep time: 5 minutes Resting time: 10 minutesMakes 4 servings 4 Steak-umm sliced steaks cup pasta or pizza sauce Sweet pickle relish, to taste4 steak rolls4 slices provolone cheese Directions: 1. Brown Steak-umm Sliced Steaks, then coat with pasta sauce and sweet pickle relish. 2. Let the mixture simmer for a bit, then add cheese and put it all on a roll. Recipe from: steakumm.com When stay-at-home chefs have wanted to prepare Philadelphia-style cheese steaks in their own kitchens, they've turned to convenient Steak-umm sliced steaks of Reading, Pa., since the 1960s. Steak-umms are micron-thin all-beef slices that fry up almost instantaneously, turning from pink to well, umm, gray in mere moments. Dress them up on a sub roll with fried onions, green and red bell peppers and mushrooms, if you please, and your choice of cheese, and you'll swear you can almost hear the pealing of the Liberty Bell. There will always be skeptics who insist on knowing, "Are Steak-umms really steak?" And to them, one must respond, "Steak? umm."

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Date published: 6/3/2009