National Hoagie Day 2023: Date, History, Components

National Hoagie Day on May 5 provides a welcome alternative to the seemingly infinite baskets of chips and salsa and cheap Mexican beer consumed by Americans on Cinco de Mayo. Today, you can confidently say “no” to tacos and burritos and head to your neighbourhood deli for a hoagie. Or a sub. Or a grinder. Also a champion. Because a hoagie by any other name is still a hoagie, particularly on National Hoagie Day.

The background of National Hoagie Day

Philadelphia is well-known for its mouthwatering steak and cheese subs, but did you know that the City of Brotherly Love is also renowned for its hoagies, which are served on a large, gorgeous bun? Not the steak and cheese sub, but the humble hoagie of Italian immigrant heritage bears the title of “Official Sandwich of Philadelphia.”

The traditional Italian hoagie is a sandwich filled with Italian deli meats and cheeses, pepperoncini peppers, and vegetables, and garnished with olive oil, vinegar, and spices. There are at least a dozen credible accounts of who invented the first Italian sandwich on long bread in the United States. Many Italian immigrants settled in New England in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, according to the majority of accounts. Although the question of whose mother or father assembled the first hoagie in Philadelphia will never be settled, we do know that the city of Philadelphia owns the branding rights to the sandwich.

Philadelphia’s evening newspaper from 1847 to 1982, the now-defunct “Philadelphia Bulletin,” provided the most popular explanation for how the Italian sandwich came to be known as a “hoagie” in the city. Hog Island, a long bread roll stuffed with Italian meats and cheeses, was a lunch box staple of 1950s Italian immigrant labourers in a Philadelphia shipyard known as Hog Island. Commonly, the sandwiches were known as “Hog Island sandwiches.” Eventually, the name was shortened to “hoggies,” which, when spoken with a south Philadelphia dialect, sounded more like “hoagies,” and the term stuck.

Two other local Philadelphia publications disagreed with the Bulletin’s account, claiming that the origins of the hoagie could be traced back to 1879. According to the Philadelphia Almanack and the Citizen’s Manual, street vendors known as hokey pokey men sold bakery rolls called pinafores stuffed with antipasto salad and meats to theatregoers before and after they attended Gilbert and Sullivan’s “H.M.S. Pinafore” operetta (light opera). The pinafores were commonly known as hokies, which again sounded similar to hoagies in South Philadelphia.

Regardless of who first stuffed all those delectable meats and cheeses into a split Italian long roll, topped it with peppers and drizzled oil and seasonings on top, the name hoagie stuck like the newspaper with which it was first wrapped in Philadelphia. By the end of World War II, the term hoagie was commonly used on the streets of Philadelphia, and Philly’s favourite sandwich began to appear on restaurant menus throughout the city under the spellings hoagie, hoggie, hoogie, and hoagy.

As the popularity of the hoagie surpassed city limits and expanded to other regions of the country away from the east coast, the term hoagie acquired new meanings. Hoagie eventually became synonymous with any sandwich served on a long cylinder of bread. In Philadelphia, however, the hoagie remains faithful to its Italian origins as an Italian meat-and-cheese sandwich topped with roasted and pickled vegetables and peppers, as well as oil, vinegar, and seasonings.

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5 ESSENTIAL ORIGINAL ITALIAN HOAGIE COMPONENTS

Salami

Despite being extremely high in saturated lipids and sodium, Genoa salami is likely the most well-known imported salami and an essential component of any authentic Italian sub.

Mortadella

Until the year 2000, the importation of the smoked beef and pork banger loaf that resembles Spam and appears like a mosaic of fat chunks, peppercorns and pistachio nuts was prohibited on the U.S. market. If you cannot tolerate fatty mortadella, boiled gammon is a suitable alternative.

Mozzarella, Provolone…or both?

Provolone from the south of Italy is favoured for its tangy bite and can be mild, sharp, or extra sharp. Authentic Italian Mozzarella was once produced exclusively from water buffalo milk. Both cheeses are required for an authentic Italian hoagie.

Pepperoncini

Pepperoncini are mild peppers whose pickling juices contribute a delightful burst of tangy, sweet-hot flavour and a vibrant red or green hue when the top half of a long roll is lifted to examine the fillings.

Caramelised red chilies

Roasted red peppers contribute more than a distinct smoky flavour to a sandwich that is loaded with unhealthy lipids. Red peppers are the nutritional saviour of the hoagie, containing significant quantities of vitamin C and beta-carotene.

NATIONAL HOAGIE DAY DATES

Year	Date	Day
2023	May 5	Friday
2024	May 5	Sunday
2025	May 5	Monday
2026	May 5	Tuesday
2027	May 5	Wednesday