Poll: Which do you say?

I say sub or hero. If it's hot it's a hero, if it's cold its a sub.

Two answers here as well.� It depends who I'm with.� With family, it's a hoagie because that's what they call 'em.� With anyone else, it's a sub.� I've picked it�up from living outside Western PA & in actual civilization ;-)

I usually say "hero bread" when I want my sandwich as a hero. Sometimes I say sub, but usually I'm at Subway or some other shop that uses sub. Otherwise, it's hero.

i usually say sub, but grinders at a place that advertises grinders. usually grinders are hot and involve grilled bread for me, like paninis, only really long :D

I realized after making this poll that I think we may have had it before.

Anywho...I say sub, because I grew up with Sub parents...but i live in a land of grinders. I hate the term, and I hate when I find myself using it because I'm immersed in it. I mind it less when they're talking about a hot sub, for some reason...but when they say grinder about a cold sub? Really grates for some reason.

I haven't ever been out of the Philadelphia area long enough to even notice any other name. But yeah, everyone says hoagie here.

Hoagie is a PA thing.

I call it a hoagie.� My rule is that it is definitely a hoagie if it's from Wawa and any small delis in or surrounding Philly.

It's a sub if it's from Sheetz or any place in Western PA.

I remember when I first heard it called a "sub" and I was like, "What in the world are you talking about?"

Hoagie pwns your pants.

yayyyy philly and hoagies!

Nor should we care b/c we are RIGHT!!!

HOAGIE HIGH FIVES ALL AROUND!

It depends on the sandwich and the region. Long, skinny sandwiches are subs. A grinder is a hot, toasted sub.

Growing up, our local supermarket sold hoagie rolls, which were short Italian breads, about the size of a double-wide hot dog bun with a slightly thicker crust.� They were perfect for steak sandwiches.�Hoagies, to me, are sandwiches on six- to eight-inch breads with both ends intact.

Po' Boys are only available in Gulf shore states, and tend to have unexpected meats on them.

Interesting... there's never been a distinction by hot or cold for grinder around here.... another sub-regionalism, perhaps?

Possible. My introduction to grinders was in New London, CT. The shop didn't offer cold sandwiches that I remember.

The closest thing to a grinder I can find in Chicago is Quizno's. The toasting is pretty good, but the sandwiches aren't really big enough to be grinders. The grinders I remember were too big to close.

We had a pretty good grinder shop in Bloomington, IN (Mancino's) and another one in Indianapolis (W.G. Grinders, a chain based in Ohio).

I grew up in the New London, CT area and since moving away I have missed Grinders.� I finally took it upon myself to duplicate them out here in Ohio.� I would say the chief distinction is the copious amounts of olive oil.� In the southeastern ct area, if you order a "regular grinder", (toasted or not), it will be built from the ground up as follows:

Sliced open grinder roll
Olive oil
Single layer of overlapping slices of Provolone.
Single layer of overlapping slices of Cotto Salami
(At this point toasted in the pizza oven if desired)
Layer of sliced tomato down one side.
Thick layer of shredded lettuce.
Copious amounts of olive oil poured onto the lettuce.
Salt, pepper.

Thats pretty much it for a "regular", but the right amount of salt and pepper in the olive oil really makes it great, and quite distinguishable from a typical generic sub.

Chiefley

That sounds like a good sandwich. :-)

My first grinder was steak, peppers, onions and cheese going into the oven, lettuce and condiments after it came through. I don't remember copious amounts of oil, but that was long before I realized what olive oil could do to a sandwich.

Bruce,

What I described was a "regular Grinder". A typical grinder shop would sell all kinds of other grinders that are more traditionally like a sub sandwich. So the one you are describing would not have olive oil on it. For example, a tuna grinder, or a hot meatball grinder. Those are not that much different than subs and hoagies anywhere else. It's that "regular" grinder that is the distinctive one.

When I was last in CT, I had a really good grinder at Mystic Pizza Two, in No. Stonington, CT. Its a second store to the now famous Mystic Pizza in CT.

Chiefley

I totally agree... Grinders are hot hoagies. :o)

Oh, and a very popular but regionally limited one is called a Speidie (pronounced like Speedy).� It is extremely popular in its region but somehow doesn't spread out from the Binghamton, NY area.

Chiefley

Dude, yeah, speidies ROCK!!

I used to have my sister get me speidie sauce so I could make 'em at home... back when she lived in binghamton.

i say sub. but now that im away at college in a diff. part of NY everyone says hero and they laugh at me. but its ok b/c apparently i say a lot of words wrong.

Although subs doesn't sound foreign to me either.... but... I'll almost always call them grinders out of habit.

even if I go to subway, (which I avoid) I order a grinder. :)

You hurt me ;_;

sbwy4eva

heh
sorry pookie

what's interesting is that 'sub' is not a regionalism at all, but a generic name for the type of sandwich based on its shape. there are really only a few places that have specific names for them.

that said, I'll always call them hoagies and cheesesteaks (hoagies are mostly cold, cheesesteaks are hot, and sometimes don't have steak - the important distinction, at least, is that a cheesesteak is NOT a hoagie), as my primary exposure to them was in Philadelphia. damn, I need to get back to Lee's (or Pat's, or Geno's). It's been over three months...

I think of a sub as being able to be hot or cold, but a grinder is baked.

Innnnnteresting.

...it's fun to make tease a guy at work who's last name is Hoag by calling him Hoagie Roll. :-P

-- Pauley

DUDE!
I *love* to make tease!

what do you make yours out of?

tea leaves. duh.

*giggles*

It's funny, because while I was vaguely aware of Sub Sandwiches beforehand, I never had one (and thus, rarely referred to them) before Subway moved into my area around my Junior year in High School.

So, after that, they were subs by default.

You were influenced by The Man(tm)! For shame!