Chopped Cheese
Legend has it the chopped cheese was born at Blue Sky Deli, also known as Hajji’s, in East Harlem on 110th and First Avenue. The accident was born while making a cheeseburger. When the bodega chef realized they were out of hamburger buns, he chopped the meat up the long way to lay it on a hoagie roll. These days kids use "chopped" to describe someone ugly. I wouldn't call the sandwich ugly, but it's not winning a beauty contest. What it symbolizes to me is the kind of innovation that can only come from the American melting pot. And it's good as hell.
The chopped cheese is still a relatively new idea in our culinary minds. A friend of mine that teaches in the Bronx told me he never even heard of the sandwich until it took off on social media. It wasn't until the last ten years that it became "famous." Now people all the way out in Arkansas film themselves making their version of this sandwich for social media likes. Is nothing sacred?
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