I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: THE FRONT BOTTOMS-“Mountain” (2011).

The Front Bottoms have a new album coming out.  I’ve liked a lot of their songs and decided to dig a bit deeper in their catalog, and that’s when I discovered this song which led me to realize that they are from New Jersey (Woodcliff Lake, in fact).  As a New Jersey band they clearly grew up eating Taylor Ham sandwiches.  And so they get the honor of being attached to this book.

The Front Bottoms are a fun lightly punk pop band.  The singer Brian Sella sings slightly off kilter and sometimes is speaking more than singing. And their music is energetic and sorta sloppy (but not actually sloppy at all) and it all stems from a great ball of fun that the band seems to be having.  The songs are largely guitar and drum, although they have added keyboards and the occasional trumpet to flesh out these simple ditties.

This particular song has some rollicking drums, an introductory trumpet and simple strummed guitars.  It also features this perfect lyric:

“I bought fireworks, a big bag in Pennsylvania, I’m gonna light ’em up when I get home to Jersey.  They’ll probably arrest me they’ll probably ruin my whole summer.”

Their new album is coming out in a few weeks and features the super catchy song “Laugh Til i Cry.”

[READ: August 22, 2015] The Pork Roll Cookbook

I saw this book at the library and had to check it out.  I love pork roll, it’s a treat that my father loved and which my family simply doesn’t eat often enough.  Of course, since we’re from North Jersey we called it Taylor Ham.

I wasn’t really interested in pork roll recipes because, well, you really only ever need to eat it with egg and cheese on a roll (or bagel).

But the beginning of the book gives a fascinating history of this local delicacy which barely makes it beyond the New Jersey border.

There are two companies that make pork roll and both are located in Trenton.  My family was a Taylor Provisions family. The other brand is Case’s (which I don’t think I have ever seen).  Evidently both brands taste vaguely the same although Case’s has a tangy variety as well.  The pork is evidently low in fat and salt cured with secret ingredients.  It is then hickory smoked.

The second chapter is about the now annual Pork Roll Festival, which I’ve never heard of.  The Festival has a Pork roll Queen, and lots of unusual twists on the basic food like pork roll sushi and pork roll gelato (interestingly both created by the same New Jersey chef, Charlie Yeh).

The final section talks about how it has never really caught on outside of New Jersey, although if you are from New Jersey and you want to buy some there are several online resources available (including Amazon) to have it shipped to you.  Sadly, Taylor provisions does not sell shirts with their logo, which is quite a shame because I don’t want a pork roll shirt made from zazzle that says It’s a jersey thing.  I just want a cloth bag looking shirt with the Taylor name on it.

The recipes are fairly simple.  Most of them involve substituting pork roll for bacon or ham.

There’s one or two I would consider trying–Jersey-Style Creamy Dip sounds pretty good and the Maple-Mustard Pork Roll Bites and Candied Pork Roll sound interesting.  I think the Butternut Squash Soup with Pork Roll also sounds like a nice change,

But most of the rest of the recipes are basically just things in which you might add pork roll.  Which is fine.  And I wouldn’t have thought of them myself, so I guess it’s good to have them written out somewhere.  But I’m just not in a hurry to try Pork Roll and Rice Casserole.

There are “variations” on many of the pages, but most of the variations are basically just to add red pepper or jalapeno for spice.

Interestingly at work today the special was a “Sunny Burger” which was a fried egg and pork roll on a cheeseburger.  So I got one, since pork roll was on my mind.  And I have to say, pork roll is a very powerful flavor, so the burger was kind of lost in the mix.  It wasn’t bad (in fact it was delicious because it was pork roll egg and cheese), but it wasn’t something I’d go out of my way for.  It was nice when, at the end, there was some burger left to make it like a pork roll egg and cheese and then a hamburger, but even if I like to experiment, I think I’ll keep my pork roll where it belongs–served for breakfast.