I always use provolone 

Provolone here...

I enjoyed Kenji's ode to American cheese he wrote last year. It's certainly not the cheese of choice for most things but for a few things it is possibly the best choice.

http://www.seriouseats.com/2016/07/whats-really-in-american-cheese.html

Whiz man.  The Cheese Whiz is where it's at for an authentic Philly! 
Slather it on on a soft long roll, place it on top of the cooked meat with the sauteed onions so the roll steams a bit, then serve!

I do also enjoy it with white american or provolone, but when I'm going legit, it's gotta be the whiz.

Just made some cheesesteaks tonight. I used provolone. 

Theophan said:

KiterTodd said:

Whiz man.  The Cheese Whiz is where it's at for an authentic Philly!

I went to college in Philly, will never forget the first time I saw someone making a cheesesteak.  It was like the cooks at Benihana, hands and utensils moving so quickly doing what seemed like 25 things at once, steak, onions, sauce on some of them, cheese, bun -- just dazzling.  And SO good!  

I lived in Philly, and then the burbs still working in Philly, from 1968 till 1984, I think it was, and I never saw or heard of putting Cheese Whiz on a cheesesteak.  <shudder>  Maybe they did in some places, but I never went to those places -- all I ever saw was sliced white American.

When I see "authentic" Philly cheesesteaks on TV, they don't remotely resemble what I ate and loved in Philly all those years.  Dunno.

I went to college in Philly about 5 years after you moved away.   I had many steaks there as well, and also loved watching them cook them.  Whiz was the rage when I was there.  I'm not sure if Pat's started it, but everybody had it.  Some places would lean more towards American or Prov than the whiz.

I have to admit, I do like that salty cheese sauce.  Don't know what it is, but it's great on grilled shredded ribeye...



Now, the thing I saw for the first time in the late 80s in Philly was the Chicken Steak!  Had that for the first time at Billy Bob's near UPenn.  Walked in there at 2:AM one night and asked what to get.  I was told, "you at Billy Bob's.  At Billy Bob's, you get a chicken steak!"  And, to this day, that's still the best chicken steak going.  They're not in business any more, but man they made a mean sandwich. 

You'd get a Billy Bob's chicken steak with mayo and lettuce on the roll, then they'd put cheese on top of the grill cooked chicken shredded chicken and lay your roll on top.  Yumm.

Here's some info on them if you're curious-

NOW... as a city that continues to progress with sandwiches, these days, roast pork sandwiches with broccoli rabe are all the rage.  Heck, it could be old news now, but it wasn't  think while I was still in the city.  I didn't even know the thing existed until 10 years ago or so.  Here's the Tony Luke version.  I've had it.  It's good!

Sorry, I just wrote a book there.

Philly makes a great hot meat sandwich.  That's all I'm saying. 

Native and back in town again - Whiz is a legit option, but not my favorite (or what wins the "best of"). White American is the go to, other than Mama's in Bala Cynwyd that uses mozzarella.