Cheese steak: A local review

The Cheese steak…

Living between New York and Philadelphia, I am a fan of all the foods that are so bad for me.  I love Philly Cheese Steak and New York Pizza!  Another love is for the Burger, an American sandwich that defies geography.  No, it doesn’t defy geography, it embraces it!

The naysayers will look at the Great State of New Jersey, tucked in between two great centers of culinary excess, and scoff that we are the outskirts, the suburbs of good eating.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  The best of the best exist in the Garden State as surely as they do in these centers of good eatin’.

I am a Presbyterian, which means two things for absolute sure.  One is that I am Predestined.  The other is that I like my food.  And I will be obvious, when I see my profile in the mirror, I see that there is a definite over-love of food.  What’s the mood of the day in matters of self-improvement?  Mindfulness.  My apologies if I sound a little skeptical, but spiritual healing is one of the skills of my trade as a pastor.

In an effort to take mindfulness seriously, I turn it to something of great personal satisfaction.  Eating.  Specifically, in eating the things that I love to consume but do not always provide the healthiest return. 

So, the Cheese steak.  I have had amazing Cheese steak and I have had excellent Steak Sandwiches with cheese on them.  The menu’s label for most of the steak sandwiches has been ‘cheese steak’, which is something of an unfortunate misnomer.  These sandwiches are good in their own right, but… 

I was expecting to find such a misnamed ‘cheese steak’ at Jersey Mike’s.  I like their subs, I wanted something warm, something of beef, I did not see a burger on the menu, so I ordered a cheese steak.  I was prepared for a steak sandwich with cheese, good, but not of my Philly expectations.  I was delightfully surprised!  It was a cheese steak sandwich!

What makes a steak sandwich with cheese is that it is usually a different cut of steak than the cheese steak.  Often it is a sliced steak that, while very tasty, is a different varietal then what I expect on a cheese steak.  Jersey Mike’s aced that.  The roll was well matched, the onions well cooked.  The only thing that was a little odd to my palate was a little too much sweet from the green peppers.  Not sure if they were somewhat under-cooked or there were more in general proportion than I am used to (because I do like peppers on my cheese steak).

Jersey Mike’s makes a darned good cheese steak.  It comes in all their regular sizes.  I would recommend it for someone looking for a cheese steak and may be distant from their regular sources.  Thank you Jersey Mike’s and a shout out to the crew in the Metuchen store for a good sandwich!