PHILADEPHIA - Many places have signature foods: Chicago has the deep-dish pizza, New England has clam chowder, Buffalo, N.Y., has hot wings, Maryland has crab cakes, and New Orleans has gumbo. But in Philadelphia, the cheesesteak stands as equal parts civic symbol, tourist attraction, and a cultural obsession.

 

And no place represents the true grit of this working-class town and speaks to the city's soul better than the corner of 9th Street and Passyunk Avenue in South Philly, the cheese-steak epicenter where Pat's King of Steaks and Geno's Steaks face off 24 hours a day.