The cuisine of New Jersey is derived from the long history of immigrants to the state and its close proximity to New York City and Philadelphia. Restaurants in the state make use of locally grown ingredients such as asparagus, blueberries, cranberries, tomatoes, corn, and peaches. New Jersey is home to approximately 525 diners, the most of any state. Various foods invented in the state, such as the pork roll, also known as taylor ham, and salt water taffy, remain popular there today.
The state is known for its commercial food and industrial production, beginning with the founding of Campbell's Soup in 1869. Campbell's is currently headquartered in Camden. Goya Foods, the largest Hispanic-owned food company in the United States, operates a state-of-the-art and sustainable corporate headquarters in Jersey City. M&M candy has been produced in Hackettstown, New Jersey since 1958 and the Mars company has been headquartered in New Jersey for over 75 years.
Food writer, influencer, and chef Anthony Bourdain was raised in Leonia, New Jersey. He often profiles New Jersey restaurants on his multiple television shows. Carlo's Bake Shop in Hoboken is the setting for TLC's reality television series, Cake Boss.
Video Cuisine of New Jersey
Regional foods
Due to its position between New York City and Philadelphia, the signature foods of both cities are very popular in their corresponding suburbs. In the New York Metropolitan Area communities of Northern and Central Jersey, pizza, bagels, pastrami, and submarine sandwiches (often called "subs", sometimes called heroes) are popular. In the Delaware Valley towns of South Jersey, hoagies (the Philadelphia term for the aforementioned submarine sandwich), cheesesteaks, soft pretzels, water ices, and scrapple are common. Several of these regional dishes have achieved popularity statewide. Irish potato candy are a familiar South Jersey treat as well.
Maps Cuisine of New Jersey
Unique foods
There are a number of foods which are especially prominent in or unique to the Garden State. North Jersey is renowned as a hot dog stronghold, with several variants that have their roots in its cities. The ripper is perhaps the most famous type of hot dog that is native to New Jersey. It is deep-fried in oil until the casing bursts, or "rips", and might be best exemplified at Rutt's Hut, a longtime hot dog eatery in Clifton, New Jersey. Texas wieners are another type of hot dog that originated in the state. They are either grilled or deep-fried and served with spicy brown mustard, chopped onions, and a thin meat sauce similar to chili. Wieners ordered "all the way" are dressed with all three condiments. Interestingly, the Texas wiener was independently created in two different locations -- Paterson, New Jersey and Altoona, Pennsylvania.
Another type of hot dog indigenous to North Jersey is the Italian hot dog, which originated at Jimmy Buff's in Newark in 1932 and is one of the foods most synonymous with North Jersey's Italian-American culture, especially in Essex County. The Italian hot dog is prepared by slicing a roll of round pizza bread in half (for a double order) or into quarters (for a single order), digging a pocket into it, and then spreading mustard along the inside of the roll. A deep-fried dog (two for a double order) is stuffed into the pocket, topped by fried or sauteed onions and peppers, and then followed by deep-fried potatoes that have been thinly sliced into discs or thickly-cut into chunks and drizzled with ketchup. Italian sausages can be substituted for the hot dogs and, as with their counterpart, are ordered as a single or double order.
Trenton, located near the boundary of Central and South Jersey, is known for two foods in particular: tomato pie and pork roll. In Trenton, tomato pie is basically an interchangeable term for pizza, albeit with a subtle difference: While traditional pizzas are prepared by placing the cheese and toppings on top of the sauce and dough, tomato pies are made by laying the cheese directly on top of the dough, then adding the toppings, and finally spreading the sauce atop the mix. This creates a more tomato-intensive taste for the thin-crust pie.
Pork roll is a sausage-like pork product developed by John Taylor in Trenton in the late 19th century and has become a popular breakfast and sandwich meat throughout the Garden State. In South Jersey, it is often referred to as a pork roll due to the tube-like sack, or "roll", in which it is traditionally packaged, while in North Jersey it is usually called Taylor ham. The meat is generally eaten sliced and grilled like Canadian bacon, but is also known to be fried. Also common is the Taylor ham (or pork roll), egg and cheese sandwich, in which taylor ham/pork roll is cooked on a griddle and then topped with a fried egg and American cheese and eaten on a hard roll.
Salt water taffy is a soft taffy originally produced and marketed in the Jersey Shore resort town of Atlantic City beginning in the late 19th century, and is a staple candy and souvenir item of boardwalks in the state. It is widely sold throughout beachfront areas of the East Coast of the United States and Canada.
In addition to its local foods, New Jersey boasts a plethora of ethnic cuisines due to its large immigrant population. Some of the more prominent examples include Chinese, Indian, Brazilian, Korean, Portuguese, Spanish, Middle Eastern, Italian, Polish, and Greek food. Cuban cuisine has also had an impact in New Jersey (especially in the Hudson County area). Typical Cuban food found in the state includes Christianos y Moros (also known as arroz Moros), lechon, the Cuban sandwich, arroz salteado and dulce de leche.
New Jersey is renowned for its multitude of diners, many of which are open 24 hours a day. A large number of them are owned or were founded by Greeks and offer Greek dishes in addition to standard diner fare. New Jersey has more diners per capita than any other state in the U.S., at well over 500.
The Grease Trucks of Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey have also popularized "fat sandwiches", which are sandwiches usually consisting of various combinations of chicken fingers, french fries, mozzarella sticks, onion rings, and other fried foods. The Grease Trucks have been made famous by mentions in USA Today and Maxim Magazine, among other media outlets.
Dishes
- Disco fries - French fries covered with brown gravy and melted cheese, usually mozzarella.
- Texas Wiener - deep-fried hot dog served with onions and chili sauce.
- Pork roll (South and Central Jersey name) or Taylor Ham (North Jersey name) - usually fried and eaten on a sandwich with eggs and/or cheese.
- Italian hot dog
- Roll and butter - hard or kaiser roll with butter. Some establishments offer salad dressing in addition to butter.
- Sloppy joe - sandwich native to North-Central Jersey - A triple decker deli sandwich (most commonly containing corned beef or pastrami, turkey and ham, but with many variations) dressed with cole slaw and Russian dressing on thin-sliced rye bread.
In other parts of the state, this is known as a "Ruben". Those who know it as such know a sloppy joe as something else entirely - a hot sandwich of pan cooked hamburger meat soaked in a sweet, tangy sauce with small pieces of diced bell peppers, usually served on a hamburger roll or Kaiser roll.
- Jersey breakfast dog - danger dog (deep-fried bacon-wrapped hot dog) with eggs and melted cheese.
- In and Outers - hot dogs that have been deep-fried until they blister slightly (see Danger dog)
- Rippers - hot dogs that have been deep-fried until they rip apart (see Danger dog)
- Salt water taffy
- New York-style pizza
- Tomato pie
- Sausage sandwich
- Portuguese Charcoal BBQ
- Beefsteak (banquet)
- Panzerotti - mozzarella and tomato sauce filled deep fried dough pocket similar to but larger than an empanada
Ethnic enclaves
Among the ethnic culinary enclaves in New Jersey
- Middle Eastern: Main Street, South Paterson, aka Little Istanbul or Little Ramallah
- Latino: Bergenline, North Hudson and Little Lima
- Portuguese/Brazilian: Ironbound, Newark, New Brunswick
- Indian: Oak Tree Road, Iselin
- Korean: Koreatown, Palisades Park
- Hungarian: Fifth Ward, New Brunswick
See also
- Cuisine of New York City
- Cuisine of Philadelphia
References
Bibliography
- Caparulo, Vicki J. (2003). Great Dishes from New Jersey's Favorite Restaurants. Rutgers University Press. ISBN 0-8135-3311-2.
- Di Ionno, Mark (2002). Backroads, New Jersey: Driving at the Speed of Life. Rutgers University Press. ISBN 0-8135-3133-0.
- Genovese, Peter (2007). New Jersey Curiosities, 2nd: Quirky Characters, Roadside Oddities & Other Offbeat Stuff. Globe Pequot. ISBN 0-7627-4112-0.
External links
- New York Times March 28, 2008
- History of New Jersey cooking, pre-colonial to present
Source of article : Wikipedia
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