“It’s one of those things that
was absolutely created and born in
Philadelphia,” says Tony Luke Jr., the
owner of his eponymous eatery on
East Oregon Avenue. In recent years,
Luke has become a hometown favorite thanks to both his cheesesteaks and
roasted pork sandwiches.
“It’s almost like a rite of passage,”
Luke says. “To me, Philly is a blue-collar town and it will always be a bluecollar town. And this is a blue-collar
sandwich of meat, cheese and bread.”
Luke says what really sets the best
cheesesteak ahead of the pack is the
quality of ingredients. If it’s served
with onions or green peppers and is
overcooked, it’s just not a Philly cheesesteak. “I slow cook mine,” he says.
“And I never salt it.”
As for finding the best representative of the Philly favorite, Luke
suggests, “Try all of them.” There
are even vegetarian versions of the
famous sandwich at Govinda’s Gourmet
Vegetarian and HipCityVeg.
Melting Pot
SARA ESSEX BRADLEY
Want to start a heated debate in New
Orleans? Ask any two people how to
prepare the best gumbo, and watch
the endless cultural traditions emblazoned on the dish unravel. At its core,
gumbo (the name is derived from a
West African word for “okra”) is a soup
dish made with an assortment of proteins and vegetables and a wide range
of influences, from Cajun and Creole to
French, German and Native American.
While gumbo purists abound, Carl
Schaubhut, executive chef at Loews
New Orleans Hotel’s Café Adelaide,
takes a more open-minded approach
to the gumbo tradition. As long as a
gumbo has a good stock, roux and uses
the “trinity” of vegetables (onions, celery and bell pepper), the sky’s the limit.
“Gumbo has always been just whatever you have laying around,” he says.
“There [are] no rules to it. A lot of
people say there are, but I don’t really
abide by that.”
As a result, gumbo comes in an endless array of combinations: shrimp and
okra at Café Adelaide; duck and foie
gras at Commander’s Palace; cochon
de lait gumbo with creamy potato salad
at SoBou; and Death by Gumbo, an
andouille-stuffed quail slathered in
gumbo, at R’evolution, to name a few.
At Café Adelaide, Schaubhut says
that customers crave the restaurant’s
gumbo year-round. One of his secrets
is the rich seafood stock, made using
all leftover Gulf shrimp shells and fish
trim combined with celery, carrots,
onions, bay leaves and peppercorns. To
give the gumbo its stick-to-your-ribs
texture, Schaubhut uses a darker peanut butter-color roux as well as file, or
ground sassafras leaves, and okra, also a
natural thickener.
As with the rest of Café Adelaide’s
menu, Schaubhut focuses on using local
ingredients to bring a more authentic
flavor to his gumbo, which he feels is
a testament to what gumbo and New
Orleans cooking are all about. “You
won’t find gumbo with mussels and )