IT'S-IT Ice Cream Sandwich
Oatmeal cookies with ice cream, dipped in chocolate; SF classic since 1928.
Andrew Lekashman
Italian Sub/Hero/Hoagie
The generic Italian sub the US Northeast calls a hero in New York, a hoagie in Philadelphia, a grinder in New England, a wedge in the Hudson Valley, and a zep on the Schuylkill.
Italian Sandwich
A Maine Italian is ham, American cheese, green pepper, onion, tomato, sour pickle, black olives, and oil on a soft roll that folds shut. Traced to Amato's of Portland, dockside, 1902.
Italian Hot Dog
Newark's Italian hot dog packs a hollowed pizza-bread pocket in strict order, dog first, then peppers and onions, fried potatoes crowning the top. Born from Jimmy Buff's 1932 card-game stand.
Italian Hoagie
Genoa salami, capicola, and ham shingled with provolone on a seeded Philadelphia roll, dressed with oil and oregano. The cold-cut argument of the South Philly deli counter.
Italian Hero
Capicola, salami, ham, and provolone shingled down a long roll with oil, vinegar, and oregano. New York's cold deli default, and the unproven Paddleford story behind the name.
Italian Beef
You order it by telling the counter how wet you want it: dry, wet, dipped, baptized. That vocabulary is the giveaway, the cook controls the moisture and you do not.
Italian Beef (Dipped)
The dipped Italian beef sends the whole assembled sandwich back into the jus before serving, called wet, soaked, or dipped at the counter. Al's #1, Mr. Beef, Johnnie's.
Italian Beef Combo
A Chicago Italian beef with a grilled Italian sausage laid in alongside the shaved seasoned beef; the two-protein combo order from the Taylor Street beef-stand tradition.
In-N-Out Style Burger
Fresh, never-frozen beef, hand-leafed lettuce, tomato, and spread on a sponge-dough bun.
In-N-Out 4x4
Four beef patties and four slices of American cheese; In-N-Out's secret menu maximum standard build.
Impossible/Beyond Burger
Plant-based burger patties designed to mimic beef using heme (Impossible, launched 2016) or pea protein (Beyond, launched 2016); available at Bur...
Idaho Finger Steaks
Strips of beef coated in batter and deep-fried, served in a basket or on bread with cocktail sauce; Idaho's unique contribution to fried ...
Hot Pastrami
Steamed pastrami served hot on rye with mustard.
Hot Open-Face Turkey Sandwich
The diner hot turkey sandwich: roast turkey on a single slice of soft white bread, the whole plate flooded with hot gravy, eaten with a fork. The blue-plate special, built around bread meant to soak.
Hot Open-Face Roast Beef
A single slice of soft white bread under thin roast beef and brown gravy, a scoop of mashed potato beside it under the same gravy, eaten with a fork off a wide oval diner plate.
Hot Muffuletta
The New Orleans muffuletta the classic asks you to leave cold, run instead through a press at Napoleon House until the seeded loaf flattens, the olive oil runs.
Hot Brown
The Hot Brown goes under the broiler face-up: turkey on toast, flooded with Mornay, bacon and tomato browned on top. The sauce does two jobs, seasoning the plate and binding it into one.
Horseshoe
Open-faced sandwich with meat on toast, covered with French fries and cheese sauce.
Hoosier Tenderloin
The Indiana breaded pork tenderloin under the state's own nickname: a pounded, fried cutlet hanging inches past a small bun, dressed cold in the center. A schnitzel gone Hoosier.
Hoagie
Order a sub anywhere else and you've named a container. Order a hoagie in Philadelphia and you've named a specific sandwich. That precision is the most local thing about it.
Hero Sandwich
A long Italian loaf split and filled to order. New York's hero was in print by 1939, and by 1947 one Ninth Avenue grocer was building a thousand a day.
Hawaiian Sweet Bread Sandwich
Twelve enriched Hawaiian sweet rolls filled with ham and Swiss, baked under a Dijon-butter-poppy-seed glaze: the slider format works because Robert Taira engineered this bread to stay soft.
Hawaiian Plate Lunch Sandwich
The plate-lunch sandwich: two-scoop rice, macaroni salad, and a teriyaki or kalua protein folded into a soft roll. Rainbow Drive-In has served the plate since 1961.