New Jersey

A bowl of pho can be a quiet thing right up until the steam hits your face and…

By Duncan Edwards · Sep 7

A goat trots across a narrow bridge overhead while a child below clutches a paper cup of animal…

By Duncan Edwards · Sep 6

A blacksmith’s hammer rings through the trees while bread browns in a beehive oven and a schoolmaster waits…

By Duncan Edwards · Sep 6

The best warning sign at a Middle Eastern restaurant is a server arriving with a platter that makes…

By Duncan Edwards · Sep 6

A thick filet lands at the table still sizzling, but dinner is not finished cooking. At Valença Restaurant…

By Duncan Edwards · Sep 6

A foil takeout tray snaps shut in a Union storefront, doubles disappear before lunch in Jersey City, and…

By Duncan Edwards · Sep 6

Eighteen inches above the high-water mark is not where most people would build a communications hub capable of…

By Duncan Edwards · Sep 6

The first warning sign is usually the platter. It lands with a thud, somebody moves the bread basket…

By Duncan Edwards · Sep 6

An 11,000-year-old mastodon stands in the middle of a Victorian exhibition hall, surrounded by dinosaur tracks, glowing minerals,…

By Duncan Edwards · Sep 5

There is a particular moment at a Brazilian steakhouse when good judgment quietly leaves the table. You have…

By Duncan Edwards · Sep 5

The whistle cuts across Phillipsburg before the train begins rolling south, its restored passenger coaches rocking gently beside…

By Duncan Edwards · Sep 5

A musket ball scarred a church in Shrewsbury. George Washington’s army once crowded the streets around Hackensack’s village…

By Duncan Edwards · Sep 5

Your lunch vendor arrives by boat, your seat is an inflatable tube, and the Delaware River handles most…

By Duncan Edwards · Sep 5

A 1975 menu still hangs on the wall at one of these places. Another has been baking pies…

By Duncan Edwards · Sep 5

White sand, striped umbrellas, and the happy shrieks of swimmers are not what most drivers expect to find…

By Duncan Edwards · Sep 5

Four pierogi, two stuffed cabbage rolls, two hunks of roasted kielbasa, and a bed of hot sauerkraut: in…

By Duncan Edwards · Sep 5

Three stone arches rose from the mud at Oak Ridge Reservoir, looking less like a ruin than a…

By Duncan Edwards · Sep 4

Along Anderson Avenue in Cliffside Park, dinner can mean layered fli, a plate of qebapa, a bubbling clay…

By Duncan Edwards · Sep 4

A century-old concrete ship rests offshore while a server carries out lobster rolls and jewel-colored cocktails. Behind it…

By Duncan Edwards · Sep 4

The best Korean nights in North Jersey often begin with the hiss of meat hitting a tabletop grill…

By Duncan Edwards · Sep 4

A 39-foot Tyrannosaurus rex once stood among the trees in Bergen County, opening its jaws and roaring at…

By Duncan Edwards · Sep 4

There are burgers you eat with a knife and fork, and then there are burgers you eat hunched…

By Duncan Edwards · Sep 4

Garlic bread lands on the table before you have fully settled into your chair, and that is your…

By Duncan Edwards · Sep 4

A bamboo steamer lands on the table, someone punctures a soup dumpling too early, and suddenly half the…

By Duncan Edwards · Sep 4

Snow crab legs, marbled beef, hand-rolled sushi, and strawberry cheesecake are rarely part of the same dinner plan.…

By Duncan Edwards · Sep 3

At one Atlantic City table, warm mozzarella is being pulled from fresh curd while, a few feet away,…

By Duncan Edwards · Sep 3

The first clue is the name of the sandwich: Jiu Jitsu Steak. The second is its complete lack…

By Duncan Edwards · Sep 3

At one Jersey seafood spot, blue crabs can make the short trip from traps in Barnegat Bay straight…

By Duncan Edwards · Sep 3

The first thing competing for your attention is the ocean. Then the latte arrives, capped with silky foam…

By Duncan Edwards · Sep 3