A Year of Blogging: May 5, 2011

Today is May 5. Cinco de Mayo. The area I grew up in is not the most culturally diverse area. We have a lot of German and Irish ancestors. St. Patrick's Day is huge! There is a big parade in Albany. Troy celebrates. Everyone is Irish. We didn't celebrate Cinco de Mayo. In Ohio, it's a little bigger. In Cincinnati tonight there was salsa dancing on Fountain Square, Latin music, and the Reds offered discounts on Mexican fare at the ballpark. It seems more people celebrate it here than they did in NY. Some of my friends were planning to have Mexican food for dinner. The only Mexican food I make is tacos, but I wasn't in the mood for tacos tonight. May 5 is also National Hoagie Day. You may be more familiar with the terms 'sub' or 'hero'. Or perhaps 'submarine sandwich'. If you still don't know what a hoagie is, it's a large sandwich. It is usually on a roll shaped like a torpedo. It could be six inches or eight or twelve, or even bigger. I've heard they are an American specialty- I could believe that. We like big food! Subs/hoagies/heroes can be eaten any time of day. They make a filling lunch. There are many nights we just order subs and have them for dinner. It's an easy dinner with minimal cleanup. If you pile a lot of veggies on the sub, you can even call it healthy! I like subs. My favorite cold sub is plain old turkey. Turkey, cheese, lettuce and a little mayo. Maybe some cucumbers and always bacon if possible. I also like tuna salad, but only for lunch. I don't like to go to a sub shop and order tuna for dinner after it has sat out all day. Sub shops. They are on every third corner here in the US. There are two near my work- one is across the street one is a block away. Are sub shops as prominent in other parts of the country? Hoagies can also be hot. My favorites are a steak hoagie (also known as a cheesesteak sandwich), or a meatball hoagie. Wow, now I'm getting hungry. It's 10:30pm. Too late to get a hoagy. Even though I've heard that some people eat them for a midnight snack. That's too much to eat this late at night. I'll just wait and have one over the weekend. Probably a meatball hoagie. The local pizza chain, which has the best meatball hoagies, has been putting some pretty tempting posts on facebook lately. I've been craving one lately, and National Hoagie day just sealed the deal!