Welcome to New Jersey – Got a Problem with That?

What’s to Love (and Hate) about the Garden State  

No doubt you’ve heard a lot of jokes about the Garden State. We’d like to give you a fair and balanced picture of what there is to love about Jersey.

The Boss. No, not Soprano—it’s Bruce. Springsteen. The Boss and his family live in Colts Neck, where they have plenty of room for horses.  If he’s not on tour or sheltering in place (as he is right now), you might even run into him at a local market.

Pork Roll (aka Taylor ham), Egg and Cheese. All right, it isn’t foie gras or Chateaubriand, but this tasty artery-clogging treat on a Kaiser roll is on the menu of almost every Jersey diner (and when it comes to diners, we are the world’s capital). If you’re not nitrite-phobic or counting fat grams, join rock star Jon Bon Jovi, and movie director Kevin Smith, just two of the Jersey natives who love the P.E.C. Love for this unofficial Jersey food is reflected in the annual Pork Roll Festival held in May, in Trenton—the birthplace of the salty treat in 1856. As part of the event, a Miss Pork Roll is crowned, chosen not for her beauty, but for her devotion to—pork roll. One contestant caught the judges’ eye by reciting an ode to pork roll while performing acrobats—and eating a P.E.C.

Doo-Wop Architecture. Though doo-wop describes a musical style made popular by groups like the Platters and the Dell-Vikings, it also refers to a unique style of architecture that evolved from American pop culture of the 1950s and 1960s. Picture tropical imagery and colors, space-age designs and lots of neon and chrome.  The Shore town of Wildwood has the nation’s largest concentration of buildings—some 220—in the doo-wop (aka googie or populux) style.

Beauty Contests. Yes, the Miss America pageant left Jersey, but we still have plenty of beauties: the Baby Parade in Asbury Park, for example, when adorable tykes compete for prizes and modeling contracts. Or, Ocean City’s Miss Crustacean contest, when elegantly costumed hermit crabs—past entries have included Cleopatra Crab and Crabzilla–claw their way to victory and the coveted Cucumber Rind Cup, a loving cup with a cuke stuck in the middle. According to some nutritionists, a cucumber provides a year’s supply of food for a hermit crab.

Trenton Tomato Pie

Tomato Pies.  If a Jersey local invites you out for a pie, don’t expect cherry or apple. In Jersey-speak, as in many older Neapolitan restaurants, pizza is known as tomato pie. These classics—some of the best in the country, we believe—can be enjoyed at Vic’s in Bradley Beach, Pete and Elda’s Bar in Neptune City and Federici’s in Freehold.

Jersey Tomatoes. So juicy and flavorful, these vine-ripened beauties are light years better than the thick-skinned imports from California and Mexico. We love these luscious orbs so much, we even have a New Jersey Tomato Festival in Camden,  which includes not only a beauty contest of sorts (for the best-looking, tastiest and biggest tomato), but also a war in which teams score hits on each other with over-ripe fruit.

Jersey Girls. Take it from the Boss: When  you’re in love with a Jersey Girl, “everything’s gonna be alright.”

No Self-Serve Gas. Outside our borders, whether it’s raining, snowing, blazing sun or dark of night, drivers are obliged to deal with a computerized pump or rush into the station’s convenience store and annoy the attendant dozing peacefully behind his cash register. Not here, where such activity is not only a pain in the neck, but also illegal.  And we like it that way.

126 Miles of Beach.  Jersey natives from “Up North” (not Canada–the northern part of the state) go “Down the Shore.” We only say we’re going to the beach when we’re actual in a Shore town.

And there are things to love…not so much

Jughandles. When a local tells you to “make a jughandle,” he’s not suggesting you try your hand at pottery. A jughandle makes you turn right in order to make a left turn. It’s the Jersey way of safely making a left turn without creating gridlock or getting broadsided at high speed. Visitors don’t like them; they don’t like our traffic circles either.

Jersey Attitude. Visitors also have suggested that Garden Staters can be, well, rude. What we are is difficult to describe; think one part gallows humor and two parts sarcasm. As with pornography, you’ll know it when you see it.

Something in the Air. Many out-of-towners think Jersey is just a lot of smelly highway between New York and Philly. Certainly not true. However, there is a stretch around exit 13A on the Turnpike, the heart of Jersey’s industrial corridor. There the Linden Cogeneration plant hisses smoke—and looks even spookier at night—while afterburners dot the area like beacons.

Jersey “girls” Lillian and Nina Africano were born and raised in the Garden State. They love to write about Jersey; they even wrote a book about their favorite area, the Jersey Shore. You can still find the Jersey Shore Guide on Amazon.

Ocean City, New Jersey