Chocolate & Cheese Steaks

MONDAY, JULY 24, 2006 ~ Day 9: Pittsburgh, PA to Secaucus, NJ

Since it was along the way, we decided to stop by the Hershey's Chocolate Factory in Hershey, PA.

Now, I'm not a big chocolate fanatic, but I thought that the Hershey's Chocolate World was pretty cool. First of all the tour was FREE, and you know how I love free stuff. And it wasn't just a plain old walking tour of their factory, but it was a ride!

Here we are in the middle of a heated tunnel simulating the roasting of the cocoa beans.

It was a cross between Disney's "It's A Small World" and being in the middle of an episode of "Unwrapped" on the Food Network. I loved it! I don't know what it is about factories, but the behind the scenes stuff just fascinates me.

They even had their own "Hershey's Factory" song which Larnie and I couldn't get it out of our heads. And at the end of the tour they give you free chocolate. Right at the exit of the tour are a bunch of shops and this great bakery. Since I'm not a fan of chocolate I bought myself some snickerdoodle and sugar cookies. Mmmm my favorite! I love it when cookies are freshly baked and are still warm and chewy.
Our next stop was Philadelphia. Honestly, the only reason we went there was to check out the Liberty Bell and get some "authentic" Philly cheese steaks. Thanks to Larnie's friend Donna, we found a great place to park and found ourselves in the middle of the Independence Mall area.

Here we are in line for the Liberty Bell looking like total tourists.

That's Congress Hall behind us.

GENOS v. PAT'S

The Battle of the

Ultimate Authentic

Philly Cheese Steak

I'm sure most of you have heard of the infamous rivalry these 2 establishments have. Both are located across the street from one another in the Italian Market area of South Philly. Both claim to have the best Philly cheese steaks. Both are notorious for sending people to the back of the line if they don't order properly. For example, here is what you will find on Pat's website:

"How to order a Steak" by I. M. Hungry

Step 1.Specify if you want your steak with (wit) or without (wit-out) onions. {if you're not a rookie this should come naturally}

Step 2.Specify Plain, Cheez Whiz, Provolone, American Cheese or a Pizza Steak. {we have lettuce and tomatoes / { if we have to read your mind it's 50 cents extra}

Step 3.Have your money ready. {do all of your borrowing in line}

Step 4.Practice all of the above while waiting in line. {if you make a mistake, don't panic, just go to the back of the line and start over}

We decided to do our own experiment to find out which one really had the better cheese steaks. So, I ordered 2 from Pat's and Larnie ordered 4 from Genos. We got there around 3:30pm after the lunch rush so there wasn't a line (thank gawd) because both of us didn't order correctly. Luckily the guy @ the Pat's window was really nice and knew what I was trying to order. I didn't want to get yelled at for having the enemy's food on the premises so I grabbed my 2 cheese steaks from Pat's and stuffed them in my bag as we walked across the street to Genos.

Then it was Larnie's turn to order. Poor girl, I think she was nervous because there were people behind her (one of them was a cop) and she had to order more sandwhiches for her cousins. Because when she made her order it came out all jumbled and the guy at the window had no idea what she said. It didn't really help that there was a sign on the window with this:

So, Larnie had to repeat her order a couple of times. But in the end we got em. Here are Genos' Provolone with & Whiz with

The Pat's pictures are on Larnie's laptop but they basically look the same. SO, who had the better cheese steaks? Here are our findings:

• You have to get them with Cheez Whiz.
• Pat's Italian rolls were better than Geno's bread.
• And both are WAY over rated!

Yeah, really. It's sad to say. I think I've had tastier cheese steaks here in CA @ Philly's Best, The Great Steak & Potato Co. and at California Steak and Fries. I don't know if it was because when we ate there we weren't super hungry because we had just gotten coffee. But the meat on both sandwhiches were really bland. And the bread didn't taste fresh. But, if I had to choose a winner I'd have to say it would be Pat's. I mean, just look at the outside of both buildings, you know Genos is compensating for something if they have to have those huge bright signs all along their building.

After Philly we drove another 2 hours to Larnie's Ate Pinky's house in Secaucus, NJ. Here is their house:The Galleon family was so welcoming. Ate Pinky's youngest sons Matthew & Joseph were nice enough to give up their room for us and all of our luggage. [OH, I never talked about our luggage... So, every night that we stopped @ a hotel we had to take all the baggage out of Larnie's trunk so that there was nothing inside to tempt someone from breaking into her car. Well, since Larnie was moving across the country, she of course had a lot of stuff to bring with her. So every night we stopped we had to unload like 10 pieces of luggage, a cooler and a guitar case! All I have to say is thank gawd for rolling luggage carts! People would look at us all perplexed while unloading because there were only two of us yet we had enough luggage for 5 people! After SLC we had a system down for unloading and loading Larnie's CRV. The only good thing about it was that we got a good upper body workout everyday.] Luckily Matthew and Joseph had a big room because our luggage took up half of it!

After catching up with the fam, Larnie and I called it a night because we had another big day ahead of us. NYC baby!

MISSION 9 ACCOMPLISHED! 3624 miles traveled