For anyone who knows me, they know I’m obsessed with food. I love to eat food, I love to cook food and I love the Food Network. It's pretty much my standard go-to channel when there’s nothing else on, so of course I’ve been very excited that recently Food Network has been noticing the culinary talents of Philadelphia. First Bobby Flay had a few throwdowns – with Tony Luke’s over cheesesteaks, with Delilah over Mac & Cheese, and with The Preztel Boys over Pretzels. Then there was Jose Garces competing for the Next Iron Chef and winning! There have been mentions in Best Thing I Ever Ate – like Marc Summers picking the Margherita Pizza at Osteria and Robert Irvine picking the A&M Halal Food Truck, as well as Guy Fieri in DDD, recently visiting Good Dog Bar for their Cheesesteak Empanadas. So when I heard that they were filming an episode of the new show Outrageous Food with Tom Pizzica last Thursday at Jake's Sandwich Board, I was excited. On Saturday my boyfriend Drew & I made the trek to 12th street, despite some flurries, to try the sandwiches and to check out the Eating Challenge that would soon be featured on TV.
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| Whole Roasted Pig, by Neal Santos |
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| 5-lb Philly Challenge, photo courtesy of Jake's |
We arrive at Jake’s Sandwich Shop around 2:30, on a quiet Saturday but there is camera equipment everywhere. Drew and I talk about how maybe its leftover stuff from the week's filming. We order our lunches – Drew "The Jake," a cheesesteak with roasted long-hots and me, the hand-carved whole roasted pig sandwich. Typical slow eater that I am, I’m still only about halfway through my sandwich while Drew is done, when 3 people walk in, walk over to the camera equipment, take out clipboards and cameras and begin rearranging tables and chairs around the shop.
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| The Jake Sandwich (what Drew ordered) |
Drew and I of course start whispering. Could it be? Are they filming? The next thing we know, one of the crew comes over and asks, “Would you like to be on the Food Network?” Well duh, of course. So they tell us that the challenge was filmed on Thursday but they need some more footage of people eating. So they tell me to wait to eat my sandwich, proceed to clean up our table a little bit, refill our drinks, move our coats. But something’s still missing. Aha, the lady producer realizes, and goes up to the kitchen to ask if they will make Drew another half a cheesesteak. And…without any more warning, we’re rolling.
Lights. Camera in our face. And they film Drew taking a bit of his sandwich. Some awkward silence follows, where Drew continues eating and the producer and camera man are just smiling at him, then she asks him to speak, what makes a cheesesteak? What makes this one good? Where are you from? etc. And Drew tells them about the bread, about wiz wit, about the tender meat. Afterwards, he was kicking himself for not saying more, but I think he did a great job. And then its my turn. She tells me to take a bit of my pork sandwich, I do, of course there’s a string of cheese hanging from my mouth and my hair falls in my face. I’m waiting for her to ask me some questions but then she goes, that’s good for her. L I try to tell her how the pork sandwich is the true Philly sandwich and I can talk about that, but she says, we just need to hear about the cheesesteaks.
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| Drew outside of Jake's |
For more about Jake's Sandwich Board, visit http://www.jakessandwichboard.com/
