{"id":13,"date":"2008-02-02T15:33:54","date_gmt":"2008-02-02T20:33:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chrisbaer.net\/mp\/2008\/02\/02\/roast-pork-perfection\/"},"modified":"2023-09-06T10:03:58","modified_gmt":"2023-09-06T14:03:58","slug":"roast-pork-perfection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chrisbaer.net\/mp\/2008\/02\/02\/roast-pork-perfection\/","title":{"rendered":"Roast Pork Perfection"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Holy Trinity, if you will, of Philadelphia food: the cheesesteak, the soft pretzel, and any incarnation of the TastyKake<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But—blasphemy!—I hereby disavow the cheesesteak, for I have tasted of the roast pork sandwich, dripping with pan juices and sauteed greenery.<\/p>\n

\"Roast<\/a><\/p>\n

This salty wonder has long been available, but it failed to appear on my mental menu of Philadelphia foods before I came across a lackluster mention of the sandwich on Frank Bruni’s New York Times<\/em> food blog<\/a>:<\/p>\n

And the roast pork sandwich, on a round and soggy roll, was disappointing through and through. The meat had so little taste it could have been mistaken for turkey.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Not an auspicious review, but the entry piqued my interest. Where had this sandwich, apparently a Philadelphia classic, been all my life?<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

I certainly can’t claim to have grown up in Philadelphia, but I’ve put in my time sampling Philadelphia foods thanks to many visits there and to the far-flung Philly sububurbs of the South Jersey shore over the past three decades. And I never had even hint of the existence of this the mouthwatering combination of pork, provolone and, of course, the greens. Oh, the greens!<\/p>\n

It’s the greens—brocolli rabe, traditionally, or spinach—that must have kept anyone from offering this sandwich to me. Leafy greens aren’t on most children’s list of favorite things, nor adults either. Perhaps I was just in greens-averse company while in Philadelphia.<\/p>\n

A recent trip to Philadelphia gave me a chance to sample this sandwich at what some consider the epicenter of roast pork perfection, DiNic’s<\/a> in the Reading Terminal Market downtown. I arrived just shortly before they closed for the day and found a modest four person line that moved with some speed, no one needing to peruse the sparse menu. When I placed my order, I was confronted with the choice of “Spinach or brocolli rabe?” Well, rabe, though I still don’t quite know what rabe is. Tasty, though.<\/p>\n

The sandwich came together speedily. The chef (perhaps too formal a word, but there was artistry involved, so permit the indulgence) pulled a fresh hard sub roll from a paper bag, split it down the middle, and sliced off the ends. Cracking the roll, he layered on provolone cheese that had already been torn into small pieces, creating a fairly even layer against the full interior surface. Not a speck of cheese peeked outside the roll. Next came the roast pork, packed in, moist from a long bath in pan juices. The chef pressed the meat down slightly then crowned the sandwich with two tong-fulls of sauteed rabe.<\/p>\n

Total time between first roll cut and efficient wrapping in butcher paper\u2014thirty seconds, max. With a drink, I escaped with enough change from a ten to buy a Philadelphia Daily News<\/em> (the better to eat with, being a tabloid size paper).<\/p>\n

The overall impression was salty and tender, the provolone adding a sharpness to the proceedings. The rabe, sauteed into submission, had no chewiness to it, providing a bitter counterpoint to the equally soft pork.<\/p>\n

It wasn’t a messy sandwich. I think the cheese base prevents the juice from pork and rabe from penetrating too quickly into the bread, so there’s a solid handle from start to finish. I expected a bit more garlicky flavor. It was, on the whole, a well-behaved sandwich that more than justified my detour that day.<\/p>\n

I would be willing to put the roast pork sandwich up in the pantheon of Philadelphia foods. Certainly I’d opt for this meal over an unpredictable cheesesteak any day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Holy Trinity, if you will, of Philadelphia food: the cheesesteak, the soft pretzel, and any incarnation of the TastyKake. But—blasphemy!—I hereby disavow the cheesesteak, for I have tasted of the roast pork sandwich, dripping with pan juices and sauteed greenery. This salty wonder has long been available, but it failed to appear on my … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[19,20],"class_list":["post-13","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-food","tag-philadelphia","tag-roast-pork"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pedXm-d","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chrisbaer.net\/mp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chrisbaer.net\/mp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chrisbaer.net\/mp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chrisbaer.net\/mp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chrisbaer.net\/mp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/chrisbaer.net\/mp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6370,"href":"https:\/\/chrisbaer.net\/mp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13\/revisions\/6370"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chrisbaer.net\/mp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chrisbaer.net\/mp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chrisbaer.net\/mp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}