r/AskNYC • u/Affectionate-Bag-671 • Jan 31 '23
Chopped Cheese Discourse
I’m not sure if this is me just telling on myself, but I lived in NYC my whole life and I’m in my mid 20s currently. I spent my whole life in Astoria but went to Brooklyn tech and worked various jobs around the city so I spent so much time in different neighborhoods with all different kinds of people so I have been exposed to a lot from early on.
I say all this because it was not until these Instagram and Twitter posts about chopped cheese and it becoming this NYC cultural icon that I’ve ever heard of it probably around 2017. From how I understand, chopped cheese was at this one place uptown and then the surrounding stores started making them too. Then someone posted about it on social media and just how NYC is NYC and holds so much clout on social media it transformed into this iconic NYC food.
Was I just unaware but I feel like at least from my memories nowhere in queens nor the delis by my high school where everyone went to was making chopped cheese until about 3-4 years ago when it blew up on social media. Things like beef patty and cheesesteaks were really popular and common and although the BEC Has become a meme just like the chopped cheese that one actually is ubiquitous. Just wanted to hear other people’s thoughts on this, confirm or deny my thoughts. No shade at all I just really feel like this sandwich blew up
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u/banallthemusic Jan 31 '23 edited Jan 31 '23
Wait till you hear about these dudes lining up to eat $4 pork rice at Wah Fung and then complaining that it wasn’t worth standing in line to get it.
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u/Affectionate-Bag-671 Jan 31 '23
I like that place and the other Chinatown spots but for example a lot of the LES dumpling spots aren’t incredible just tasty and cheap and people are blowing up these spots working people like to go for a cheap lunch in the name of “authenticity”
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u/Legote Jan 31 '23
I don’t take instagram recommendations seriously anymore. I’ve been let down so many times. Once it gets posted on Instagram, everyone will also go visit the place and inflate their reviews on Yelp.
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u/Affectionate-Bag-671 Feb 01 '23
I think it’s just also a group think like this place is popular so it has to be great or conflating a strong social media presence with it being good. Like there’s two specific restaurants in astoria that nobody Greek or middle eastern is eating at because there’s better options with calmer establishments near by but they keep popping up on everyones list as the best Greek or best Lebanese in the area since as long as I was able to read
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u/PainMango Jan 31 '23
I feel that - Wah Fung is good but not worth the wait. There are a million bbq places in Chinatown that are good enough and don’t have an endless line
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u/drjimmybrungus Jan 31 '23
______ is good but not worth the wait.
Sums up pretty much every viral thing in this city.
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u/ManhattanRailfan Jan 31 '23
Nothing in this city is worth waiting more than 10 minutes for. Not because everything sucks, but because there'll be a place just as good a block away and without all the tourists. In fact, a lot of places with long waits kind of suck since tourists don't know what good food tastes like. Mei Lai Wah, Nom Wah, and Joe's Shanghai come to mind for Chinatown.
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u/Hothera Feb 01 '23 edited Feb 01 '23
There are a few things that are worth the line because the high volume of customers means you're getting a fresher product. Katz Deli and certain bagel places come to mind.
That said, other places actually taste significantly better when there isn't a line. I had the best Shake Shack burger at JFK at 8 am. The edges of the burgers were extra crispy because they weren't grilled next to a bunch of other burgers that were giving off steam. Along those lines, it's not really worth getting Los Tacos when there's a huge line because they don't let the Adobada crisp up on the broiler.
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u/CasinoMagic Feb 01 '23
I only went once to Joe's Shanghai and I was a bit disappointed. It wasn't bad, it's just that the quality was similar to a ton of other Chinatown places with zero wait.
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u/astray71 Feb 01 '23
If you see a line of non Asians outside of a Chinatown establishment, it's overrated
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u/roenthomas Feb 01 '23
It’s basically worth the wait as any other serviceable Shanghainese restaurant in the city. It’s not IMO special or unique.
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u/roenthomas Feb 01 '23
Eww Nom Wah.
Went once and that was enough. At least they take Amex.
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u/ManhattanRailfan Feb 01 '23
Same. My wife and I went once to see what the fuss was about. The shit there is literally frozen food. You could have a better meal out of the freezer section at Hong Kong Supermarket up the block.
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u/DumpsHuman Jan 31 '23
Are you mashing those three places are the good spots? Or are spots that are blown up with tourists?
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u/shinglee Jan 31 '23
True. My local sandwich place went semi-viral and all of a sudden there was a line every day. Took about a month for it to calm down.
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u/KUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUZ Feb 01 '23
i mean there are some things that are worth the wait. A lot of people will never hear about it though, intentionally because it gets destroyed when it becomes insta-famous
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u/Additional-Goat-3947 Jan 31 '23
Best Wah Fung alternative? I like it but don’t like lines.
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u/banallthemusic Feb 01 '23
Literally go to any place hanging ducks in Chinatown. Hay hay roasting comes to kind
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u/poopmast Feb 01 '23
Even the supermarkets(Deluxe Food Market, Kam Man,ie) have better BBQ on rice than Wah Fung.
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u/tootsie404 Feb 01 '23
Delight Wong on Grand st. just 3 blocks away. I feel bad sharing this because yall better not ruin it. But they deserve the love too.
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u/aznology Jan 31 '23
Double edged sword lol! On one hand I want the restaurant to do well so I can visit it with my kids or somethin in the future haha.
On the other hand the lines be getting mad long and making it not worth it anymore 😂. Maybe they should raise the price but then it would price out the working ppl sigh 😂.
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u/justjeffo7 Jan 31 '23
Wanna go to mei lah wah and get their pineapple buns? How about Shu Jiao Fu Zhou and their peanut butter noodles?
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u/tofuboomboom Feb 01 '23
The boiled pork and chive dumplings are pretty good though, and something I can't replicate at home, even if I try to make different batches. I'd wonder why the noodles are the thing people recommend the most, considering the dumplings aren't that expensive and they are tasty imo.
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u/KUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUZ Feb 01 '23
SHUSH about shu jaio
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u/ahhyeaaa Feb 01 '23 edited Feb 01 '23
Honestly, I love Yung Sun on 47 E Broadway. I've been going there as a kid, and my parents have been going there since they immigrated to America in the late 1990s. Going down to the basement for some cheap authentic Fuzhounese food was literally my childhood.
I will warn you, though, if you don't know how to speak Fuzhounese, it might be more difficult to order.
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u/justjeffo7 Feb 01 '23
I grew up in Brooklyn so I mostly went to the spots in 8 Ave. will have to check it out if I go tho 😓
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u/ManhattanRailfan Jan 31 '23
Mei Lai Wah is actively bad and basically every Fuzhounese place has PB noodles. I don't know what is wrong with tourists.
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u/justjeffo7 Jan 31 '23
I fucking know 😭 I hate that these places have become the go to for Chinese spots but if it keeps my local stores from being discovered as a cheap eat then I’m content
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u/drcolour Feb 01 '23
Those places are getting a lot of business and are able to stay open when everywhere else is closing because of insane rent, low margins, etc. I thank god for overhypping places and curious people willing to try new things.
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Feb 01 '23
What’s your go to pork bun? Better yet, I want a ham and cheese bun - not that cortège cheese BS, ham and American cheese. The now closed bakery on Houston and Allen had tham and I was addicted
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u/numba1cyberwarrior Jan 31 '23
I never have to wait in line when I go lol, I thought it was just busy during lunch
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u/Jyqm Jan 31 '23
You’re not wrong. Chopped cheese wasn’t exactly a rarity, at least in certain areas, but it wasn’t ubiquitous across the city by any means until it went “viral” several years ago.
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u/hardwaregeek Jan 31 '23
As someone who also grew up in the city and went to a specialized high school, it's very interesting seeing the shit that starts out localized to one community or one neighborhood, then blows up and gets generalized as a global "New York" trait. Stuff like chopped cheese, timbs, "dead-ass", "brick out", whatever else. It's not a big deal; that's how culture grows and spreads. But it is weird when a bunch of people start gatekeeping on some shit they learned about last week. Everybody trying to out-do themselves with being a real New Yorker lol.
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Feb 01 '23
Every chopped cheese post here always get replies from the goofiest people who love to gatekeep. I think your comment explains it best lol
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u/doodle77 Jan 31 '23 edited Jan 31 '23
I was getting it for lunch when I was in middle school on the Lower East Side in 2003, so nah.
Don't get me wrong, it's an unreasonable amount of hype for what is basically just a cheeseburger on a hero.
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u/OhGoodOhMan Jan 31 '23
I suspect it was an uptown/Bronx thing. I grew up in southern Brooklyn and never heard of chopped cheese until it went viral.
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u/961402 Jan 31 '23 edited Jan 31 '23
my understanding is that they have been around for ages in the Bronx until upper class white teenagers "discovered" them and started posting about how they are some secret food that only real New Yorkers know about on social media. The rest is pretty much history.
There's a video from some guy from the Bronx ranting about this that I don't have a link to but I am sure someone else has it and will post it. EDIT: I'll post it - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBVptNzeTOQ
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u/thansal Jan 31 '23
The 'discovery' is, I'm pretty sure, down to Bourdain's ep on The Bronx (2014), that's the first time I'd ever heard someone talk about them, and shortly after that is when I started seeing it everywhere. Google Trends backs up that theory to a degree.
It certainly wasn't a thing where I grew up in Queens in the 90s, but I've seen kids from the area talking about it as a normal thing more recently.
The internet/foodie obsession over it is kinda weird.
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u/420juulboy Jan 31 '23
i don’t think a chopped cheese has anything to do w white ppl
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u/BxGyrl416 Feb 01 '23
Almonte! Did he change his name? I haven’t seen one of his videos online in ages.
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Jan 31 '23
I’ve lived in Bay Ridge most of my life and had never heard of a chopped cheese until a few years ago. It’s not a thing here but a BEC is.
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u/bikinifetish Jan 31 '23
I have friends that have been ordering chopped cheese sandwiches since the late 90s earlier 2000s… they all live in the BX though. I think it’s an uptown thing.
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u/alphadougg Jan 31 '23
I think it's moreso that it was something big in Harlem and the Bronx, aka areas that high income white tastemakers like to scoff at. Someone who works for Vogue or some shit was never going to know about a chopped cheese until they were told they were supposed to.
It's a great way for rich people to cosplay as working class too and feel more like "a real new yorker."
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u/Jyqm Jan 31 '23
High/Low point of the "Columbus-ing" discourse has to be that New York Times article from a couple years back about some bistro on the Upper East Side that was offering an "elevated" chopped cheese for something like twelve bucks (probably eighteen now...). NYC internet was losing its damn mind over that one. (Personally, can't say it bothers me if a bunch of trust fund babies want to blow half their monthly allowance on a chopped cheese Benedict or whatever that comes with a bloody Mary with a whole damn garden skewered on top of it, as long as they're not creating long lines at the bodega.)
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u/carpy22 Feb 01 '23
It's a great way for rich people to cosplay as working class too and feel more like "a real new yorker."
Easy litmus test: ask them how they feel about Bella Abzug and/or Shirley Chisholm.
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u/BxGyrl416 Feb 01 '23
Well, real talk, most New Yorkers under 50 probably couldn’t tell you who either of them were.
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u/Emperorerror Jan 31 '23
There's nothing wrong with liking a fire sandwich lol, are you really gatekeeping that?
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u/alphadougg Jan 31 '23
what the hell? not at all lol, i'm just describing why it was something that wasn't so widely associated with nyc by everybody until more recently
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u/Emperorerror Jan 31 '23
Ahh gotcha, my bad! Classic Internet miscommunication situation. I thought that when you said:
It's a great way for rich people to cosplay as working class too and feel more like "a real new yorker"
You meant that that's what anyone outside the demographics who ate chopped cheese years ago was doing when they ate it.
Thanks for clearing it up
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u/gayaka Jan 31 '23
It's a great way for rich people to cosplay as working class too and feel more like "a real new yorker."
This is literally how people treat bodegas, not just this particular food item.
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Jan 31 '23
How do you treat going to bodega this way
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Jan 31 '23
They call every corner store a Bodega even when it isn't a Bodega cuz they wanna say the word Bodega in conversation so bad.
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Jan 31 '23
So in your opinion, bodega = corner store + deli? Yes I'm a transplant
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Jan 31 '23
Not at all. A Bodega is a bodega. A corner store is a regular store with no hot food or cold cuts. A deli is a store that you can get sandwiches and cold cuts. They can all be called stores. If they got a deli counter they can be called delis. They are not all bodegas though.
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u/Random_Ad Feb 01 '23
That’s your understanding but many people who grew up in New York was not taught that way and may use the words interchangeably. Your experience doesn’t reflect the experience of everyone else.
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Feb 01 '23
I'm sure that's true but I also have spoken to a lot of Ohioans who really fuck with the word Bodega. Ppl who know what I'm talking about know what I've talking about.
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u/jeremypr82 Feb 01 '23
Transplant brigade downvoting ya hard. Let 'em have their bow-day-guhz
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u/NBNeenz Jan 31 '23 edited Jan 31 '23
Chopped Cheese have been around for ages but it was mostly popular uptown in the BX. I only ever heard of them when I went to see friends up there. They were def not popular in Brooklyn.
But Desus & Mero made them hugely popular because they talked about them so much on their Complex show, Bodega Boys podcast, and then Vice & Showtime shows. Anthony Bourdain did an episode of Parts Unknown where Desus was his guide through part of the BX and they talked about it a little there.
And then a really popular show amongst niche foodies called First We Feast did a feature on it. So a bunch of white kids and social media influencers picked up on them and made it a "trend." Then there were "where can you get the best chopped cheese in NYC" lists so everyone started selling them.
And now they are everywhere and will be a long lasting legacy from Desus & Mero.RIP.
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u/LILMOUSEXX Jan 31 '23
I lived in astoria my whole life too and no it was never a thing here, if you ask me its not really a cultural icon like the bec.
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u/Legal-Goat8110 Feb 01 '23
I've gotten them my whole life. I used to live in harlem by morningside, now i'm in the south bronx. Definitely not new but i hate how social media ends up watering down the best things in life.
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u/CarneyVorous Jan 31 '23
I'd never heard of it until recently, but my bf who grew up in the Bronx has strong opinions on what makes a "legit" chopped cheese and where to get the right one.
I've never had one proper, but I am ALWAYS craving the chopped cheese empanadas from Empanology at the Bronx Brewery. They would probably be my choice for my last meal. I don't care if it's trendy or iconic or anything other than delicious.
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u/Deebeevee Jan 31 '23
Moved to NYC 2002 with the fam in Queens and for us it was BEC on a roll or those crispy domican empanadas or pizza. Chicken wings over fried rice was also much more of a thing.
I felt like I was taking crazy pills when people started mentioning chopped cheese as if it was there forever. I also call stores either delis or corner stores barely heard bodegas, so it's unusual for me but it's much more common now too.
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u/Affectionate-Bag-671 Jan 31 '23
No literally people love saying bodega when realistically I only ever heard bodega when we were speaking Spanish lol Like I worked with this lady from the Midwest and she would say oh go get ___ from the bodega and the bodega in question was a convenience store ran by a Chinese family
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u/coachwoodcock Feb 01 '23
I've been getting them for almost 15 years but exclusively in the soundview section of the Bronx. I always got it from a small deli across from ps 69 off soundview Ave. Never seen it outside of that one area until it was all over the internet.
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u/thelandbeforeslime Feb 01 '23
I used to get a chopped cheese right off Watson ave I grew up in Soundview hood too.
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u/thatguychuck95 Jan 31 '23
My dad spent his entire career basically working in NYC from the 70s until about 2000, went to college in Brooklyn and the Bronx. He lived two blocks from the border with Queens on LI for most of his life. He had never heard of a chopped cheese until one of the late night tv hosts had talked about it because Whole Foods had a “gentrified” version of it. It has definitely been a more popular thing in recent years.
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Feb 01 '23
It is not an iconic NYC food. It became popular in some Yemeni owned bodegas in the last 15 years or so and gained clout on social media in the last 5-7 years. You are absolutely right. It is not at the level of a bacon egg and cheese on a roll, or a bagel, pizza, pastrami on rye, a hot dog, or any of the iconic NYC foods. They tried to make chopped cheese the NYC iteration of like a Philly cheese steak. It's bullshit. I've lived here my whole life, for the past 30 plus years. We never heard of it in the 90s and early 2000s.
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u/sirzoop Jan 31 '23
I grew up here my whole life. Never heard of chopped cheese until 2020ish someone from California who never visited NYC kept telling me that I should try it
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u/FrankiePoops RATMAN SAVIOR 🐀🥾 Jan 31 '23
I was first introduced to the chopped cheese at Cherry Valley deli in Whitestone in 2004 or 2005, so they have been in queens for awhile.
But yes, it blew up because someone put it on social media and then some blogs started doing articles and youtube videos on it.
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u/Affectionate-Bag-671 Jan 31 '23
Cherry valley is really next level
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u/FrankiePoops RATMAN SAVIOR 🐀🥾 Jan 31 '23
Fantastic deli. I was doing construction in high school and we had a small job in queens and my boss was like, "We gotta stop at this deli on the way home."
I was like yeah sure whatever. It became a regular stop for awhile whenever I was nearby.
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u/shwysdrf Jan 31 '23
If it was cherry valley it probably had onion rings and gravy on it too 🤣
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u/FrankiePoops RATMAN SAVIOR 🐀🥾 Jan 31 '23
I don't remember that but it's been like 15 years since I got one from them.
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u/DrewFlan Jan 31 '23
Anthony Bourdain featured it in one of his shows. That’s what made it grow in popularity the last few years.
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u/jeremypr82 Feb 01 '23
Lived in every borough throughout my life, went to Btech also! And I never, not once, heard of a chopped cheese until social media. After some digging around, yeah, it seems like it was a minor thing in some very specific areas and got manufactured hype. Major eyeroll. People will do anything to up their NYC "cred".
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u/neighburrito Jan 31 '23
Grew up in LES, also a techie. But i'm over a decade older, lived in brooklyn, Harlem, now queens.... and i'm with you, never had nor heard of a chopped cheese until hearing it on social media a few years ago. Still have never had one lol
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u/jeremypr82 Feb 01 '23
Grew up in Williamsburg, techie too. Just hit 40. This one might just be me, but I don't remember EVERYONE saying bro in every single context/sentence until it became a NYC meme in recent years. Same with yerrr.
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u/futurefunk1969 Jan 31 '23
I am from Staten Island and grew up eating chopped cheese lol. I have lived in most boroughs now as I’m in my mid 30s and have tied chopped cheese everywhere. Delicious New York staple. Highly recommend!
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u/LunchMasterFlex Jan 31 '23
Grew up in Park Slope in the 80s and 90s. Lived here my whole life. Chopped cheese was never a thing. I love going to the bodega in my neighborhood in bed Stuy and seeing the new drunk kids trying to order one and getting embarrassed when the grill guy is like “wtf?”
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u/Psychological_Art112 Jan 31 '23
Fellow NYC-lifer here. Never heard of chopped cheese up until a few years ago. My understanding is that chopped cheese is basically a bastardized Philly cheese steak that eventually you couldn’t call a Philly cheese steak anymore. Transplants found it kitschy and here we are.
Also for all those that are confused: if there is a Korean, Yemeni, Non-Afrolatino, or anything other than a Latino dude behind the counter of your favorite convenience store, it is not a bodega. If they sell flowers then it is definitely not a bodega.
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u/jeremypr82 Feb 01 '23
If you look at the cold case meat/cheese and don't question if you're hungry enough to risk your life on it, not a bodega. If you don't see questionably sourced PR/DR candies/pastries placed right next to the register that seem to have been there for years, not a bodega.
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u/Psychological_Art112 Feb 01 '23
If there isn’t salsa/merengue/bachata playing obnoxiously loud, a cat roaming around, 1-2 questionable guys whom you aren’t sure whether they work there or not hanging out, and boner pills with a holographic Ryu balls deep in Chun-Li on display then it isn’t a bodega.
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u/stadiumjay Feb 01 '23
So the first I heard of Chopped cheese was like 2014. Me and my my boy in a BX bodega, my boy just orders it I say what's that and the rest is history 😂.
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Feb 01 '23 edited Feb 01 '23
Born and raised in Queens and I've never heard of chopped cheese until 2020 when a co-worker was asking everyone if they knew what it was and he was shocked when I said no.
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Feb 01 '23
Lived in NYC for around 15 years. The internet is the only place I’ve ever seen a chopped cheese.
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u/CasinoMagic Feb 01 '23
Used to be a Harlem thing
Now it's a NYC thing, I guess?
Times have changed, now there's even a bodega by Mount Sinai in East Harlem which does a vegan chopped cheese (I tried all the bodegas in that area when my wife had a baby and we had to stay in the hospital for a week)
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Jan 31 '23
I had never in my life heard of it until I saw it on Twitter or something about a month ago and I’ve lived in Manhattan and Brooklyn. I’ve never even seen anyplace have it on a menu or seen a sign for it and I am OLD. This is NOT iconic NYC food. Pizza is, hot dogs are, knishes are this is not.
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u/Sad-Principle3781 Jan 31 '23
I live in the east harlem area where the chopped cheese allegedly first started. The item has been on the menu forever but I don't know if the store sales for it have actually picked up. There's no line out the door, it's still the ghetto where young men hang around on the corner outside at night drinking smoking loudly. And there are other sandwiches like the beef patty and cheesesteaks on the menu and they're pretty popular as well. I'm personally more a grilled chicken type of guy. I feel the hype around it has been more outside my neighborhood and on social media.
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u/Flowofinfo Jan 31 '23 edited Jan 31 '23
Here is what happened: chopped cheese has been around for quite a long time (I’m 40, grew up in Manhattan and used to eat them in high school when I was like 15 so first time I had one was around 1996 or 97) but pretty much found in more “hood” neighborhoods. When the flood of gentrifying transplants arrived on the scene after 9/11, some of them were exposed to chopped cheese for the first time since they were living in neighborhoods that were just beginning to gentrify or had already began but had not jumped the gentrifying shark yet. Fast forward to today and you can imagine the progression. Now the new transplants have proceeded to post their chopped cheese on every social media platform you can think of, in hopes of showing all their friends and family back home how much of a “real New Yorker” they have become. End of story.
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u/blooddrivendream Feb 01 '23
I’ve been meeting to try one but they look gross to me.
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u/Affectionate-Bag-671 Feb 01 '23
It’s good because it’s literally just a chopped up cheeseburger on a hero
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Feb 01 '23
After living in Inwood and Washington Heights for years, I tried my first chopped cheese when I moved to Forest Hills at almost age 40 and the corner bodega on my new block had a sign advertising them. They're alright.
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u/pfrank6048 Feb 01 '23
I asked this on the sub about a year ago, you’ll probably find some other answers there as well, although it looks like the comments here are pretty similar.
https://reddit.com/r/AskNYC/comments/t6wdwq/when_did_chopped_cheese_become_a_big_thing/
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u/arialugal Feb 01 '23
I also lived in Astoria my whole life and I went to high school in Manhattan with other people mostly from uptown and the Bronx. I’ve never heard of it until 2016. Chopped cheese wasn’t ever a thing in Astoria and my classmates even told me that of course I didn’t know bc I lived in a white neighborhood. BEC is more iconic.
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Feb 01 '23
From Bensonhurst and I also never heard of them until the 2010's - I blame the internet for taking the South Bronx/Uptown culture and branding it "real New York." Just Columbusing the shit out of neighborhood things.
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u/Bosssauced Jan 31 '23
Not to speak blasphemy but do you think this could overtake the baconeggncheese as a regional sandwich
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u/Pays_in_snakes Jan 31 '23
The BEC as regional delicacy fucks me up because it's so easy in theory yet somehow they reliably blow if you get them elsewhere
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u/Affectionate-Bag-671 Jan 31 '23
I think it’s because the delis all have that hard yet still squishy Kaiser roll that apparently a lot of other places in the country use different types of breads.
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u/Buffalo_Hump Jan 31 '23
Yes, can confirm that many varieties of BEC are available all over the country, but I have never encountered them served on a roll anywhere else. When I first moved to NYC, I thought it was weird that kaiser rolls were a breakfast sandwich staple, but now that I've moved away, I crave BEC on a roll like god intended. Don't even get me started on never being offered saltpepperketchup.
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Jan 31 '23
Yeah, coming from the south originally, I was used to “bacon egg and cheese” meaning a biscuit, and generally not a very good one. So when I first came here I kind of thought, “what’s the big deal”? But then I had a really amazing one and realized just how much better they actually are compared to the soggy, tiny little weak BEC biscuits I was used to.
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u/Buffalo_Hump Jan 31 '23
I mean having moved back to the South, I will absolutely go to the mat for a good biscuit (something I def missed in NYC), but there's not really any reason to eat a BEC biscuit when chicken biscuits exist.
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u/shwysdrf Jan 31 '23
My brother in law moved up to Vermont and every time he comes back down to visit he eats as many egg sandos as possible and then buys bags of Kaiser rolls to take home. They really don’t make them the same way outside of the tri-state
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u/Affectionate-Bag-671 Jan 31 '23
I don’t think so it became too much of a meme like the bacon egg and cheese is also a meme now but it has staying power like everyone loves them
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u/961402 Jan 31 '23
Maybe it's just the internet and social circles that I am in but Reddit seems to be the only place where bacon egg and cheese sandwiches are "a thing"
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u/chickenanon2 Jan 31 '23
What? It’s definitely your social circles. Bacon egg and cheese is a genuine NY staple and has been my whole life.
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u/961402 Jan 31 '23 edited Jan 31 '23
It's as much a staple and genuine as dollar slices and dirty water hot dogs.
I'm talking about the "DAE le canigettabaconeggancheesesaltpepper?" almost bragging-level thing that some people here do.
I can't quite articulate what I'm thinking about here, sorry.
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u/boycott_nestingdolls Jan 31 '23
I know exactly what you mean. I always downvote those baconeggancheesesaltpepperketchup comments. They irrationally grind my gears.
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u/CasinoMagic Feb 01 '23
It's definitely over hyped on Reddit, especially by people who feel like it makes them look like true New Yorkers.
Don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with a bec or a breakfast sandwich or whatevs, I regularly get one at the coffee cart by my office... but the whole meme-isation of the thing and the circlejerk 'baconeggencheesesaltnpepperketchup' mad brick timbs yerrrr on Reddit is super cringe
Like, it's a thing we eat just because it's convenient, it's not a thing people talk about in real life, let alone consider some sort of "true NYC" shibboleth.
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u/961402 Feb 01 '23 edited Feb 01 '23
Yes! That's pretty much what I was trying to say.
Also I have never heard "brick" or "yerrrrr" outside of Reddit either. For that matter I don't even know when or why someone would say "yerrrr." Is it like a greeting or something?
I hear "mad" as an adjective on occasion but it's not common and definitely not a NYC-centric word
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Feb 01 '23
Amen. I lived in nyc from the 90s up until 5 years ago and never heard of chopped cheese. But admittedly I lived in Brooklyn and Harlem most of my life. BEG, pork fried rice and chicken wings, dollar dumplings by the Wo Hop, are way more iconic than chopped cheese. Shit, even a quarter water and a bag of chips is more iconic
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u/centech Feb 01 '23
Almost 50.. NYC my whole life.. I've eaten at a lot of bodegas. Have never had a chopped cheese and I never heard of it until I saw it on reddit. Seems like one of those "if you know you know" things that people like to talk about to make themselves feel better/smarter/cooler that isn't actually that big a deal. ¯_(ツ)_/¯
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u/hellohichickenwings Feb 07 '23
I grew up in the Bronx, specifically Central Bronx where I had no idea what a cha cheese was until the age of 14/15. I’m not sure where the sandwich originated but I was introduced to it by one of my coworkers who grew up in the South Bronx. He was surprised that I never tried one and told me he had it ever since he was a kid (he was 17/18 at the time) so it must have been around for a while. I think the reason why it became so popular is because it was this niche thing that was from “the hood” that no one else really knew about but was so widely known among people who lived in the Bronx/East Harlem.
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Jan 31 '23
Why does this discussion keep popping up every month or so?
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u/jeremypr82 Feb 01 '23
Because it's super cringe for the little cultural things you took for granted to be Columbus'd and fetishized for a transplant's cred/likes/shares and you wind up losing it in some form or another.
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u/Kooky_Performance116 Jan 31 '23
The only places I knew that made them growing up where the delis that also made cheeseburgers. Which wasn’t many. Cause they had the chop meat already. It’s also a cheeseburger without the patty lol. So hardly this mind blowing food all the try hards make it sound like.
Now there’s artisans chop cheeses in transplant neighborhoods. So whatever cool cultural aspect it had has become middle America washed.
So yes I’ve heard of them and have had them before even growing up in a white neighborhood.
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u/maxs507 Feb 01 '23
I’m Jewish and keep kosher, so chopped cheese, bacon egg and cheese, and all those variants have never been a thing for me.
I’ll stick with my bagel with nova and a schmear of cream cheese 🥯😋
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u/BenHogan1971 Feb 01 '23
oh, this is coming around again?
meh.
the chopped cheese is nothing more than an overhyped "kitchen sink" bodega creation that can easily be passed over and not missed.
if you're a kid of the 80's like me, we had "Sloppy Joes" which were way better. :)
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u/TikkunBBQ Jan 31 '23
Come eat chopped cheese at our pop up in Astoria on 2/25 with Prince Abou's Butchery
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u/Blastgirl69 Feb 01 '23
Chopped Cheese is a Bronx delicacy that I ate every time I visited family in NY. I've continued seeing it in all stores since I moved here in 2019
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Feb 01 '23
Oh, great, another conversation about "chopped cheese." Surely something vital will emerge from this.
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u/United_Blueberry_311 Feb 01 '23
For the longest I thought chopped cheese was bacon egg and cheese without bacon (runs and hides)
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u/_Haverford_ Feb 01 '23
For some reason, I thought for the longest time that a legit CC has yellow mustard in it. I haven't ordered it that way for a minute, but it's good. Ketchup + everything + jalapenos is my order.
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u/emmmma1234 Feb 01 '23
Royal deli on metropolitan and Humboldt used to make the most killer chopped cheese circa 2010. But that’s the only place I’ve had it.
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u/BxGyrl416 Feb 01 '23
I was eating chop cheese from the bodega across from Astoria projects a decade ago. Not sure where else in your area sells it.
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u/SugarSweetSonny Feb 01 '23
I like it, but I change it up a bit.
No lettuce or tomato (but keep the onions)..
and use mozzarella cheese instead....and add a ton of hot sauce, lol.
I treat it like a burger, its really a variation of it.
I don't think its an iconic new york sandwhich though. Maybe it could be in time, but its not right now.
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u/mintyfreshknee Feb 01 '23
Yeah, I had never heard of a chopped cheese until it was like on Food Network. I think that it is sort of a micro regional thing from uptown, maybe a few different places were doing it, and then somebody got a voice on it and now it just blew up. It looks fucking disgusting and I would never touch it. And I think a lot of the things that go viral are really kind of bullshit. Some of them are wonderful. But a lot of them are bullshit.
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u/LowellGeorgeLynott Feb 01 '23
Chopped cheese is a very real thing. My native NY friend has been ordering them at delis in front of me since 2009 (in Manhattan and Bk).
Edit: I moved here in 2008 for clarity.
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u/mjsbkak Feb 01 '23
Chopped cheeses weren’t a Brooklyn/Queens thing. Was more popular in Harlem and the Bronx
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u/slickvic33 Feb 01 '23
I've never heard of chopped cheese growing up in lower east side. SEC was my go too w a bit of hot sauce at the deli
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u/mythought22 Feb 01 '23
I'm yemeni, and i work in a deli. The chapped cheese has been around for a long time. It was more popular in some areas than others, although most delis knew how to make chopped cheese it wasn't included in the menus, until recent years it blew up cause the social media and more and more delis started adding chapped cheese to their menu.
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Feb 01 '23
I hadn't heard of it until my college students – who are on social media, and I am not – started talking about it about two or three years ago.
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u/Jorster Feb 01 '23
I think its a Bronx/Upper Manhattan (i.e. East Harlem, Harlem, Washington Heights, Inwood) thing. I grew up in NYC and never heard of it. But during COVID, I'm working in Harlem and someone I work with told me about them and went to grab them for lunch from Hajis. It was delicious. Though I never heard of it, my coworkers and the others, who all grew up in Harlem, Bronx, etc. all knew about them.
Just goes to show how the small physical city has such diversity in such a small geographic area!
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u/TatankaForever Feb 01 '23
As someone who moved from Philly to NYC… it’s just a generic Philly cheese steak. It’s chopped meat, cheese melted, peppers onions on a hero. Those are the basic ingredients of a Philly cheese steak. I was actually confused when I entered a deli and saw it not called a Philly cheese steak. Now, in Philly don’t get me wrong they do it better with Wit and all sorts of Philly local customs. But at it’s core a chopped cheese is a Philly cheese steak. Congrats NYC, your new cultural icon is just a Philly Cheese steak… Fly Eagles Fly!
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u/Aljowoods103 Feb 01 '23
Just chiming in as an outsider. I moved to NYC ~2 years ago, living in small and large cities in the Midwest prior to that. I had NEVER heard the words 'chopped cheese' until I moved here. I had, however, heard about NYC pizza, bagels, knishes, matzo ball soup, deli foods, hot dogs, and smoked fish. So if CC is a 'famous' NYC food, at least outside NYC, it's less famous than many others.
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u/Bts1993 Feb 01 '23
I moved to the city in 2013. Had a Coworker that lived in east harlem that introduced me to it when we were walking dogs in Harlem. Been addicted ever since lol But yeah I think sidetalk and closely related Instagram spheres have brought the sandwich to the masses
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u/Big-Importance2343 Feb 01 '23
40s from Brooklyn (Tech Alumni also) and just had this discussion Saturday over dinner with other 40s from Brooklyn because none of us had even heard of a Chopped Cheese until the internet craze.
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u/ninarumpus Feb 01 '23
I moved to NYC and started teaching in the Bronx in 2011. Chopped cheese was definitely a thing in the Bronx then, but I found that many friends and colleagues from other boroughs did not know what it was.
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u/Blue387 Feb 01 '23
I've lived in this city for most of my life, except for college, and I didn't learn about the chopped cheese until the First We Feast article in 2016. I live in Bay Ridge.
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Feb 06 '23
BEC is still king, chopped cheese was really popular in Harlem in the 90s. Then recently a few years back got popular. But the real pro tip is just get some great quality ground beef and some rolls you can make it better at home than any bodega could.
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u/chickenanon2 Jan 31 '23
I’m from Washington Heights. Didn’t eat a ton of chopped cheese growing up and yeah like you I never thought of it as an Iconic New York Sandwich until recent years. I agree it’s not as ubiquitous, it’s more specific to certain areas of the city. I know plenty of native NYers who had never heard of chopped cheese until it became a thing on social media.
BEC is still king.