Sorry. I have to disagree. The NYC bagel and pizza were different than they were in Europe. Legit American pizza (no pineapple ever) is not the same as it was in Naples. Legit American bagels are more doughy and crispier on the outside than the European version. And the practice of putting toppings on (salt, sesame, garlic) started in NYC. Cheesesteak absolutely started in Philly in the 1930s. It is uniquely American and has no European predecessors.

You seem to have a real chip on your shoulder about the origins of Jersey food. I’m happy that our state has improved on them. Fair Lawn Hot Bagels is often rated the best in the country. Anthony Bourdain rated Camden cheesesteak as better than Philly.

Disco fries are about the only food item that I can think of that was invented in NJ although some claim they are a version of poutine.

P.S. New Jersey would still be mostly farmland if not for those 2 cities.

Forgot to mention that French wait staff in NY somehow understand my French perfectly. New York is welcoming: Paris isn’t.

Tomato pie originated in Connecticut. Specifically New Haven. Kind of makes your point because the whole country knows about New Haven apizza and nobody outside NJ knows about Trenton.

OK. Paris is better than NYC in cuisine , culture and history. Hands down. Unfortunately, it is populated by Parisians who are the rudest people I’ve ever experienced in the world with the exception of Muscovites.

NYC has the 2nd best food and a much broader range of ethnic food. New York has far greater diversity. The people are way nicer than the French. You can get by in NYC if you don’t speak English whereas you can’t get the time of day in Paris if you don’t speak French. I speak high school French yet they pretend they can’t understand me.

I’m not going to get into this with you. It’s a stupid question. Most of the world feels it is.

If not NYC, then what do you think is? London? Paris? Shanghai? Tokyo? Those are good answers too.

Do you drive? I live in Hackensack and take the express bus to Port Authority. Then subway. Never more than an hour door to door.

Based on the tire size, I'd go with the recommendation to try performance car forums.

P.S. American Bagels originated from the Lower East Side by Jewish Polish immigrants. Not NJ. NY deli originated in the same place by German immigrants. Not New Jersey. The first pizzeria was in Boston going back to the 19th Century. Not New Jersey. The first pizzeria in NJ didn't open till 1912. American Chinese restaurants originated in California in the 1850s and came East a few decades later.

Please do your homework before making such statements.

However, I will agree that pizza and bagels are better in NJ than NYC. 2nd best pizza is New Haven.

I just replied to someone else that my in-laws parents came into the US via Boston. My father in law moved to Edison because he was offered a monster job in Manhattan. He still has a Boston accent

Not true. The number of white collar job opportunities in Manhattan dwarf NJ in law, finance, hospitality, advertising, marketing, social media and dozens more. I tried many times to find jobs in NJ in my field and never found one.

Do you think people really want to commute to NY every day if there were opportunities in NJ? I hated commuting but would have been significantly underemployed if I didn’t.

Of course. My in laws were second generation and their parents entered the US in Boston. Ironically, they moved to Edison when my father in law got an insane job offer from a large corporation in the Garment district. And Edison was a much nicer place to live in the 70s than Dorchester, Massachusetts. Still is.

Nearly all of our state looked like that before NY and Philly dwellers moved out of crowded Boroughs in search of a better quality of life. Jersey would have built up even if 95% of those people didn’t commute. My home town isn’t a big commuter town but the population is probably 4x what it was when I was born. It exploded because people fled the growing crime in Paterson and Passaic to a safer place. That had nothing to do with NYC.

And NYC mass transit prices are a fraction of NJ equivalents. The MTA system is the least expensive per mile in the world.

You cannot do anything without a car in most of NJ with the exception of commuter towns like Hoboken and Jersey City. Walking is almost entirely recreational and not functional

So many high end towns would not exist if not for Wall Street and Midtown. Like Ridgewood and Summit would be hick towns if not for Wall Street.

It’s the greatest City in the world. It’s the cultural and financial center of our country. If you are from North Jersey, NYC is in your DNA because of proximity and because your parents or grandparents came from one of the Boroughs. I was the first person on both sides of a large family to be born in NJ and not a Borough.

No NYC: no Jersey bagels, deli, Chinese food and so many other things.

Safest bet would be a kosher BBQ place. I know there’s one in Teaneck. I don’t keep kosher so can’t recommend anyplace.

Remember, she said she was “the only Jew in the room” which is certainly part of why the MAGA chick went off. If I were her, I wouldn’t want to go back to that town for fear of overt antisemitism.