Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

Is it more oily or creamy? As in, does it appear butter/mayonnaise based or oil infused with herbs and spices? If the latter, marinate some veggies in it, water it down to make dressing, use it as a dip for veggies.

Or...use it as it implies! Make a sandwich, spread it on and grill it with a Foreman. If you don't have a Foreman grill, heat up some butter/olive oil in a pan...place the sandwich in, and place another frying pan on top of it to press the sandwich. When the one side is golden...flip and repeat.

Sharp cheddar cheese, salami or pastrami, turkey, and veggie additions of choice. ^_^

@annatr - with all of the "un" italian combinations???????

what is a panino but a glorious grilled cheese!

but glad you pointed that out.....

When in Philly Sarcone's is a must for hoagies, Tony Luke's for steaks, roast pork, broccoli rabe...everything else...I'm a hungry man far from home

I'll eat American, but I prefer almost everything else. I like strong tasting cheese like extra sharp cheddar, bleu and gorgonzola and one of my faves is smoked mozzarella. Other smoked cheeses are also tasty on burgers.

I'm 37, have lived my whole life in Connecticut, and am adding my support to the fact that grinders are available both hot and cold. You can get cold cold-cut grinders or hot grinders like chicken parm, meatball, or sausage and peppers. Cheese choices are either just provolone or provolone and American. Lettuce and tomato are usually options, as are oil and vinegar. Roasted peppers are pretty standard, too.

Great post on a vital topic! All those photos above have my stomach growling with the memories of four years spent at the legendary Hoagie Haven in Princeton:

http://www.hoagiehaven.com/

I must have eaten at least 2 sandwiches a week from them. My meal of choice was the "pizza cheesesteak" - cheesesteak cooked flat, provolone cheese and tomato sauce. To that, I would add grilled onions, shredded iceberg lettuce and a little bit of ketchup for sweetness.

I wonder if my digestive track could still handle one of these?

I would like to second (fifth?) the comment(s) about grinders being hot or cold. I grew up in Connecticut, and not until my teenage years did I even realize other names existed for grinders. It's a pretty all-encompassing term.

They're bombers in Buffalo, NY, and they're also called subs. Great thread...I know what I'm having for dinner tonight!
@ladymarmalade - thanks for not calling it beef on wick...ugh...that's a pet peeve of mine! lol

@Just Nancy: Hey, I'm up for sriracha on almost anything. But it's weaksauce on bahn mi. AND it deprives you of the pleasure of hot hot hot hot quenched by nibbling on a more pate-and-veggie edge until you're again prepared to be possibly surprised.

OMG

As soon as I saw the top picture I had to scroll to the italian beef & follow through to the flickr because I knew EXACTLY where the sandwich came from - and was totally right. I'm an IL native that's been in AR for 11 years, and only once in that time have I transported the bucket 'o beef, jus & buns back here to share the love with my friends. Damn you article, for making me want Portillo's like .. well, like something really necessary but not quite oxygen.

*drool*

@serpentine: Yikes! Sriracha on banh mi is totally not cool? I didn't know that and yes, at a couple of places in the NYC area, sriracha is definitely present. But in all local versions, there's chilies, too – usually those fierce little bird chilies but Hanco's in Brooklyn does a fresh sliced jalapeno.