Karim Shamsi-Basha tries pork roll at Johnny’s Pork Roll and Coffee Too in Red Bank, New Jersey. (Bobby Olivier | NJ Advance Media)
My quest for full New Jersey citizenship took another leap forward last week, as I strolled into Johnny’s Pork Roll and Coffee Too! in Red Bank and asked for the sandwich I’m told is key to Garden State sustenance: Pork roll, egg and cheese on a hard roll, add salt, pepper and ketchup.
In case you haven’t figured it out, I’m new around here. I just moved to New Jersey last month after spending 33 years in Alabama, and of the many things New Jerseyans have told me to try, pork roll (or Taylor ham, I’m learning the difference, or lack thereof) was very near the top of the list. So naturally I had to sample the processed meat discs that seem to incite an interstate civil war over the mere mention of their name.
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