If you live in New Jersey, you need to drive up to Kingston one Saturday and go to the Amish market there. They call it the Pennsylvania Dutch Market, but I think it’s safe to call it an Amish market because Amish people are serving you behind every counter. It’s right off Route 1 by Princeton and Rutgers. The market is small but has a bakery, freshly slaughtered meats, poultry, cheeses, jams, vegetables, desserts, pickles, and, occasionally, a pig roast. The bakery is what keeps me coming back over and over again. They make soft pretzels. Auntie Anne’s pretzels are based off Anne’s Amish background, so imagine those pretzels but even better. They are right out of the oven, made with freshly churned butter, soft, salty, sweet, and just perfect in every way.

I took a bite out of this one before I could take a photo of it. These are truly humongous pretzels, and I have a to-scale picture after the jump.

Amish pretzel from the Kingston, NJ market

Isn’t that beautiful? It’s thicker than your finger.

Pretzel close up

This next beauty is a pepperoni roll. It’s pepperoni, marinara, and mozzarella cheese, baked into a pretzel shell. It is heaven. The marinara has the perfect amount of spice, and when it is combined with the cheese, it’s like you all of a sudden realize why cheese and tomato sauce have gone together since time immemorial. This is what cheese + sauce should taste like, pure and simple. Everything else is just reaching towards this state of perfection. I usually find pepperoni a bit overwhelming in flavor, but it’s well-balanced here.

Pepperoni roll

Pepperoni roll closeup

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