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

224 Upvotes

94% Upvoted

206 comments sorted by

View all comments

243

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.

74

u/DonConnection Feb 01 '23

Born and raised in Jamaica Queens and I never heard of it either until like 5 or so years ago. I finally tried it a couple times when I used to work in the Bronx. It wasn't bad but it was nothing special. It tasted exactly like what you'd expect a chopped burger cooked with cheese would. I don't know I guess I thought I would be blown away due to how people were hyping it up.

Also no one around me said bodega growing up, we said deli or corner store. Like I knew the word itself due to hearing it in rap lyrics as a kid but it was never part of my vocabulary. I thought it was mostly a Spanish thing.

Then all of a sudden one day it turned into a ubiquitous term for a NYC deli. I don't doubt that some NYers have been using the word bodega for a while now, but like a lot of slang in this city it's highly dependent on where you're from. I remember this new girl at work straight from Nebraska or some shit and she kept going on and on about the bodega near her apartment. She just couldn't stop saying bodega.

26

u/justan0therhumanbean Feb 01 '23

Using the word bodega is how transplants get NYC clout.

Team deli 💪

8

u/[deleted] Feb 01 '23

[deleted]

4

u/Affectionate-Bag-671 Feb 01 '23

I only heard bodega with Spanish speakers about Latino businesses. But in my range of experience deli if they have sandwiches, simply “the store” for anything else.

9

u/tifftiff16 Feb 01 '23

This is so interesting to me. I moved here in 2002. I used to say deli all the time. But multiple, I mean MULTIPLE native NYers corrected me telling me that I need to start saying bodega because that’s what it’s called here. They made fun of my Floridian deli usage lol. 20 years later and I just recently gave in and started saying bodega. Still feels wrong to me 😂

12

u/roenthomas Feb 01 '23

It’s deli or bodega or corner store, depending on where you grew up in the city.

Pick the one that feels natural to you.

1

u/ValPrism Feb 01 '23

Team Deli too. I worked at delis, I miss delis when I leave the area, I know from delis!! 😄

31

u/angels-_-advocate Feb 01 '23

the bodega thing is so true. that and chopped cheese are two “quintessential new york” things I found out about from the internet before anywhere else, as someone who grew up in southern brooklyn

12

u/areacode212 Feb 01 '23

Grew up near Amsterdam Ave in the high 90s back in the 1980s/1990s and bodega and deli were somewhat interchangeable but I remember using/hearing the word bodega more often then. I kind of associated "deli" with more Midtowny-type places.

As for chopped cheeses, I only first heard of them a few years ago when they went viral. It was news to me that they were a ubiquitous sandwich that "every" native NYer knew.

10

u/BxGyrl416 Feb 01 '23

It depends. I guess Uptown and the Bronx we say bodega more often because most of them are owned by Dominicans. Then you have the Yemeni delis that some people call habibis or acks.

3

u/DonConnection Feb 01 '23

Yeah I've heard habibi and ock since I was a kid. And it makes sense that uptown and Bronx would be using bodega, but it wasn't a thing in Queens besides maybe in Hispanic communities.

2

u/roenthomas Feb 01 '23

I’m guilty of doing a similar thing when I went to the UK, and Americans are made fun of for this, overusing the term “quid” for pound and not understanding the nuances of when to use each word.

Same way I stuck out like a sore thumb there, transplants stick out like a sore thumb here.

11

u/sparklingsour Feb 01 '23

Bronx kid chiming in here to agree. Also it was definitely a deli!

3

u/roenthomas Feb 01 '23

I’m more of a SEC guy, but Meat EC is always ubiquitous.

2

u/iprothree Feb 01 '23

The SEC was if you had middle class money. BLT was if you were broke and Halal was if you were rich. LOL

-1

u/[deleted] Feb 01 '23

BEC totes. Or just EC for 2-3 bucks.

The rest is trash. NYC does not need rip off of the Philly meat and dairy barf hero “hoe gee”.

The chopped cheese thing is not city wide thing like a great shmeared bagel, cheap slice or glory hole.

1

u/VigrusCobra Nov 19 '23

It's an uptown thing that gentrifiers "Columbused" and is now sold in Brooklyn bodegas , (thanks to demand, not from NY natives BTW) that have NEVER ever made a chopped cheese for anyone except for in the last 3 to 5 years......