South Philly Review

Staff photo by Greg Bezanis

On a Friday afternoon, Ninth Street and Passyunk Avenue, the tip of the triangle where Pat's Steaks stands, is crowded with cheesesteak-eaters of all kinds. First-timers chat excitedly, explaining to each other "the rules" ("We've got to order it the right way, or they'll kick us out!") while locals fill the long lines, hoping to cure their cravings once more.

At a red bench under the historical landmark sign sits author Carolyn Wyman, wearing a cheesesteak-themed T-shirt and holding her latest literary effort, "The Great Philly Cheesesteak Book." The 178 pages, complete with color photos of neighborhood landmarks, has made her realize just how fortunate she and other residents are.

"South Philadelphians should take a tremendous amount of pride that they're the cradle of cheesesteak culture," the 53-year-old author said, noting the sandwich has managed to infiltrate the entire food market, including the menus of franchises such as Subway and Quiznos. "The fact that this is where it all started is, I think, really neat. We're just really lucky to be where it's made the right way."

Though Wyman lives on the 1800 block of South 12th Street -- within walking distance from what many consider the Cheesesteak Capital of the World -- the Rhode Island-born foodie grew up too far away to smell what she now inhales daily. Her family ate Steak-umms from the box, but Wyman was never short on her love of quality foods.

"Rhode Island is a lot like Philly in a way," she said, explaining the state is rich in working-class fare stemming from various ethnic groups.

Determined to feed their children first-class eats, Wyman said father James and mother Viola, who still reside in Rhode Island, would take her and her two older brothers 30 minutes just to buy corn from a one-legged man who sold ears off the back of his truck.

"How many families would drive a half-hour?," she asked rhetorically of the trek for corn. "There was a very high value in our family for food, not gourmet food, but just food."

In fact, Wyman has a soft spot for what she calls "low-brow" foods. Her first book in 1993, "I'm a Spam Fan: America's Best Loved Foods," focused on the backstories of 100 typical grocery items, including one of Wyman's college go-to foods -- and the book's namesake --- Spam.

"I was infamous for eating TV dinners, cookies and doughnuts," Wyman said of her habits at Brown University, where she graduated in '78 with a degree in English. "All these other kids were vegetarians and they were always looking down on what I was eating."

In fact, a plate of vegetables takes a backseat to the writer's favorite food -- a gooey chocolate-chip cookie.

"My in-laws are now eating low-fat ice cream and [food] with low cholesterol," Wyman said. "My parents are, like, Ben & Jerry's every night. Hey, if that's going to get me to 85, I'm with it!"

Sharing her mother's sweet tooth, Wyman credits time spent on the phone with her mom while at Brown for inspiring her nationally syndicated column, "Supermarket Sampler," which offers dual perspectives -- Bonnie Tandy Leblang serves as the nutritional voice, while Wyman sounds off as the dedicated junk-foodie -- of the what is lining grocery-store shelves and freezers.

"When I was in college, I would call home to talk and she wouldn't just say, 'how is school going?'" Wyman said. "She would always say, 'Oh, did you see the new Chocolate Cool Whip?' It made me think, there's a lot of people who care about this too."

In '87, Wyman and Leblang teamed up to write a few samples of the column until it was sold to Universal Press Syndicate. The two already worked side-by-side at the daily newspaper, the New Haven Register, where Wyman began just a year after graduating from Brown.

Though she discussed new grocery products with her mother, among other things, her father, a former executive editor at The Providence Journal, was a useful resource in learning the technical aspects of journalism.

Beginning as a features writer for the Register, Wyman filled in as a food editor when Leblang, the paper's food writer, left. Wyman found her love of a tasty meal not only filled her stomach, but her journalistic niche, as well.

The multifaceted writer juggled her career at the Register with her trek into authorship. Wyman's youth-friendly book, "Ella Fitzgerald: Jazz Singer Supreme" (music is another passion) also was released in '93. Four years later, the author took her taste buds to the kitchen, writing a cookbook bursting with offbeat recipes. Her bestseller, "Spam: A Biography: The Amazing True Story of America's 'Miracle Meat!,'" was published in '99.