January 21, 2026 • 32 mins
Listen to this weeks 'Companion Playlist' featuring songs inspired by: Pennsylvania
In this episode of the United Taste of America podcast, host Rick K. Jones delves into the rich culinary and historical tapestry of Pennsylvania, the second state in the union. He begins by discussing the state's early settlement by Quakers and its pivotal role in the American Revolution, particularly through Philadelphia, which hosted significant events like the Continental Congress and the signing of the Declaration of Independence. The conversation highlights key figures such as Benjamin Franklin and the hardships faced by soldiers during the winter at Valley Forge, emphasizing the state's historical significance in shaping the nation.
As the episode progresses, Rick explores Pennsylvania's diverse culinary landscape, shaped by waves of immigration. He discusses the influence of the Pennsylvania Dutch, Italian immigrants, and Eastern Europeans on the state's food culture, highlighting iconic dishes like shoo-fly pie, cheesesteaks, and pierogies. The episode wraps up with recommendations for must-visit eateries, including the famous Pat's King of Steaks and Geno's, both renowned for their cheesesteaks, and other notable restaurants that showcase the state's culinary heritage. This episode serves as a delicious journey through Pennsylvania's history and its vibrant food scene.
Chapters
00:00 Exploring Pennsylvania's Culinary History
09:02 The Role of Pennsylvania in American Independence
14:54 Immigrant Influences on Pennsylvania Cuisine
28:42 Iconic Foods and Culinary Landmarks in Pennsylvania
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome back to I Heart two fifties podcast series the
United States of America. The second state in our Union
is Pennsylvania. I'm your host, Rick K. Jones, and I
want to thank you for joining us again. I want
to remind you this series is all about the culinary
(00:24):
history of America as we travel to each of our
fifty states, and Pennsylvania clearly has a rich culinary history,
which we're going to talk about today. Last week, if
you hadn't had a chance to listen to last week,
we were in state number one, Delaware, that actually was
part of Pennsylvania until right before the Revolutionary War. So
(00:49):
it's interesting that these two states that border each other
really kind of share a lot of the culinary history
and a lot of the history of that Pennsylvania was
one of our early colonies. It was actually settled in
sixteen eighty one by a Quaker by the name of
William Penn. And William Penn was from England and he
(01:11):
was given a grant Land grant by King Charles the Second.
And why did he get that, Well, it was a
way to repay debts that were owed to William Penn's
father by the king. So rather than pay with cash
or pounds or whatever they used at that time. He
(01:32):
gave him land in the New World, lots of land,
Pennsylvania and most of Delaware, big big land Grant and
then Quakers from across England came across to settle in Pennsylvania.
And again, as I mentioned, Pennsylvania originally had much of
Delaware as part of it, and we featured that next
(01:53):
last week. So'll go back and listen to that podcast.
Look y'all know the story. Pennsylvania played an enormous role
in our independence.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
In the American.
Speaker 1 (02:05):
Revolution, the center of literally everything was Philadelphia. Philadelphia played
host of both the First and second Continental Congress meeting.
So remember the first Continental Congress meeting was we were
not going to declare our independence. We were unhappy with
the King and with Parliament for doing what we felt
(02:30):
like was imposing taxes and other restrictions on us that
was not worthy of what they were doing to other Englishmen.
Everybody in America thought themselves as Englishmen and one of
the same rights and privileges and didn't have those, you know,
and one.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
Of the big issues.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
And if you haven't had a chance to watch Ken
Burns's recent special on PBS on the American Revolution. He
needed to go see it. But one of the big
issues was the way the British handled the Native American
issue or problem was telling the Native Americans they could
have all the land west of the Appalachian Mountains, all
(03:12):
of it, and so they did not allow English settlers
or other settlers to go west of the Appalachians. That's
not going to happen. People had come to America looking
for land, wanting land. This whole manifest destiny, this whole
(03:34):
go West movement was in our DNA. And so one
of the reasons we fought the war was to free
that land up. Not led to again tragic consequences as
we continue to have a Native American issue, as we
ran Native Americans out of their original land and ultimately
pushed them west into reservations. But that was a big,
(03:57):
big piece of it, and Western Pennsylvania was part of that,
was part of that idea of wanting to expand the
largess of the colony. The Second Continental Congress, though, when
they met, we pretty much discovered it's time to declare
(04:19):
our independence. And as you know, mister Jefferson wrote the
Declaration of Independence, and it was signed in Philadelphia that
declared our independence. And then therefore we declared or they
declared war on us, and we fought the American Revolution.
You know, so many of the leaders that came from Pennsylvania,
(04:42):
Benjamin Franklin probably being the one that we all know
the most, Benjamin Rush, Robert Morris, very famous. General General
Anthony Wayne was from Pennsylvania. George Washington famously went his
troops in Valley Forge. Now, the reason they did that
(05:06):
they were close enough to Philadelphia where the British couldn't
where they were far enough away from Philadelphia where British
wouldn't invade without them noticing, but close enough to Philadelphia
if we wanted to take Philadelphia back from the British.
As you may remember, the British came in and took Philadelphia,
and our you know, congressional people had to flee to
(05:29):
other places. Interestingly, while we were in Valley Forge, our
troops needed to be trained better than they had been trained,
and it took a German military man named Friedrich Wilhelm
von Steuben who came. He'd been classically trained Austrian, been
(05:54):
trained in European theater. He joined General Washington staff and
he actually trained our troops, and the training that our
troops had at Valley Fords ultimately led to success on
the battlefield. And so Valley Forge. If you hadn't been
to Valley Forge Pennsylvania National Park, you got to go
there and see now the winner. That winner was a
(06:17):
horrible winner. I mean snow every day our troops had
very little clothing. Again, if you watch the ken Burn series,
I was reminded that more Americans died of disease than
died in the war. The troops died of dysentery and
cholera and other diseases that spread through camps. And even
(06:38):
when we were fighting, in many cases we were fighting
with soldiers that were very, very ill and ill equipped
to fight battles. So again I encourage all of you
watch the ken Burn series. Tell quick story about ken Burns.
I gave a speech several years ago the Eye a
(07:00):
conference in Chicago, and after I gave my speech, a
woman came up to me named Lynn Novick, and you
may recognize Lynn Novick. She's been with ken Burns forever
as an executive producer. And she came up to me
and she said, Rick, we need money for our documentary series.
We need corporate sponsors. Would you come meet with Ken?
(07:21):
And I agreed, and a few weeks later I flew
to Burlington, Vermont and drove to ken Burns home in
wop Hall, New Hampshire, had a cup of soup for
lunch with him on his porch Winter's Barn where he
did his editing, and he said, I have this very
important film coming out called The Civil War and I
(07:44):
need corporate sponsors to help me with that. And I
agreed to see some sponsors and I left, and about
a week later Ken called me and said, Rick, I
have good news for me and not so good news
for you.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
I said, well, what's the good news?
Speaker 1 (07:57):
He said, I've just done a ten pick sure deal
with General Motors. They've agreed to be my sole sponsor
for not only this picture, but ten pictures, so I
don't need any more sponsors.
Speaker 2 (08:09):
Well.
Speaker 1 (08:09):
I was thrilled for him. And as a gift he
gave me a VHS remember VHS.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
Collection of the Civil War.
Speaker 1 (08:19):
So I don't have anything in my house that can
play that anymore, but on my shelf and my study
is in my office is the box set of the
Civil War given to me by ken Burns Love ken
Burns Love all the series The Revolutionary War is Exceptional,
and it'll give you a better understanding as we celebrate
our two hundred and fiftieth birthday about the rev War
(08:43):
and how it really was the first American Civil War
because it was loyalists versus patriots, brothers against brothers in
many cases. Philadelphia continued to play a large role after
the Revolutionary War. After the war, the outline of the
United States Constitution was actually written in Philadelphia in seventeen
(09:04):
eighty seven. But then what do they do? They moved
the capital to New York. And we'll talk about that
when we talk about the state of New York. Now,
western expansion really began in Pennsylvania, and it really began
with the Pennsylvania Dutch, the Swiss, Germans, the Amish people,
the Mennonite people that for religious purposes came to Pennsylvania.
(09:29):
Now they came for religious because they were being persecuted,
but they also got cheap land. There were some great
land deals because again the Quakers that ran Pennsylvania wanted
to expand to the west, and they moved west of
Philadelphia out the main line, out towards a place called Lancaster. Lancaster,
(09:50):
Pennsylvania in that area, and then later in the eighteen
eighties even more of Pennsylvania Dutch more Germans came to
that area. It's a beautiful area of Pennsylvania, beautiful farms.
They still ride, you know, horse and buggies and it's
(10:13):
a beautiful place. Some of you may have seen the
classic Peter Weir movie Witness. Great movie, one of my
favorite movies of all time. Harrison Ford Kelly McGillis. It's
about a Philadelphia police officer who an Amish boy who's
visiting Philadelphia sees a murder and he realizes that the
(10:35):
people that did the murder were other police officers, and
he flees to and is he's been shot, and he's
he recovers in this farmhouse in the Amish region. And
one of the greatest movie scenes of all time is
the barn building where they put up a barn and
it is one of the most beautiful pieces of filmmaking
(10:59):
I've ever seen this. And it's interesting because Harrison Ford,
if you know anything about him as an actor, he
was a carpenter before he was an actor. And so
when he's building the barn in this movie witness. He
knows what he's doing because he's a carpenter. That's really
a wonderful scene. After the Revolutionary War, many of our
(11:19):
soldiers were not paid in cash, but were paid in land,
and much of that land came from western Pennsylvania areas.
And then from seventeen ninety till about eighteen forty, Pennsylvania
was our largest agricultural producer. Of all the colonies in
there now the most important, most prestigious. The turning point
(11:43):
of the Civil War was the battle fought in Pennsylvania
at Gettysburg. The South was dominating, dominating the war. Roberty
Lee's troops were winning battles, were pushing. He was trying
to take the will out of the North by pushing
himself into the northern territory. And it backfired, and it
(12:05):
backfired with pickets charge that you're familiar with. And there
was a professor from Bowden College named Joshua Chamberlain that
had a thing called the pivot that really saved the
Battle of Gettysburg. And the Union won that battle and
then went on to win the war. Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Post
Civil War, Pennsylvania became known as the Steel State. The
(12:28):
steel industry grew in western Pennsylvania, and a large number
of immigrants from around the world came to live and
work in Western Pennsylvania in the mines and in the
steel industry, and Pittsburgh, you know, it is kind of
the capital of Western Pennsylvania, and it's really a hub
for a lot of immigrants and immigrant people that came
(12:52):
from literally from all over the world. Now, Pennsylvania uncannily
has been able to pick presidential winners in almost every
presidential election, with two exceptions.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
They didn't pick Thomas Jefferson.
Speaker 1 (13:07):
When he beat John Adams in that election, and they
didn't pick Andy Jackson. So with the exception of Andrew
Jackson and Thomas Jefferson, they've picked correctly every president of
the United States, including our sitting president Donald Trump. Twice
Pennsylvania said he was going to be the winner, and
(13:30):
he was. But interestingly, with all of this history around
the founding of America, only two presidents have been born
in Pennsylvania. Only two. We talked about one last week.
He's more known for being from Delaware, Joe Biden, but
he was born in Pennsylvania. And the second one was
(13:51):
James Buchanan. Those are the only two presidents from the
state of Pennsylvania. We've got an incredible playlist. Our weekly
musical playlist this week is full of great songs about Pennsylvania.
Speaker 2 (14:09):
One of the songs is the famous song Alan.
Speaker 1 (14:12):
Town by Billy Joel, We've Got Philadelphia Freedom by Elton
John from the movie Rocky, We've Got Gonna Fly Now
by Bill Conte. And then there was an R and
B sound called the Philadelphia Sound. And one of my
favorite groups from that era was Harold Melvin in the
(14:34):
Blue Notes, and they had a lead singer by the
name of Teddy Pendergrast who was a phenomenals lead singer.
And we've got the song the Love I Lost on
our playlist. And then we've got a really fun song
from the movie groundhog Day. You remember groundhog Day with
Bill Murray, one of my favorite movies. It's the Pennsylvania
Polka from the movie groundhog Day. Great great musical playlist
(14:57):
this week. The culinary history Pennsylvania is, like so many
of our other states, is the story of immigrants and
their foods now. Pennsylvania in colonial times was English, very
very English, Quaker English, proper English, and so many of
(15:17):
their foods reflected the foods of England, and so we
had English food like stews and showders, lots of seafood,
lots and lots of seafood because Philadelphia sits on a
magnificent bay that feeds out into the Atlantic Ocean. They
(15:39):
also were famous for puddings, the sweets that went into puddings.
And then we told you that the Pennsylvania Dutch came in,
and they came in very early, and they brought all
their great classic foods German Dutch, I mean Swiss German
foods that they adapted. And so the Pennsylvania Dutch areas
(16:00):
famous for foods like shoe fi, shoe fly pie, chow chow,
a scrapple, sour broughten. They invented pretzels in that area,
both hard and soft pretzels. Very famous for apple butter.
I love apple butter. It's just you know, put apple
(16:21):
butter on bread. It's is so so good. And they're
also famous for chicken pot pie. In the Pennsylvania Dutch
region of Pennsylvania, the Italians came in mass A lot
of people don't realize this, but between eighteen thirty and
(16:43):
between eighteen eighty and nineteen thirty, and in that period,
about a fifty year period, two thirds of all Southern Italians,
which included the island of Sicily, are graded. There was famine,
there was poverty, There weren't johns, and so many of
them came to Australia, some came to South America, but
(17:04):
most came to wear the United States, and a lot
of them settled in Pennsylvania, and a whole lot of
them settled in South Philly. And so you've got, you know,
Italian food in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh that's second to none.
You know, great classic red sauces, tomato pie, Italian wedding
(17:29):
soup which is one of my favorite soups, a little
pasta little tiny meatballs, Hogy sandwiches. The Italians are famous
for sandwiches, and they brought gelatos and Italian pastries. And
so even today when you go to South Philly, some
of the great Italian restaurants in America are in little
(17:51):
bitty hole in the walls in South Philly, Western Pennsylvania.
Speaker 2 (17:55):
As we mentioned, though, a lot of Eastern.
Speaker 1 (17:57):
Europeans came to work in the mines, and so they're
famous for classic Polish foods, things like Progi's, And there
was a couple of brothers named the Promante Brothers, and
they made sandwiches largely for the miners, where they put meat, cheese, coalslaw,
(18:18):
and what French fries literally on the sandwich.
Speaker 2 (18:22):
So you get your sandwich with fries, but the fries
are already on the sandwich.
Speaker 1 (18:25):
And that way you can eat it all. You take
it to the mind. You can have it one hand,
eat it the other hand, do something else. And the
Primanny Brothers, the company still makes amazing sandwiches in western Pennsylvania. Now,
how many of you out there have a sweet tooth?
You know, I don't have as big as sweet tooth
as a lot of other people do. But if you
(18:47):
have a sweet tooth, Pennsylvania is a pretty good place
for two things. One, Hershey's Chocolates Hershey Chocolate Company based
in Hershey, Pennsylvania, milk chocolate second to none, great great products.
But Pennsylvania also is famous for tasty cakes. Tasty cakes
those little pastries that you get that are just amazing.
(19:11):
Another company food company that was founded and continues to
operate out of Pittsburgh is the Heines Company. We all
know Hines from Heines fifty seven sauce, but we know
them mostly for what ketchup Heines Ketchup, which is the
leading ketchup in the world. But there's one iconic dish
(19:33):
that if I name the city, you know what the
dish is. If I say I'll have a Philly you
know exactly what to order. What are you thinking? It's
a Philadelphia or a Philly cheese steak. And there are
lots of cheesecake cheese steak places all over Philadelphia, but
(19:55):
there are two that are very famous and notable. And
what's interesting is they are literally across the street from
each other. And that's Pat's King of Steaks and Geno's.
The oldest one is Pat's. Pat's King of Steak started
in nineteen thirty by an Italian American named Pat Oliveri.
(20:20):
Now here's the legendary story. Nineteen thirty and Pat owns
a hot dog stand like so many other people.
Speaker 2 (20:29):
He owned a hot dog stand.
Speaker 1 (20:31):
But one day he went to the Italian market that
was within walking distance of his hot dog stand, and
he got some scraps of meat, and he got some onions,
and he got a roll, and he made himself a
lunch of seared leftover meat along with some onions on
(20:55):
a roll. And he had a regular customer who drove
a taxi and he showed up that day get his
usual hot dog, and he goes, hey, what are you eating?
And he goes, well, I'm eating the sandwich that I made.
And he said, well, let me try that. And he
tried it, and he said, Pat, quit making hot dogs
and make this sandwich, and the legendary Pat's King of
(21:16):
Steaks was born. Now Pat was an iconic and fascinating character.
This is a guy who ran with movie stars and
the common man at the same time. Very interesting personality.
He loved and made friends with some of the classic
(21:38):
Italian American singers. He was good friends with Dean Martin,
with Vic Damone, with Al Martino. This guy, you know
bet On Horses, regularly owns some race horses at one time.
And this is a very famous place. I mean, it's
got Neon signs. It's just a spectacle your place. They
(22:00):
filmed a number of movies there. One of the most
famous movies they filmed there is the classic Academy Award
winning movie Rocky Again. We talked about today our playlist
has a song from Rocky Gonna Fly Now by Bill Conte.
They film part of the movie Rocky. There there's a
plaque at Pat's today where Sylvester Stallone stood in the
(22:24):
movie Rocky. The place today is run by Pat's nephew,
Frank Olivery. And let me tell you this thinks this
is a bigger character as Pat was just Frank's. You know,
you meet people in like in the first five minutes
of meeting them, you go, I'm gonna be friends with.
Speaker 2 (22:42):
This guy forever. It's this guy.
Speaker 1 (22:44):
This guy is just absolutely one of the great characters
and one of my favorite people. What is the famous
Phillies cheese steak. It's a steak sandwich. Interestingly, they get
their rib eyes from New Zealand and Australia. You know,
(23:05):
one of the reasons beef is so high in America
right now, y'all is we don't grow enough cows. Since COVID,
we've quit growing as much cattle as we have in
the pass and it's hard to get stuff. I saw
the other day where a big meat processing plant in
Nebraska closed a Connagara plant because we don't have enough beef.
(23:27):
And that's a problem. So Pats and we'll talk about
Genos in a minute. Both of them get their ribbis
for their cheese steaks from Australia and New Zealand. Now,
the original cheese steak, guess what, for about thirty years
didn't have cheese. It was a sandwich of sliced meat
(23:53):
and onions and peppers, and then somebody at some point said,
why don't you put cheese on it? The rest is
his and it's interesting. They have four kinds of cheeses.
They have what we call cheese whiz that you know
you dip it. I like to say it's a cheese
like product, cheese whiz. They have Provolone, they have American,
(24:15):
and now they have Cooper Sharp scheddar and you put
onions and peppers on it. They serve fries, and they
now have a chicken version of it. They cook it
and it literally almost deteriorates. They don't chop it up,
but it's cut so thin that just moving the meat
around breaks it up, and it's chopped. Pat's King of Steaks.
(24:39):
Then there's the competitor, literally across the street, Ginos. It
was founded by Joey Vento in nineteen sixty six. Now
you want to talk about balls. You have a cheese
steak against the King of cheese steaks across the well.
(25:01):
Joey Vento was one of these guys, little short guy.
He didn't tell him what he couldn't do. Somebody said
you're not going to survive. He said, I'll show you.
And today that's obviously a great neighborhood institution.
Speaker 2 (25:16):
It's worked out really well for him. Now.
Speaker 1 (25:19):
He named the restaurant Geno's, and he named it Geno's
with a ge no because somebody else had a restaurant
called Geno's named g I n O. Well, he had
a son in nineteen seventy one. What did he name
his son? Geno g E n O? And that son,
(25:41):
Geno now runs the place. What's kind of the difference
between Geno's and Pat's. Genos has a bigger menu. They
also have seating inside the restaurant and outside the restaurant.
Pats doesn't have any seating inside the restaurant. They have
some counters outside, but you usually take it to go.
(26:02):
But Gino's has seating inside and they have a larger menu.
They've got Italian hogies hogi where'd that name come from? Well,
the speculation is. Again, it was Italians that made sandwiches
at the Navy shipyards in Philadelphia where the ship's built
(26:23):
on a place called hog Island, Hoggies, Hogies. That's where
the name Hogi supposedly came from. They also make pork sandwiches.
There's another famous pork sandwich place in proximity called John's,
and they make a great meatball sandwich. And again that's
(26:44):
kind of the difference. Gino's honors first responders, police, military people, firemen.
Speaker 2 (26:53):
In a couple of unique ways.
Speaker 1 (26:56):
They have displayed in the restaurant a lot of bad
patches from fire and police from all over the world,
literally all over the world. They have thousands of them posted,
and a lot of you know about military challenge coins
that the military will give you, they have challenge coins.
They have those that have been given to them on
(27:17):
display in the restaurant. All right, So what's the difference
between the two places. Well, they both make have their
breads made for them custom but the breads are a
little different. One's a little more chewier, one's a little crisper.
They're both amazing. The cheese steaks at Pats fall apart,
(27:40):
and so it looks like it's chopped, but they're sliced
at Geno's, and so they're a little thicker. They're sliced,
they don't fall apart. But look, it's like arguing about
your favorite children. I mean, both are terrific. Both are
open twenty four hours. And so somebody said, what is
(28:01):
your favorite one? And I said the one I'm eating
right now, that's my favorite. But you really want to
do it right, go get one from both places and
eat them both. You won't be sorry. It's Pats King
of Steaks and Gino's South Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Today's three from
(28:22):
me are all uniquely different places to eat in Pennsylvania.
Since we've been talking about Philadelphia, let's start in Philadelphia,
but not at a restaurant but at a food market.
How many of you played the game Monopoly? Remember Boardwalk
(28:43):
in Park Place and all that. Next week we're going
to talk a lot about Monopoly because the Monopoly board
is what city in America? It's Atlantic City in New Jersey,
and we're going to talk about that in State number three.
But if you play Monopoly, you would try to collect
the railroads, remember, and one of the railroads was the
Reading Railroad. Take a ride on the Reading Railroad. The
(29:06):
Reading Terminal is in Philadelphia and it is now a
gigantic food market. And this place serves amazing and very
different foods. You can get Asian food, Caribbean food, Cajun food.
You want diner food, they have a diner in there.
You want Pennsylvania Dutch food, They've got that. Listen, they
(29:29):
got it all. But my favorite, among lots of favorites
is a place called De Nick's d I n ICs
Italian family and they're famous for their hot roast, beef,
pork or meatball sandwiches. Again, it's an old Italian family.
They've got a stall there, amazing sandwiches.
Speaker 2 (29:51):
I first ate there a few years ago.
Speaker 1 (29:54):
Within walking distance of the Reading Market is one of
the most famous basketball arenas in all of America. It's
called the Polestra. The Pleesterra is on the campus of
the University of Pennsylvania and for years they played what
we call Big Five basketball there. That was the five
(30:14):
Philadelphia schools would all play well. A few years ago
I had a chance to go to a double header
at the Polester. There was an eleven am tip off
between Temple University, one of the Big Five and the
University of Maryland. We watched that game, then we went
to the Reading Market in eight all afternoon and then
(30:36):
came back for the nightcap, the seven o'clock tip between
two Philadelphia schools, Saint Joe's and penn What a day.
I'm an old basketball coach and they have a sane
on the wall at the Polster and the saying goes
like this, to play the game is great. To win
(30:57):
the game is greater, but to love the game is
greatest of all the plastra in Philadelphia. Go to basketball
games there, walk to the Reading Market, eat till it ouches.
It's a great place. Second restaurant. We were speaking about
Pennsylvania Dutch food, and there are really two places near Lancaster, Pennsylvania,
(31:20):
place called Burdenhean another place called Intercourse that are famous
for Amish food. If you have a large group, a
big group like you got a busload of people, you
want to go to a place called Plain and Fancy
Farmhouse in Burdenihand what a great name for a town,
burden Ahan, Pennsylvania. This place is amazing. But if it's
(31:42):
just you and your family, you want to go to
a place called Yoder's Restaurant and Buffet in New Holland
of Pennsylvania. Again, all of the great Pennsylvania Dutch foods
all served buffet style or family style, wonderful food. And
finally we talked about the Eastern Europeans that migrated to
(32:04):
western Pennsylvania. In the Pittsburgh area, there's a great restaurant
right outside of Pittsburgh called Optica Optica and it's a
Polish place. Borsche, amazing parogi, stuffed cabbage, all those great
Eastern European classics are at Optica in Pittsburgh, three from
(32:27):
me in Pennsylvania. So today we have featured cheesesteaks from
South Philly and lots of other great foods from Pennsylvania
as part of the United Taste of America.
Speaker 2 (32:42):
We hope to see you back here next.
Speaker 1 (32:43):
Week with the teas that I gave you about State
number three at State's New Jersey.
Speaker 2 (32:49):
We'll see you then,
Welcome back to I Heart two fifties podcast series the
United States of America. The second state in our Union
is Pennsylvania. I'm your host, Rick K. Jones, and I
want to thank you for joining us again. I want
to remind you this series is all about the culinary
(00:24):
history of America as we travel to each of our
fifty states, and Pennsylvania clearly has a rich culinary history,
which we're going to talk about today. Last week, if
you hadn't had a chance to listen to last week,
we were in state number one, Delaware, that actually was
part of Pennsylvania until right before the Revolutionary War. So
(00:49):
it's interesting that these two states that border each other
really kind of share a lot of the culinary history
and a lot of the history of that Pennsylvania was
one of our early colonies. It was actually settled in
sixteen eighty one by a Quaker by the name of
William Penn. And William Penn was from England and he
(01:11):
was given a grant Land grant by King Charles the Second.
And why did he get that, Well, it was a
way to repay debts that were owed to William Penn's
father by the king. So rather than pay with cash
or pounds or whatever they used at that time. He
(01:32):
gave him land in the New World, lots of land,
Pennsylvania and most of Delaware, big big land Grant and
then Quakers from across England came across to settle in Pennsylvania.
And again, as I mentioned, Pennsylvania originally had much of
Delaware as part of it, and we featured that next
(01:53):
last week. So'll go back and listen to that podcast.
Look y'all know the story. Pennsylvania played an enormous role
in our independence.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
In the American.
Speaker 1 (02:05):
Revolution, the center of literally everything was Philadelphia. Philadelphia played
host of both the First and second Continental Congress meeting.
So remember the first Continental Congress meeting was we were
not going to declare our independence. We were unhappy with
the King and with Parliament for doing what we felt
(02:30):
like was imposing taxes and other restrictions on us that
was not worthy of what they were doing to other Englishmen.
Everybody in America thought themselves as Englishmen and one of
the same rights and privileges and didn't have those, you know,
and one.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
Of the big issues.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
And if you haven't had a chance to watch Ken
Burns's recent special on PBS on the American Revolution. He
needed to go see it. But one of the big
issues was the way the British handled the Native American
issue or problem was telling the Native Americans they could
have all the land west of the Appalachian Mountains, all
(03:12):
of it, and so they did not allow English settlers
or other settlers to go west of the Appalachians. That's
not going to happen. People had come to America looking
for land, wanting land. This whole manifest destiny, this whole
(03:34):
go West movement was in our DNA. And so one
of the reasons we fought the war was to free
that land up. Not led to again tragic consequences as
we continue to have a Native American issue, as we
ran Native Americans out of their original land and ultimately
pushed them west into reservations. But that was a big,
(03:57):
big piece of it, and Western Pennsylvania was part of that,
was part of that idea of wanting to expand the
largess of the colony. The Second Continental Congress, though, when
they met, we pretty much discovered it's time to declare
(04:19):
our independence. And as you know, mister Jefferson wrote the
Declaration of Independence, and it was signed in Philadelphia that
declared our independence. And then therefore we declared or they
declared war on us, and we fought the American Revolution.
You know, so many of the leaders that came from Pennsylvania,
(04:42):
Benjamin Franklin probably being the one that we all know
the most, Benjamin Rush, Robert Morris, very famous. General General
Anthony Wayne was from Pennsylvania. George Washington famously went his
troops in Valley Forge. Now, the reason they did that
(05:06):
they were close enough to Philadelphia where the British couldn't
where they were far enough away from Philadelphia where British
wouldn't invade without them noticing, but close enough to Philadelphia
if we wanted to take Philadelphia back from the British.
As you may remember, the British came in and took Philadelphia,
and our you know, congressional people had to flee to
(05:29):
other places. Interestingly, while we were in Valley Forge, our
troops needed to be trained better than they had been trained,
and it took a German military man named Friedrich Wilhelm
von Steuben who came. He'd been classically trained Austrian, been
(05:54):
trained in European theater. He joined General Washington staff and
he actually trained our troops, and the training that our
troops had at Valley Fords ultimately led to success on
the battlefield. And so Valley Forge. If you hadn't been
to Valley Forge Pennsylvania National Park, you got to go
there and see now the winner. That winner was a
(06:17):
horrible winner. I mean snow every day our troops had
very little clothing. Again, if you watch the ken Burn series,
I was reminded that more Americans died of disease than
died in the war. The troops died of dysentery and
cholera and other diseases that spread through camps. And even
(06:38):
when we were fighting, in many cases we were fighting
with soldiers that were very, very ill and ill equipped
to fight battles. So again I encourage all of you
watch the ken Burn series. Tell quick story about ken Burns.
I gave a speech several years ago the Eye a
(07:00):
conference in Chicago, and after I gave my speech, a
woman came up to me named Lynn Novick, and you
may recognize Lynn Novick. She's been with ken Burns forever
as an executive producer. And she came up to me
and she said, Rick, we need money for our documentary series.
We need corporate sponsors. Would you come meet with Ken?
(07:21):
And I agreed, and a few weeks later I flew
to Burlington, Vermont and drove to ken Burns home in
wop Hall, New Hampshire, had a cup of soup for
lunch with him on his porch Winter's Barn where he
did his editing, and he said, I have this very
important film coming out called The Civil War and I
(07:44):
need corporate sponsors to help me with that. And I
agreed to see some sponsors and I left, and about
a week later Ken called me and said, Rick, I
have good news for me and not so good news
for you.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
I said, well, what's the good news?
Speaker 1 (07:57):
He said, I've just done a ten pick sure deal
with General Motors. They've agreed to be my sole sponsor
for not only this picture, but ten pictures, so I
don't need any more sponsors.
Speaker 2 (08:09):
Well.
Speaker 1 (08:09):
I was thrilled for him. And as a gift he
gave me a VHS remember VHS.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
Collection of the Civil War.
Speaker 1 (08:19):
So I don't have anything in my house that can
play that anymore, but on my shelf and my study
is in my office is the box set of the
Civil War given to me by ken Burns Love ken
Burns Love all the series The Revolutionary War is Exceptional,
and it'll give you a better understanding as we celebrate
our two hundred and fiftieth birthday about the rev War
(08:43):
and how it really was the first American Civil War
because it was loyalists versus patriots, brothers against brothers in
many cases. Philadelphia continued to play a large role after
the Revolutionary War. After the war, the outline of the
United States Constitution was actually written in Philadelphia in seventeen
(09:04):
eighty seven. But then what do they do? They moved
the capital to New York. And we'll talk about that
when we talk about the state of New York. Now,
western expansion really began in Pennsylvania, and it really began
with the Pennsylvania Dutch, the Swiss, Germans, the Amish people,
the Mennonite people that for religious purposes came to Pennsylvania.
(09:29):
Now they came for religious because they were being persecuted,
but they also got cheap land. There were some great
land deals because again the Quakers that ran Pennsylvania wanted
to expand to the west, and they moved west of
Philadelphia out the main line, out towards a place called Lancaster. Lancaster,
(09:50):
Pennsylvania in that area, and then later in the eighteen
eighties even more of Pennsylvania Dutch more Germans came to
that area. It's a beautiful area of Pennsylvania, beautiful farms.
They still ride, you know, horse and buggies and it's
(10:13):
a beautiful place. Some of you may have seen the
classic Peter Weir movie Witness. Great movie, one of my
favorite movies of all time. Harrison Ford Kelly McGillis. It's
about a Philadelphia police officer who an Amish boy who's
visiting Philadelphia sees a murder and he realizes that the
(10:35):
people that did the murder were other police officers, and
he flees to and is he's been shot, and he's
he recovers in this farmhouse in the Amish region. And
one of the greatest movie scenes of all time is
the barn building where they put up a barn and
it is one of the most beautiful pieces of filmmaking
(10:59):
I've ever seen this. And it's interesting because Harrison Ford,
if you know anything about him as an actor, he
was a carpenter before he was an actor. And so
when he's building the barn in this movie witness. He
knows what he's doing because he's a carpenter. That's really
a wonderful scene. After the Revolutionary War, many of our
(11:19):
soldiers were not paid in cash, but were paid in land,
and much of that land came from western Pennsylvania areas.
And then from seventeen ninety till about eighteen forty, Pennsylvania
was our largest agricultural producer. Of all the colonies in
there now the most important, most prestigious. The turning point
(11:43):
of the Civil War was the battle fought in Pennsylvania
at Gettysburg. The South was dominating, dominating the war. Roberty
Lee's troops were winning battles, were pushing. He was trying
to take the will out of the North by pushing
himself into the northern territory. And it backfired, and it
(12:05):
backfired with pickets charge that you're familiar with. And there
was a professor from Bowden College named Joshua Chamberlain that
had a thing called the pivot that really saved the
Battle of Gettysburg. And the Union won that battle and
then went on to win the war. Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Post
Civil War, Pennsylvania became known as the Steel State. The
(12:28):
steel industry grew in western Pennsylvania, and a large number
of immigrants from around the world came to live and
work in Western Pennsylvania in the mines and in the
steel industry, and Pittsburgh, you know, it is kind of
the capital of Western Pennsylvania, and it's really a hub
for a lot of immigrants and immigrant people that came
(12:52):
from literally from all over the world. Now, Pennsylvania uncannily
has been able to pick presidential winners in almost every
presidential election, with two exceptions.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
They didn't pick Thomas Jefferson.
Speaker 1 (13:07):
When he beat John Adams in that election, and they
didn't pick Andy Jackson. So with the exception of Andrew
Jackson and Thomas Jefferson, they've picked correctly every president of
the United States, including our sitting president Donald Trump. Twice
Pennsylvania said he was going to be the winner, and
(13:30):
he was. But interestingly, with all of this history around
the founding of America, only two presidents have been born
in Pennsylvania. Only two. We talked about one last week.
He's more known for being from Delaware, Joe Biden, but
he was born in Pennsylvania. And the second one was
(13:51):
James Buchanan. Those are the only two presidents from the
state of Pennsylvania. We've got an incredible playlist. Our weekly
musical playlist this week is full of great songs about Pennsylvania.
Speaker 2 (14:09):
One of the songs is the famous song Alan.
Speaker 1 (14:12):
Town by Billy Joel, We've Got Philadelphia Freedom by Elton
John from the movie Rocky, We've Got Gonna Fly Now
by Bill Conte. And then there was an R and
B sound called the Philadelphia Sound. And one of my
favorite groups from that era was Harold Melvin in the
(14:34):
Blue Notes, and they had a lead singer by the
name of Teddy Pendergrast who was a phenomenals lead singer.
And we've got the song the Love I Lost on
our playlist. And then we've got a really fun song
from the movie groundhog Day. You remember groundhog Day with
Bill Murray, one of my favorite movies. It's the Pennsylvania
Polka from the movie groundhog Day. Great great musical playlist
(14:57):
this week. The culinary history Pennsylvania is, like so many
of our other states, is the story of immigrants and
their foods now. Pennsylvania in colonial times was English, very
very English, Quaker English, proper English, and so many of
(15:17):
their foods reflected the foods of England, and so we
had English food like stews and showders, lots of seafood,
lots and lots of seafood because Philadelphia sits on a
magnificent bay that feeds out into the Atlantic Ocean. They
(15:39):
also were famous for puddings, the sweets that went into puddings.
And then we told you that the Pennsylvania Dutch came in,
and they came in very early, and they brought all
their great classic foods German Dutch, I mean Swiss German
foods that they adapted. And so the Pennsylvania Dutch areas
(16:00):
famous for foods like shoe fi, shoe fly pie, chow chow,
a scrapple, sour broughten. They invented pretzels in that area,
both hard and soft pretzels. Very famous for apple butter.
I love apple butter. It's just you know, put apple
(16:21):
butter on bread. It's is so so good. And they're
also famous for chicken pot pie. In the Pennsylvania Dutch
region of Pennsylvania, the Italians came in mass A lot
of people don't realize this, but between eighteen thirty and
(16:43):
between eighteen eighty and nineteen thirty, and in that period,
about a fifty year period, two thirds of all Southern Italians,
which included the island of Sicily, are graded. There was famine,
there was poverty, There weren't johns, and so many of
them came to Australia, some came to South America, but
(17:04):
most came to wear the United States, and a lot
of them settled in Pennsylvania, and a whole lot of
them settled in South Philly. And so you've got, you know,
Italian food in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh that's second to none.
You know, great classic red sauces, tomato pie, Italian wedding
(17:29):
soup which is one of my favorite soups, a little
pasta little tiny meatballs, Hogy sandwiches. The Italians are famous
for sandwiches, and they brought gelatos and Italian pastries. And
so even today when you go to South Philly, some
of the great Italian restaurants in America are in little
(17:51):
bitty hole in the walls in South Philly, Western Pennsylvania.
Speaker 2 (17:55):
As we mentioned, though, a lot of Eastern.
Speaker 1 (17:57):
Europeans came to work in the mines, and so they're
famous for classic Polish foods, things like Progi's, And there
was a couple of brothers named the Promante Brothers, and
they made sandwiches largely for the miners, where they put meat, cheese, coalslaw,
(18:18):
and what French fries literally on the sandwich.
Speaker 2 (18:22):
So you get your sandwich with fries, but the fries
are already on the sandwich.
Speaker 1 (18:25):
And that way you can eat it all. You take
it to the mind. You can have it one hand,
eat it the other hand, do something else. And the
Primanny Brothers, the company still makes amazing sandwiches in western Pennsylvania. Now,
how many of you out there have a sweet tooth?
You know, I don't have as big as sweet tooth
as a lot of other people do. But if you
(18:47):
have a sweet tooth, Pennsylvania is a pretty good place
for two things. One, Hershey's Chocolates Hershey Chocolate Company based
in Hershey, Pennsylvania, milk chocolate second to none, great great products.
But Pennsylvania also is famous for tasty cakes. Tasty cakes
those little pastries that you get that are just amazing.
(19:11):
Another company food company that was founded and continues to
operate out of Pittsburgh is the Heines Company. We all
know Hines from Heines fifty seven sauce, but we know
them mostly for what ketchup Heines Ketchup, which is the
leading ketchup in the world. But there's one iconic dish
(19:33):
that if I name the city, you know what the
dish is. If I say I'll have a Philly you
know exactly what to order. What are you thinking? It's
a Philadelphia or a Philly cheese steak. And there are
lots of cheesecake cheese steak places all over Philadelphia, but
(19:55):
there are two that are very famous and notable. And
what's interesting is they are literally across the street from
each other. And that's Pat's King of Steaks and Geno's.
The oldest one is Pat's. Pat's King of Steak started
in nineteen thirty by an Italian American named Pat Oliveri.
(20:20):
Now here's the legendary story. Nineteen thirty and Pat owns
a hot dog stand like so many other people.
Speaker 2 (20:29):
He owned a hot dog stand.
Speaker 1 (20:31):
But one day he went to the Italian market that
was within walking distance of his hot dog stand, and
he got some scraps of meat, and he got some onions,
and he got a roll, and he made himself a
lunch of seared leftover meat along with some onions on
(20:55):
a roll. And he had a regular customer who drove
a taxi and he showed up that day get his
usual hot dog, and he goes, hey, what are you eating?
And he goes, well, I'm eating the sandwich that I made.
And he said, well, let me try that. And he
tried it, and he said, Pat, quit making hot dogs
and make this sandwich, and the legendary Pat's King of
(21:16):
Steaks was born. Now Pat was an iconic and fascinating character.
This is a guy who ran with movie stars and
the common man at the same time. Very interesting personality.
He loved and made friends with some of the classic
(21:38):
Italian American singers. He was good friends with Dean Martin,
with Vic Damone, with Al Martino. This guy, you know
bet On Horses, regularly owns some race horses at one time.
And this is a very famous place. I mean, it's
got Neon signs. It's just a spectacle your place. They
(22:00):
filmed a number of movies there. One of the most
famous movies they filmed there is the classic Academy Award
winning movie Rocky Again. We talked about today our playlist
has a song from Rocky Gonna Fly Now by Bill Conte.
They film part of the movie Rocky. There there's a
plaque at Pat's today where Sylvester Stallone stood in the
(22:24):
movie Rocky. The place today is run by Pat's nephew,
Frank Olivery. And let me tell you this thinks this
is a bigger character as Pat was just Frank's. You know,
you meet people in like in the first five minutes
of meeting them, you go, I'm gonna be friends with.
Speaker 2 (22:42):
This guy forever. It's this guy.
Speaker 1 (22:44):
This guy is just absolutely one of the great characters
and one of my favorite people. What is the famous
Phillies cheese steak. It's a steak sandwich. Interestingly, they get
their rib eyes from New Zealand and Australia. You know,
(23:05):
one of the reasons beef is so high in America
right now, y'all is we don't grow enough cows. Since COVID,
we've quit growing as much cattle as we have in
the pass and it's hard to get stuff. I saw
the other day where a big meat processing plant in
Nebraska closed a Connagara plant because we don't have enough beef.
(23:27):
And that's a problem. So Pats and we'll talk about
Genos in a minute. Both of them get their ribbis
for their cheese steaks from Australia and New Zealand. Now,
the original cheese steak, guess what, for about thirty years
didn't have cheese. It was a sandwich of sliced meat
(23:53):
and onions and peppers, and then somebody at some point said,
why don't you put cheese on it? The rest is
his and it's interesting. They have four kinds of cheeses.
They have what we call cheese whiz that you know
you dip it. I like to say it's a cheese
like product, cheese whiz. They have Provolone, they have American,
(24:15):
and now they have Cooper Sharp scheddar and you put
onions and peppers on it. They serve fries, and they
now have a chicken version of it. They cook it
and it literally almost deteriorates. They don't chop it up,
but it's cut so thin that just moving the meat
around breaks it up, and it's chopped. Pat's King of Steaks.
(24:39):
Then there's the competitor, literally across the street, Ginos. It
was founded by Joey Vento in nineteen sixty six. Now
you want to talk about balls. You have a cheese
steak against the King of cheese steaks across the well.
(25:01):
Joey Vento was one of these guys, little short guy.
He didn't tell him what he couldn't do. Somebody said
you're not going to survive. He said, I'll show you.
And today that's obviously a great neighborhood institution.
Speaker 2 (25:16):
It's worked out really well for him. Now.
Speaker 1 (25:19):
He named the restaurant Geno's, and he named it Geno's
with a ge no because somebody else had a restaurant
called Geno's named g I n O. Well, he had
a son in nineteen seventy one. What did he name
his son? Geno g E n O? And that son,
(25:41):
Geno now runs the place. What's kind of the difference
between Geno's and Pat's. Genos has a bigger menu. They
also have seating inside the restaurant and outside the restaurant.
Pats doesn't have any seating inside the restaurant. They have
some counters outside, but you usually take it to go.
(26:02):
But Gino's has seating inside and they have a larger menu.
They've got Italian hogies hogi where'd that name come from? Well,
the speculation is. Again, it was Italians that made sandwiches
at the Navy shipyards in Philadelphia where the ship's built
(26:23):
on a place called hog Island, Hoggies, Hogies. That's where
the name Hogi supposedly came from. They also make pork sandwiches.
There's another famous pork sandwich place in proximity called John's,
and they make a great meatball sandwich. And again that's
(26:44):
kind of the difference. Gino's honors first responders, police, military people, firemen.
Speaker 2 (26:53):
In a couple of unique ways.
Speaker 1 (26:56):
They have displayed in the restaurant a lot of bad
patches from fire and police from all over the world,
literally all over the world. They have thousands of them posted,
and a lot of you know about military challenge coins
that the military will give you, they have challenge coins.
They have those that have been given to them on
(27:17):
display in the restaurant. All right, So what's the difference
between the two places. Well, they both make have their
breads made for them custom but the breads are a
little different. One's a little more chewier, one's a little crisper.
They're both amazing. The cheese steaks at Pats fall apart,
(27:40):
and so it looks like it's chopped, but they're sliced
at Geno's, and so they're a little thicker. They're sliced,
they don't fall apart. But look, it's like arguing about
your favorite children. I mean, both are terrific. Both are
open twenty four hours. And so somebody said, what is
(28:01):
your favorite one? And I said the one I'm eating
right now, that's my favorite. But you really want to
do it right, go get one from both places and
eat them both. You won't be sorry. It's Pats King
of Steaks and Gino's South Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Today's three from
(28:22):
me are all uniquely different places to eat in Pennsylvania.
Since we've been talking about Philadelphia, let's start in Philadelphia,
but not at a restaurant but at a food market.
How many of you played the game Monopoly? Remember Boardwalk
(28:43):
in Park Place and all that. Next week we're going
to talk a lot about Monopoly because the Monopoly board
is what city in America? It's Atlantic City in New Jersey,
and we're going to talk about that in State number three.
But if you play Monopoly, you would try to collect
the railroads, remember, and one of the railroads was the
Reading Railroad. Take a ride on the Reading Railroad. The
(29:06):
Reading Terminal is in Philadelphia and it is now a
gigantic food market. And this place serves amazing and very
different foods. You can get Asian food, Caribbean food, Cajun food.
You want diner food, they have a diner in there.
You want Pennsylvania Dutch food, They've got that. Listen, they
(29:29):
got it all. But my favorite, among lots of favorites
is a place called De Nick's d I n ICs
Italian family and they're famous for their hot roast, beef,
pork or meatball sandwiches. Again, it's an old Italian family.
They've got a stall there, amazing sandwiches.
Speaker 2 (29:51):
I first ate there a few years ago.
Speaker 1 (29:54):
Within walking distance of the Reading Market is one of
the most famous basketball arenas in all of America. It's
called the Polestra. The Pleesterra is on the campus of
the University of Pennsylvania and for years they played what
we call Big Five basketball there. That was the five
(30:14):
Philadelphia schools would all play well. A few years ago
I had a chance to go to a double header
at the Polester. There was an eleven am tip off
between Temple University, one of the Big Five and the
University of Maryland. We watched that game, then we went
to the Reading Market in eight all afternoon and then
(30:36):
came back for the nightcap, the seven o'clock tip between
two Philadelphia schools, Saint Joe's and penn What a day.
I'm an old basketball coach and they have a sane
on the wall at the Polster and the saying goes
like this, to play the game is great. To win
(30:57):
the game is greater, but to love the game is
greatest of all the plastra in Philadelphia. Go to basketball
games there, walk to the Reading Market, eat till it ouches.
It's a great place. Second restaurant. We were speaking about
Pennsylvania Dutch food, and there are really two places near Lancaster, Pennsylvania,
(31:20):
place called Burdenhean another place called Intercourse that are famous
for Amish food. If you have a large group, a
big group like you got a busload of people, you
want to go to a place called Plain and Fancy
Farmhouse in Burdenihand what a great name for a town,
burden Ahan, Pennsylvania. This place is amazing. But if it's
(31:42):
just you and your family, you want to go to
a place called Yoder's Restaurant and Buffet in New Holland
of Pennsylvania. Again, all of the great Pennsylvania Dutch foods
all served buffet style or family style, wonderful food. And
finally we talked about the Eastern Europeans that migrated to
(32:04):
western Pennsylvania. In the Pittsburgh area, there's a great restaurant
right outside of Pittsburgh called Optica Optica and it's a
Polish place. Borsche, amazing parogi, stuffed cabbage, all those great
Eastern European classics are at Optica in Pittsburgh, three from
(32:27):
me in Pennsylvania. So today we have featured cheesesteaks from
South Philly and lots of other great foods from Pennsylvania
as part of the United Taste of America.
Speaker 2 (32:42):
We hope to see you back here next.
Speaker 1 (32:43):
Week with the teas that I gave you about State
number three at State's New Jersey.
Speaker 2 (32:49):
We'll see you then,
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