New Jersey’s King of Breakfast Sandwiches

[Music] of course i'm from new jersey who else would start a portal truck but a guy from new jersey i serve one thing and one thing only and that's pork roll sandwiches it's the one food that's from new jersey has only stayed in new jersey for 165 years oh look at that this is coming together nice my friend i guess i'm like just doing god's work selling pork roll sandwiches my name is john urusi i'm the owner of johnny's pork roll and coffee too this little food truck from asbury park mammoth county new jersey it is a breakfast sandwich in some people's minds it's an all-time sandwich you know in new jersey so i sell them morning united pork roll like was it like tootsie roll what is it it's just minced pork shoulder sugar salt little seasoning lactic acid in a sack so it's like a skinless hot dog almost but it's not a hot dog because that's emulsified so it's just finely ground pork shoulder season to taste like ham [Music] so if you walk up to my truck and you ask for a sandwich you're gonna get pork leg and cheese the only swing in that will be do you want ketchup or don't you but that's my base sandwich pork and cheese we're gonna put these two guys together as our base the foundation there's our little egg i'm gonna lose any of that goodness get on there let's lay that little wet egg in there perfect put that on top of that and then on top of that the reason i like this composition it works any way i flip it when i would stare at my grandmother she would scramble me eggs in the morning and take pork roll and cut it up my mom would make it we might even have it for dinner sometimes if my mother was busy she'd make little pork cheese sandwiches for my sisters and i and running my truck here the last few years in asbury countless stories of people telling me that when i was younger my dad my mom my uncle we'd go crabbing fishing surfing whatever but a pork roll sandwich always seemed to creep into the equation [Music] and that's what it looks like that's a pork leg and cheese it's a simple nostalgic food that we just adore here what did you want to eat hawaiians that's a great sandwich pork roll is probably closest to spam but the hawaiian sandwich is a spoof on a classic hawaiian spam sandwich so i did the same thing only i put a little hot sauce barbecue sauce pineapple pork roll swiss it's savory it's sweet it's salty it's it's awesome my reuben sandwich it's another classic american sandwich so i mean you really can't take porpo and make a lot of different things out of it new jersey is very hard to run a food truck you know if people would gamble more on it they knew there were little spots legally they could go and try to make money but a lot of times you really got to hunt to find a place to work man there's a guy going out surfing he's hitting it but yeah i ran my truck right here after the hurricane they couldn't get their little kitchen open this building was all destroyed and the mayor knew i was building this food truck would you be interested in running your truck this summer at the beach club i'm like are you kidding me so yeah i used to park right here that was my first little spot that was fun man good times i started the truck seven years ago right after hurricane sandy i kind of needed to figure out something to do because i had a career in new york and advertising that kind of had run its course or wasn't coming back morning truck ah i don't know why the minute i get in here i just feel like i'm at home it kind of is my home i kind of live in here i'm very proud to stand i didn't do it just cause you were coming but i keep my truck spotless i was like i had to almost reinvent myself and i swear to you that's what i did at like 47 48. my dad passes the hurricane my wife didn't want to whatever everything imploded like my whole life seemed to implode on me and i swear pork roll saved my life and i always had an idea to start a food truck because i had done one for a client that i was working with new york and we were selling grass-fed burgers down on wall street and i'm like there's something to this pork roll thing and i started playing around with just tongue-in-cheek i'm like i love it i love food trucks i love new jersey i'm going to put that all together and go be this little pie piper of pork bowl i had this great little spot and a town i knew with some great people and i learned learn learn learn so when i began my menu base said pork roll five dollars coffee two dollars together seven dollars that was the whole menu sandy was just so crazy when i hit the jersey shore seven eight years ago i mean just devastated you saw the physical destruction everywhere you saw people crying about their houses being lost or their cars destroyed or their boat ended up across the road like people were physically displaced i lived at that point monmouth beach up on ocean ave and that was right where my it's kind of weird to get in this but that's right when my dad died and we moved him to nyu langone which is on the east river new york i was in the hospital with him i left to get back home because my sisters are like you better get back to jersey they're shutting the tunnels down and then you know all that happened and he just didn't make it through after that thing but i missed my dad a lot i wish he was around because i think uh i just know he'd been very proud of this funny little thing i started because the truth he said he said you said john i know you're going to make a lot of money one day i just don't know if you'll keep it and he's kind of been right about that [Music] the interaction that you get when you're cooking it's that human interaction food is a form of pleasure pleasure is emotional emotion is what leads us to things and when you make food it's great to share that food with somebody i do one with peppers and onions you like peppers and onions yeah you're all right that's what about ketchup you like that whatever you yeah all right man oh i would come to johnny parker's over any other place he's just awesome she usually get like an egg and cheese but he still makes a bomb like every single time he knows the ag ratio everything usually the best one ever right on yeah man thanks he knows how to like provide that customer service which i feel like a lot of people don't really do as much nowadays you know what's up man how was the walk with the dog yeah man there's a thousand delis and david places some do it great some not so much some are downright terrible but nobody sort of said i'm owning this and i'm gonna make the best one and i've been included in a lot of the top ten lists i've never been definitively ranked one to ten because nobody's ever really had the courage to do that so i was like here are ten great places or here are five you gotta try but i mean that's the goal man that's the freaking goal of making these sandwiches [Music] you

Channel: Munchies

Views: 737,463

Rating: 4.9108701 out of 5

Keywords: how to, cooking, Munchies, food, eating, chef, restaurant, VICE, new jersey, pork roll, small businesses, food trcuks, sandwiches, street food, jersey shore, street food icons, nyc street food, street eats, food icons, jonny's porkroll, johnnys porkroll, best sandwich in jersey, pork near me, pork sandwiches, sandwich near me, porkroll near me, pork roll egg and cheese, new jersey food, tri state eats, food tours, food truck, breakfast, breakfast food

Id: YdHTHTx8Pos

Length: 6min 53sec (413 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 05 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/ToumeyP]

These guys have a location in Red Bank. It was really good.

[u/centralnjbill]

Archaic Pork Roll Brand Names aside, this is such a cool story about a guy who reinvented himself later in life and now seems to be having the best time doing something he loves. Bravo.

[u/Jeezlouise86]

My 6 yr old can tell if its Taylor's or Casey's! They both taste the same to me. Gotta go visit this guy.

[u/centralnjbill]

I’m surprised some of you weren’t marching with “Taylor Ham” signs.

[u/PurpleSailor]

Looks good but I skip the lettuce myself, tomatoes are good though.