Cheesesteak

Saturday, June 19 Cheesesteak tour of Reading Terminal Market , presented by Taste of Philly Food Tours and led by Carolyn Wyman, author of The Great Philly Cheesesteak Book , who will discuss the ins and outs of cheesesteaks and their history. $15.95; tour begins at 10 a.m. at the market's information desk at 12th and Filbert Sts. To make a reservation, visit www.tasteofphillyfoodtour.com or call 1-800-838-3006. Shop, cook and dine with chef Peter Woolsey of Bistrot La Minette, who will lead participants on a trip to a local farmers market, then help prepare lunch with the items purchased.

On 12th Street, just south of Sansom, and just north - notably - of Glatt Delight, the kosher noshery, a new sandwich joint called Jake's Sandwich Board has debuted, prominently featuring whole roasted pig. No missing the point: The pig can be found typically all but smiling behind the sneeze guard, snout, ears, and all, ripe for the picking. So, young Jake's (it's going on three weeks now) has joined an old tradition - the Italian roast-pork royalty of South Philly, its ranks now swollen by a flurry of wannabe Southern barbecue boys (and at Percy Street BBQ, girl)

I have never received more feedback from a column than I did from Tuesday's commentary after my car was vandalized in the parking lot of the Wachovia Center on Sunday night. The majority of the 250 - and counting - messages offered apologies for the yahoos who trashed my car and stole my license plate as a souvenir. I received a dozen invitations to dinner and an offer to deliver the best cheesesteak in Philadelphia to my hotel. I wished I had the time to take up some of the offers to talk hockey over a postgame beer.

Mustard or ketchup? Plain or extra cheese? That's the new dilemma posed by Monday's rollout of a culinary combination of two of Philadelphia's legendary foodstuffs: The Cheesesteak Pretzel. The hybrid, like a Hot Pocket with golden-brown pretzel dough, hit more than 100 Philly Pretzel Factory stores in the morning. At noon, freebies were offered at LOVE Park - along with packets of ketchup. A line of more than 100 people quickly formed - and stayed that long for about an hour - as samplers started biting or tearing off chunks of pretzel, beef, and American cheese.

Mustard or ketchup? Plain or extra cheese? That's the new dilemma posed by Monday's rollout of a culinary combination of two of Philadelphia's legendary foodstuffs: The Cheesesteak Pretzel. The hybrid, like a Hot Pocket with golden-brown pretzel dough, hit more than 100 Philly Pretzel Factory stores in the morning. At noon, freebies were offered at LOVE Park - along with packets of ketchup. A line of more than 100 people quickly formed - and stayed that long for about an hour - as samplers started biting or tearing off chunks of pretzel, beef, and American cheese.

The marriage of two of Philadelphia's favorite foodstuffs was celebrated today with a lunchtime giveaway at Love Park. Meet the Cheesesteak Pretzel: a handheld cheesesteak baked inside soft-pretzel dough. More than 700 were handed out, to mostly positive reviews. "This stuff is good," said Jermaine Bernard, 33, finishing his first while in line to get a second. The visitor from Los Angeles hoped to try for a third as well. "Not two thumbs up, but one thumb up," said actuary Derek Eyler, 25, of Abington.

VANCOUVER - There he was, standing outside the Expo Line train station, an envelope stuffed with hockey tickets in his hand. The Fez. It wasn't the tickets that drew you to The Fez, whose birth certificate identifies him as Ray Fesniak. It was the orange Flyers sweater, as rare as the dodo in this Red Sea of Team Canada jerseys dotted with blue USA islands. The jersey made it easy for Fesniak's friends to find him outside Canada Hockey Place, where the United States was about to play Switzerland in a quarterfinal.

VANCOUVER - When Philadelphians travel, they quickly discover that the two things about their city that resonate deepest with those elsewhere are its boorish sports fans and its cheesesteaks. Fortunately, you don't encounter many Eagles fans in Olympic cities. But cheesesteaks are an hors d'oeuvre of another color. There are cheesy cheesesteak replicas everywhere, even in such exotic locales as Athens and Beijing. Those same traveling Philadelphians who are pestered with queries about fans and fat would be wise to avoid them.

The view from behind the sizzling grill at Pat's King of Steaks isn't much to speak of. But it does provide a good sight line of the mural above the empty lot across South Ninth Street - the one with the likenesses of Fabian, Chubby Checker, Bobby Rydell, Frankie Avalon, and other native pop stars. Josh Colon has spent nearly a decade working at the South Philadelphia cheesesteak mecca, developing mad spatula skills while asking customers, "You want that wid? Or widout?" Now he's ready to try life on the other side of the Plexiglas, to maybe etch his own face on the musical Wall of Fame.

ONE WAY to look at the World Series bets between Mayor Nutter and Mayor Michael Bloomberg - one that will require Bloomberg to come here and help paint a mural when - er, if - the Yankees lose, and Nutter to to help Bloomberg paint a New York school in the unlikely event that he loses the bet - is that it's a nice, socially responsible departure from the usual cheesesteak/reuben exchange. But we like our baseball served with unhealthy food, hops-based drink and a large helping of painful public humiliation of the losing mayor.