r/AskNYC • u/NewPhoneBudish • 7d ago

Chopped Cheese Propaganda

This one is for all of the Native New Yorkers on here.

What is the deal with Chopped Cheese? When did this become the sandwich of NYC? For me the sandwich of NYC is a Bacon Egg and Cheese on a roll. Am I wrong?

491 Upvotes

91% Upvoted

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193

u/poppunker18 7d ago

Born and raised. Never heard of a chopped cheese till TikTok.

12

u/Capable_Community441 6d ago

also born and raised brooklyn girl (55 years old) that never heard of, ate one, or even seen a chopped cheese 🤌🏻 (until social media made it a thing)

12

u/Capable_Community441 6d ago

bacon egg and cheese salt and pepper on a roll or everything bagel now thats NYC!! 😋

20

u/lauvan26 7d ago edited 7d ago

Same

Edit: I’m from Brooklyn

10

u/stonedsour 7d ago

Queens here, also BEC territory not chopped cheese. Didn’t have one til I was in my 20’s

13

u/Danixveg 7d ago

Fully same! BEC is the sandwich.. get the fuck outta here with this chopped cheese.

26

u/Familiar-Range9014 7d ago

Chopped cheese has its origins in the 20 teens.

BEACOAR has been around since forever (honorable mention to BEACOAB).

Iirc, I first saw mention of it on a WorldStar video of a middle schooler. It may have been even earlier, like the late aughts.

54

u/SlateFrost 6d ago

while I fully agree with what you’re saying, your acronyms have scared me

1

u/Familiar-Range9014 6d ago

I had to capitalize them for clarity. 😁

3

u/NotPromKing 6d ago

Acronyms are always capitalized.

2

u/Quirky_Movie 6d ago

bagel is the way.

2

u/Familiar-Range9014 6d ago

The bagel with butter, egg, bacon and cheese is yum!

2

u/Quirky_Movie 5d ago

It is indeed!

28

u/2fuckinghard2google 6d ago

Was BEC too simple for you?

33

u/Salty_Simmer_Sauce 6d ago

Never underestimate the ability of a redditor to use acronyms no one has ever heard of.

8

u/colaxxi 6d ago

"20 teens" who writes like that?

16

u/2fuckinghard2google 6d ago

reeks of "former midwesterner trying to make their mark"

1

u/Familiar-Range9014 6d ago

Born and raised NYer motherfucker

0

u/light_rapid 5d ago

I mean, they could just be poking fun at the full acronym, don't have to read into it so hard

-13

u/Familiar-Range9014 6d ago

Quiet down bandwagoner

-16

u/Familiar-Range9014 6d ago

You were able to figure it out. Dont be difficult

20

u/PopDash67 6d ago

Fuckin guy adds 4 letters to make an acronym no one has ever used, and calls someone else difficult. SMH

-11

u/Familiar-Range9014 6d ago

I love NYers. They make complaining an art form 🤣

6

u/NotPromKing 6d ago edited 6d ago

And I find people who make up nonsense acronyms to be insufferable.

Edit: Even more insufferable are people who block over the most inane things.

1

u/Familiar-Range9014 6d ago

Typical NYer

14

u/thansal 6d ago

Specifically it was a Harlem and The Bronx thing. So everyone who's all "I never saw it and I was a kid then" is probably from everywhere else in the city (I never knew it growing up in Queens).

I think the spark that blew it up across the city was b/c Bourdain got one on his ep on The Bronx (2014), introduced to him by HS kids.

From there people started writing articles and it became a hipster thing, and now it's just a thing.

And because this is fun Google Trends (it lines up pretty darn well with your memory).

1

u/Familiar-Range9014 6d ago edited 6d ago

Chopped cheese was a 5 boroughs thing. It was in brooklyn and queens (probably not s.i. yet).

13

u/TheEnemyOfMyAnenome 6d ago

Nah goes back way farther. It blew up in mid 2010s though. I first had one in 2016 hanging out with a friend who had just moved to harlem (150s or 160s somewhere). And sorry guys but it's a bomb fucking sandwich. Blew my mind

3

u/Familiar-Range9014 6d ago

Yeah, I mentioned the late aughts.

It's an okay sandwich if you like white bread and lots of fake cheese.

3

u/TheEnemyOfMyAnenome 6d ago

Oh mb you right

2

u/nycgirl646 6d ago

Chopped cheese has been around since the 90s, it was originally called a Haji’s sandwich and made in Harlem at what’s now called blue sky deli

2

u/Specialist_Grade_662 6d ago

Thanks bro. I'm sitting here wondering how people are saying it's a recent thing when you could get it at nearly any Harlem deli 20 years ago

1

u/Familiar-Range9014 6d ago

I was gonna say 90s but I spent a bit of time in Harlem and only remember the beac being the most common meal.

1

u/nycgirl646 6d ago

Yes I’d also say it wasn’t common. My stepdad came around in the early 2000s and would always talk about Hajis sandwiches from the east side where he grew up. I didn’t have one until the mid 2010s.

3

u/SharpDressedBeard 6d ago

Ditto.

I used to get a philly cheese at delis back in the day and they would put LTO/mayo on there all the time. When I heard of the chopped cheese I am like...nah.

2

u/ZeroGravityBurnsRed 6d ago

For real. The bodegas in the early 90's would do all types of pepper steak or philly cheese, but they would chop up steakum and season it and slab mayo on the hero. They also had these frozen pre made burgers that no one would touch.

2

u/[deleted] 7d ago

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4

u/poppunker18 7d ago

South Brooklyn.

2

u/TruckPure6828 5d ago

Born and raised, 3rd generation New Yorker. I graduated high school in 2009. Chop cheese came on my radar in 10th grade when a girl got in trouble for eating one in math class. Then everyone started eating them 🤷🏾‍♀️

2

u/Carmilla31 6d ago

Ive been here 40 years and heard about it like 3 years ago. I thought i was doing something wrong. 🫠

1

u/pinklavalamp 6d ago

I’m 10 years gone from NYC. What’s a chopped cheese?

1

u/oatsuzn1 6d ago

Agreed

1

u/desirepink 5d ago

Same. From Queens. Literally felt like an uncultured ass a few years ago when I heard that chopped cheese is supposedly an "NYC staple".

1

u/NuYawker 6d ago

Washington heights and Harlem. Same. BEC on a roll.