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Taylor Ham or Pork Roll? <\/p>\nA New Jersey photographer looked through almost 6,000 menus to see what each place calls the breakfast sandwich. The result is an interactive map of the state\u2019s great divide.<\/p>\n
One of New Jersey\u2019s never-ending wars is the one between Taylor Ham and Pork Roll. Traditionally speaking, those in North Jersey call it the former, and those everywhere else call it the latter. Look, I\u2019m not interested in relitigating a fight that will never have a clear answer (it\u2019s Taylor Ham), but what I am interested in is the data. <\/p>\n
We have a rough idea of where the divide lies, but what if we knew for certain? What if someone dove in and figured it out once and for all? Well, good news for you, curious reader, because someone has done exactly that. <\/p>\n
Local New Jersey photographer Christian Fiedler is a bit of a self-admitted nerd. And as such, he spent four months nailing down just how deep the Taylor Ham vs. Pork Roll lore really goes. The result is the most comprehensive breakdown of the NJ civil war that I\u2019ve ever seen.<\/p>\n
How He Did It<\/p>\n
Fiedler started with an open data source of locations (bagel shops, delis, bakeries, diners, etc.), then worked through each menu one by one to see what the tangy breakfast meat was called. <\/p>\n
\u201cSometimes this was looking at their websites. A lot of times it was using online ordering platforms like DoorDash, occasionally it was looking at images of the menu that were uploaded by people on Google reviews or Yelp,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
Taylor Ham or Pork Roll? <\/p>\n
Automating the process wasn\u2019t really an option. \u201cWeb scraping for this stuff is actually pretty spotty so I knew that I had to do it manually,\u201d he says. So he built what he calls \u201ca sort of cockpit\u201d to open menus quickly and log what each one said. \u201cIt took a lot of time but once you get used to the menus you can kind of slip into a flow state and knock out one every few seconds.\u201d<\/p>\n
Plenty of that work happened on flights, where he\u2019d sit down and \u201crip through menus.\u201d <\/p>\n
If New Jersey food projects like this one interest you, Fiedler has more. His New Jersey Hot Dog Index is a personal favorite of mine. Check that out here. <\/p>\n
What He Was Looking For<\/p>\n
The border wasn\u2019t his only goal. Fiedler also wanted to know whether there were \u201clittle enclaves behind the line that served the opposite item name,\u201d and whether any other patterns of interest showed up. He found the menus that specifically said \u201cTaylor pork roll\u201d especially interesting. <\/p>\n
The project also turned up \u201ca ton of truly bizarre and creative menu items, as well as menus that actually leaned into the debate in a meta-way.\u201d <\/p>\n
He found that popular NJ bagel shop O\u2019Bagel, which has locations across New Jersey, calls the classic Garden State breakfast sandwich the \u201cJersey Debate\u201d on their menu. A Jersey Shore spot on the list calls it Pork Roll everywhere on their menu, except for in \u201cThe Benny,\u201d where the description refers to it as Taylor Ham. \u201cI can\u2019t help but think that\u2019s intentional,\u201d Fiedler says, noting that Benny is a slang term used by Shore residents to refer to North Jersey tourists.<\/p>\n
The result? This glorious map, hosted at Fiedler\u2019s website PrimitivePines, which I\u2019m certain my fellow New Jersey obsessives will have a blast combing through. Full map and info here. Enjoy. <\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
Peter Candia is the Food + Drink Editor at New Jersey Digest. A graduate of The Culinary Institute of America, Peter found a passion for writing midway through school and never looked back. He is a former line cook, server and bartender at top-rated restaurants in the tri-state area. In addition to food, Peter enjoys politics, music, sports and anything New Jersey.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A New Jersey photographer looked through almost 6,000 menus to see what each place calls the breakfast sandwich. The result is an interactive map of the state\u2019s great divide. One of New Jersey\u2019s never-ending wars is the one between Taylor Ham and Pork Roll. Traditionally speaking, those in North Jersey call it the former, and<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":80923,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[3138,3136,3134,3137,3135],"class_list":["post-80922","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-jersey","tag-new-jersey","tag-new-jersey-dining","tag-new-jersey-food","tag-new-jersey-grocery-stores","tag-new-jersey-restaurants"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/vive.im\/@dc\/117573762773799408","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80922","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=80922"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80922\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/80923"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80922"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=80922"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=80922"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}