This Philadelphia Food Mash-Up Has Gone Too Far

I’m usually a fan of food mash-ups, but I think this one might have gone too far. On Thursday, October 18, Food Insider released a video about a “trendy” food item that has become a Philadelphia phenomenon called the “Philly Taco.”

The concept is simple: While in Philadelphia, PA, travel to South Street and grab yourself a Philly cheesesteak from Jim’s Steaks. After that, go across the street to Lorenzo and Son’s Pizza to get a slice of their giant pizza that is truly — I mean, look at the thing — enormous.

The last step is simple: Roll your cheesesteak in the pizza, and there you have it. Two delicious food items barely altered to create something with a title that deceives as much as it’s inaccurate (it’s really more a roll or a burrito, right?).

Folks, I’m pretty laid-back compared to most people when it comes to far-out concepts, but one thing that gets my goat is this new trend of combining two things to make a “new” food invention: salad pizza, macaroni and cheese burgers, red velvet chicken fingers. Red. Velvet. Chicken. Fingers. (I had to say that one twice because what?)

You can keep telling me that you created something new, but the creation is simply two edible objects placed in close proximity to each other. I do not call what is sitting on my breakfast plate “waffle sausage” or a “Washingtonian steak” and that’s okay, I don’t need the heat for that kind of invention. But also, sometimes combining two meals to make one meal is one meal too much.

To Philadelphia’s credit, the Philly taco was created before the whole trend of mash-up food (or as I like to think of it, as the equivalent of a child putting two dolls together and saying “kiss!”). The owner of Jim’s Steaks said it was created sometime in the ’90s, but (dun, dun, dun) two former college students also claim they invented it in 2003. (I hope you both put that on your resumes!) Either way, that’s way before we were approaching burgerizzas and crossushi with trepidation.