If you’re from New Jersey, there are certain things you likely hold very dear to your heart. Things like being able to tell your friends where you live with just an exit number. Things like never being too far from the beach, or the city. Things like being able to find a place that sells coffee on pretty much every street corner. Things like being able to get a pork roll, egg, and cheese sandwich at – what’s that? you call it Taylor Ham? Funny, because there are many disputes that only New Jersey residents will have taken part in. Things like…

Pork Roll or Taylor Ham?

This dispute actually has an answer, but that doesn’t stop North Jersey residents from insisting that the wonderful roll of pork (hence, pork roll) hailing from Trenton, New Jersey, is really called Taylor Ham. The wonderful breakfast meat is a popular topping on sandwiches and hamburgers throughout the Garden State, to the point where a hamburger with pork roll (you can tell where I stand in this argument) is often referred to as a Jersey Burger. South and Central New Jersey residents are right to insist that the meat is called pork roll, and here’s why: Taylor is a brand that makes pork roll. The box (picture below) specifically says “pork roll” on it.

Of course, you’ll still hear people refer to pork roll as Taylor ham, but you can now rest assured that they’re wrong. As if you weren’t already sure about that.

Is There a Central Jersey?

Let me be clear here: the answer is yes. There is a central Jersey, and it’s geographically impossible that there wouldn’t be. And yet, people from both North Jersey and South Jersey will argue the opposite. I grew up in Central Jersey, and there was never a question of whether or not Central Jersey was a thing. All of that changed when I moved up north. All of a sudden, I was told I had lived in South Jersey my whole life. This was absurd to me; I thought that this was an anomaly. Surely people didn’t deny the existence of a whole region of New Jersey. But alas, North Jerseyans refuse to acknowledge the existence of Central Jersey.

When I came to TCNJ, literally located in the center of New Jersey, I expected to hear no more of this argument. Instead, I learned that many of my new friends were confused as to how to classify their new location. To me, this was a no-brainer. Trenton and the surrounding area are in Central Jersey. Duh. But many of my friends didn’t understand this. One of my friends told me, “I had always maintained that Central Jersey didn’t exist, until I came to TCNJ and realized it had to.”

While I’m not sure why people insist that there are only two regions in New Jersey, anyone with insight is welcome to tell me in the comments.

On Coffee: Wawa vs. Dunkin Donuts

This argument is another one that I didn’t realize existed until moving to North Jersey, where Wawa is almost nonexistent. I used to live in Toms River, where there are at least five of the convenience store/coffee stops that I can think of off the top of my head. In Brick, the next town over, there are three on one road. I went to school in Manahawkin, where there were two Wawas within five minutes of each other. What I’m saying is, Wawa is a way of life in Central and South Jersey. Here at TCNJ, the nearest Wawa is about 15 minutes away; this is the furthest I’ve been from a Wawa since moving to Union County.

Up there, the coffee of choice is Dunkin Donuts. I’m not going to insult their coffee; Dunkin has some pretty alright coffee. It’s more expensive than Wawa’s, and there aren’t as many flavors, and you can’t get a Mocha Wake Up coffee with extra caffeine, but it’s not bad coffee. That said, Wawa is just… better. It’s a convenience store that has some of the best hoagies (note: The correct term is “sub,” but Wawa has called them hoagies, and I respect that) that you can get from a convenience store. They sell their own brand of iced tea, and often run sales where you can get three quarts for five bucks – a fantastic deal, if you have the chance to partake in it. Dunkin Donuts just doesn’t hold up here.

So why is there an argument over which is better? Probably because Wawa just doesn’t exist in North Jersey. There’s one in Elizabeth, but other than that, Dunkin Donuts is just more present in North Jersey. There are two on my street, and one on the street next to it. It’d make more sense for 7-Eleven to be the threat to Wawa’s superiority, but honestly, 7-Eleven has inferior coffee, smaller stores, and smaller selection. This is a battle that Wawa would have in the bag, if only there were more of them.