Saturday, July 16, 2016

A Police State And A Curveball In The Cheesesteak Challenge

So yesterday in downtown Philly there were more police than tourists.  Literally hundreds of policeman on every block, with hundreds of marked Swat vans, Episode Response vehicles and regular cop cars parked 10 at a time at every corner and every available spot around the Convention Center.

The Day of Rage for Black Lives Matter never materialized and Love Park was pristine even after it was supposed to have ended. It was great seeing all these policemen and policewomen taking care of us trapped Convention goers.  I didn't bother to take pictures of them, as that might have been perceived as something other than good.  And this AM they were all gone!  But they all said it was good preparation for the coming Democrat Convention next week!

And so, the second part of the Cheesesteak Challenge was altered and Jim's and Pat's were discarded for another day.  Instead, we substituted several establishments at the Reading Terminal Market.  These included Dinic's and Carmen's Famous Cheesesteaks.

The girls got Roast Beef sandwiches at Dinic's, with smoked provolone and broccoli rabe.  I got a cheesesteak with whiz and fried onions at Carmen's and we all compared notes:

Dinic'sOver-all Winner!
  • Delisciousness:    5/5  mounds of mouth-watering beefy goodness.
  • Presentation:   5/5  Reading Terminal Market is a spectacle unmatched anywhere.
  • Environment:  5/5  Great food smells everywhere around you. A veritable cornucopia.
  • Convenience:  4.5/5  Next to our hotel! But needed change.
  • Ingredients:   5/5   Everything was top-notch, and a lot of it.
Carmen's:
  • Delisciousness:  2/5 Not my favorite by leaps and bounds.
  • Presentation: 5/5  The Market, after all.
  • Environment:  3/5 only because I was stuck behind a real jerk in line.
  • Convenience:  3/5  Actually a line to order, AND a line to pick up.
  • Ingredients:   3/5  Chopped, previously frozen, processed meat couldn't help the whiz and decent onions.
Here's the unidentified idiot I was behind in line at Carmen's.

Carmen's Famous.

Tommy Dinic's.