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It’s the age-old question: Is a hot dog a sandwich?
After chewing the fat about it, we begrudgingly have to agree with Merriam-Webster: “We know: the idea that a hot dog is a sandwich is heresy to some of you. But given that the definition of a sandwich is ‘two or more slices of bread or a split roll having a filling in between,’ there is no sensible way around it. If you want a meatball sandwich on a split roll to be a kind of sandwich, then you have to accept that a hot dog is also a kind of sandwich.”
Is a hot dog still a sandwich if it is placed between a massive halved pickle? At Elsie’s in Haddon Township, NJ, the answer is a resounding yes.
Served on signature kosher pickles which are custom made for the shop, the deli sandwiches at Elsie’s come laden with meaty offerings like capicola, salami, turkey breast and corned beef, as well as vegetarian-friendly options like hummus with roasted red pepper and falafel with red onion.
In addition to the proprietary pickle hoagies, Elsie’s also offers roll-ups made with either pickle or cucumbers. Also on offer at the grab-and-go joint: pickle-flavored chips, snacks and shots of pickle brine shot from a counter-top dispenser.
Even if you find the idea of sticking a sub between two spears revolting, you can’t hate on what Elsie’s is cooking up too much because of the reason the creator of the sandwich, Katherine Cohen, came up with it.
“My mom (Theresa Cohen) is a diabetic, and I made her a pickle sandwich instead of using bread,’’ Cohen told the Cherry Hill Courier-Post. “In the original store, we weren’t zoned for seating but we had a dining room set up in there. And she was out there eating one day and somebody said, ‘Hey, I want one of those!’‘’
The rest, as they say, is history. Briny, briny history.
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