Here are some recent photos, from Thursday evening and then from today.
First up, the Ironbound district of Newark NJ. This is one of the largest Portuguese/Brazilian neighborhoods in the country, and only a 15 minute NJ Transit ride from Penn Station Manhattan. Although I drove in from another part of NJ that day.
One of the many Portuguese bakeries in the neighborhood
I usually go to the same favorite Portuguese seafood restaurant, but this time decided to do something different and go to a Spanish tapas place.
The nice Art Deco Newark Penn Station, two blocks from the beginning of the Ironbound
On to late this morning in Edison/Iselin, the largest Indian area in NJ, and quite possibly in the US. There are two walkable blocks, and then a bunch of Indian strip malls, a bit like some of the ethnic areas in Southern California.
My go-to lunch place in Iselin, which happens to be vegetarian, yet also very high calorie
Indian sweets shop
A small food court nearby
An interesting snack shop, last stop in my hunt for a particular Bengali sweet which I could have much more easily found in Jackson Heights. Generally, Edison is heavily Indian and particularly Gujarati, while Jackson Heights and NYC in general skew more Bangladeshi, Pakistani, and these days Nepali, in their South Asian community. Indians are the wealthier group, and somehow seem to prefer the NJ suburbs over the NYC boroughs.
Just for the heck of it, two comparison photos of Jackson Heights Queens, from this past Wednesday night
And finally rural/exurban Hunterdon County NJ
A farmers market
The suburbs aren't all bad!
