You can actually get non-cheesesteak food 'round these parts

Somewhere during the joy of our Eagles’ blowout win during the NFC Championship game, the Fox broadcast team said it: “The Eagles are hungry, and not just for cheesesteaks.”

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‘Round these parts, we actually offer a full range of foods. In the Philadelphia area, you can get a steak without cheese. You can get various cuts, from porterhouse to filet mignon to skirt steak. You can also get cheese without the steak. There’s cheddar, Swiss, bleu cheese, camembert and more. It doesn’t have to be Cheez Whiz and doesn’t have to come on an Amoroso roll.

But there’s more: people here eat chicken and pork and eggs and rice. We have ice cream. We have rye, wheat and white bread. We have risotto and various types of pasta. There’s a full range of vegetables, from carrots to beans to spinach. You can even get fruit in the Philadelphia metro area, like apples or bananas or pears. There have even been sightings of people eating quiche.

These things are all readily available at supermarkets and stores in our area. So cheesesteaks are not the only option.

After you watch enough nationally televised Eagles or Phillies games, you’ll get used to the lingering shots of steaks on a grill, ready to be topped with cheese and/or onions. It just gets funny and kind of tiresome after awhile. It made me laugh on Sunday, because they mentioned the Eagles being hungry for cheesesteaks and I was picturing elite athletes spending the run-up to the Super Bowl gorging themselves at Pat’s.

How often do people really eat cheesesteaks around here? I’ll have one once in awhile but it’s not like we’re all constantly eating them. (I’ve also never used Cheez Whiz on one. Little known fact for people outside the area: You can actually get other types of cheese on your steak.)

I’m sure other cities have their stereotypes that national broadcasters return to since it’s easy, and I don’t notice because I don’t live there. After so many years of watching sports, it just gets a little amusing and exhausting to hear the same ancient Philadelphia stories trotted out again (like throwing snowballs at Santa, which happened in the waning days of the Johnson administration). It’s like hearing a senile relative tell the same stories every year at Thanksgiving and you smile politely and let your eyes glaze over.

Anyway, go Eagles!