I love that Jane and Michael Stern write a monthly column called “Two For The Road” for Gourmet magazine. Gourmet! It’s a cross-country guide to finding roadfood. What’s roadfood?
Meals along highways, small towns and neighborhoods, food by cooks, bakers, pitmasters, and sandwich-makers. Informal, inexpensive, colorful, loved by locals, off the beaten path.
They have 20+ books - Roadfood, Two for the Road, and Chili Nation: The Ultimate Chili Cookbook with Recipes from Every State in the Nation. Their own website is roadfood.com.
I listen to them on the radio show/podcast The Splendid Table. On that website, they only list one Jersey place they have covered on air – Bloomfield, NJ: Short Stop Diner
There are more on their site from the neighborhood. Notice a pattern?
Rutt’s Hut – Clifton, NJ for chili, The Cremator hot dog
The Hot Grill – Clifton, NJ Texas hot weiner
Jimmy Buff’s – West Orange, NJ Italian Hot Dog – single, Newark-style double hot dog
Maria’s Homemade Ravioli – Wayne, NJ gnocchi, ravioli
Dickie Dee’s – Newark, NJ Italian-style hot dogs
There is probably a place in your U.S. or international neighborhood.
Jersey gulls (who don't even know about the Jersey Shore) looking for scraps at Rutt's
