What is the correct name for the Italian sandwich in New Jersey? Is it the Hoagie, the Hero or the Sub?
New Jerseyans love their food and the most popular sandwich in New Jersey is the Italian sandwich, although it’s not called an Italian sandwich, depending on which part of the state you live in, it’s called a Hoagie, Hero, or Sub.
New Jersey, like the United States, is divided into two geographic regions with people having different roots, cultural traditions, and food tastes. I-195, which runs west to east from Trenton to Belmar, is considered the unofficial dividing line between North and South Jersey.
North and South Jerseyans support different football teams, different baseball teams, different basketball teams, and have different accents.
In South Jersey, most of the people who live there had roots in the Philadelphia area. Residents of South Jersey receive their television programming and newspapers from Philadelphia and tend to be slower with tastes and descriptions of food heavily influenced by Philadelphia.
People who live in North Jersey, which is more populous, are influenced by New York City events and traditions and have roots in New York or commute to New York for work. North Jerseyans receive their television programming and newspapers from New York City and tend to be more up-tempo, with tastes and descriptions of food heavily influenced by New York City.
Where does the Italian sandwich come from?
Most of the early 20th century Italian food in the United States came from southern Italian immigrants who arrived during the great wave of immigration to the United States from the late 1800s to early 1900s. Most of these immigrants they settled in the big cities of northeastern New York, Boston, and Philadelphia.
Many Italians became fishermen, cobblers, waiters, itinerant fruit and food vendors, and merchants, though most were unskilled laborers working in mines, construction jobs, road construction, and as longshoremen on the waterfront.
Southern Italian immigrants from the Naples, Italy (Neapolitan) region brought with them the Italian sandwich, made with crusty baked bread with pointed ends filled with cold cuts and cheese. Enterprising immigrants took the opportunity to sell the sandwich to Italian immigrant workers on the waterfront docks and to workers on construction sites.
Later, this tasty sandwich was sought after by Americans and other ethnic groups and they began to include additional varieties of meat, vegetables, and cheese. It wasn’t until the end of World War II that the Italian sandwich became popular outside of the Italian-American community and began to catch on. Back then, the typical Italian sandwich was made with 12″ long by 3″ wide baked crusty bread with pointed ends, provolone cheese, hard Italian salami, lettuce, tomato, oil and vinegar, oregano, salt and pepper.
How did the Italian sandwich in New Jersey take on the names of Hoagie, Hero, and Sub?
The origin of the Hoagie
The Hoagie originated in the Philadelphia area. The term is now used in regions such as Scranton, Pittsburgh, southern New Jersey, Delaware, and southern Ohio.
Legend has it that an area of Philadelphia known as Hog Island, a shipyard during World War I, had many Italian immigrant workers who ate large Italian sandwiches made with sausage, spices, oil, tomatoes, onions, and peppers for their meal. lunches Due to the location of the shipyard, the workers were nicknamed “hoggies”, and at some point the sandwiches they ate adopted the name “Hoggie”.
After World War II, the “Hoggie” became the “Hoagie” and quickly caught on outside of the Italian community and soon achieved status as a favorite sandwich in Philadelphia. South Philadelphia neighborhood “mom and pop” delis began offering Hoagie as the featured sandwich and Wawa Food Markets began selling Hoagies in the late 1970s. Philadelphians who began the migration to South Jersey in the 1950s retained the Hoagie name for the popular Italian sandwich. Former Philadelphia Mayor Ed Rendell declared the hoagie the “Official Sandwich of Philadelphia.”
The origin of the hero
* The hero originated in New York City. The term is now used in southern New York state and northern Jersey.
The name “Hero” is attributed to New York Herald Tribune Food writer Clementine Paddleford, who wrote in the 1930s that you had to be a hero to eat the jumbo-sized Italian sandwich.
Legend has it that in 1905, James Manganaro, who came to New York from Italy to join his cousin in the deli business, was responsible for popularizing the Italian sandwich in New York City, where he sold the full-size Italian sandwich. king who later became popular and became the Hero. .
The origin of the submarine
The origin of the name submarine sandwich or “Sub” is widely discussed, with origin stories taking place in Boston, MA, Groton, CT, and Patterson, NJ. Today the term is used in New Jersey and New England, and has spread throughout the United States through many restaurant chains such as Subway, Quiznos, Blimpies, and Jersey Mikes Subs.
Legend has it that it originated in a restaurant on Scollay Square in Boston, MA, at the start of World War II, and whose patrons were a large number of Navy servicemen stationed at the Charlestown Navy Yard who coined the submarine name for the submarine hull. .
Another story places the name of the submarine sandwich during World War II when the Naval Submarine Base in Groton, CT ordered 500 Italian sandwiches a day from Capaldo’s Italian Deli in New London, CT and the deli’s employees they began to refer to the sandwich as the “Sub”.
The other legend has the earliest date in 1910, when Dominic Conti, owner of Dominic Conti’s Grocery Store on Mill Street in Patterson, New Jersey, named the submarine and noted the similarity in shape to his pointy-topped crusty bread sandwich and a local exhibit of the first experimental submarine and began selling the sandwich as the “sub”.
The correct name for the Italian sandwich in New Jersey is Sub
The proper name for the Italian sandwich in New Jersey is Sub. Although the location of the origin of the name “Sub” is widely disputed, one of the three popular legends says that the name “sub” was coined in Patterson, NJ. The Jersey Legend also has 1910 as the oldest date of all the legends. Hoagie and Hero clearly have their origins in Philadelphia and New York City.
Sack O’ Subs, with four sub-stores in South Jersey, in Absecon, Brigantine, Ocean City and Ventnor, is correct that in New Jersey the proper name is Sub. In South Jersey, where many other sandwich shops sell “Hoagies”, if you walk into their sub shop and ask for a hoagie, they will jokingly remind you that you’ve crossed the bridge and are now in Jersey and it’s called “Sub”.