If you draw a Venn diagram of coin towns and food towns, there's not a shade of a shadow of a doubt that you'll find Philadelphia in the intersection.

READING TERMINAL MARKET

You can take a culinary tour of Philly's many ethnic cuisines and never leave this converted railway terminal building. It's located right near the Convention Center at 12th and Arch Streets and includes a dazzling array of gustatory delights--practically all of which are highly affordable. Don't miss the Dutch Eating Place on Thursday through Saturday for authentic Pennsylvania Dutch home-cooking from, well, the Pennsylvania Dutch of course. Here's some good news: throughout Whitman Coin & Collectibles Philadelphia Expo, select Reading Terminal food vendors are offering a $7 Meal Deal. 

CHEESESTEAKS

Although they do not represent the pinnacle of the culinary art as practiced in Philly, these hoagies are most definitely an important part of the food culture. South Philly is ground zero for these tasty sandwiches, and a mere recitation of the basic ingredients (ribbons of thinly sliced steak, grilled onions and slices of provolone or a jumbo dollop of Cheez Whiz) fails to capture the magic involved. If you are an old Philly hand, you may have heard about, or even been asked to weigh in on, the question of who has the best ones. This generally boils down to a discussion of cheesesteak heavy-weights Geno's Steaks and Pat's King of Steaks.

But others, including some rash upstarts, are laying claim to the mythical championship of cheesesteaks. Not long ago, Richard Rys--a writer at Philadelphia magazine--set out to end the controversy once and for all by consuming 50 cheesesteaks in just over a month. His conclusion: the perennial favorites are over-rated. Rys ranked each cheesesteak experience on a scale of 1 to 5. When the final tally was complete, Cosmi's Deli stood atop the heap with the lone 5.0 score. You can find them at 1501 S. 8th Street. Runners up included Swann Lounge at the Four Seasons and Tony Luke's (each with 4.5 scores) followed by Chubby's, with a 4.0. Of course, some locals find the notion of the Four Seasons outranking their beloved Geno's (with a score of 2.5) and Pat's (with a woeful 2.0 from Rys) nothing short of blasphemy.

If you want to judge for yourself, you'll find them at 1219 S. 19th Street and 1237 Passyunk Avenue, respectively. And, by the way, if you're thinking cheesesteaks are a short cut to a coronary, consider that Rys gained no weight during his cheesesteak marathon and his cholesterol actually went down. Of course, he worked out four times a week, so your mileage may vary.

FINE DINING

There are far too many high-quality fine dining experiences to be had in Philadelphia for us to cover all of them in one short article. So, here are two old favorites followed by  a number of somewhat newer restaurants that have distinguished themselves. Any discussion of great Philly restaurants begins with Georges Perrier's Lyonnanais cuisine at Le Bec-Fin, which Fodor's insists "continues to set a stratospherically high standard for Philadelphia." The prix-fixe options here run $35 for three courses or $150 for 7 (including all you can eat from the heavenly dessert cart), but you can, of course, order from the menu.  And if that's too rich for your blood, consider Le Bar Lyonnais, just one level below the main restaurant, where you can get the chef's speciality dishes at entree prices that range from $15 to $40. 1520 Walnut Street. 215-567-1000.