Buttered hard roll – just one of many things you can’t get done right (if at all) more than about 100 miles from New York City. Growing up about 75 miles away, with parents who were both born there and grew up in the New Jersey suburbs, I always took them for granted. Go any further away and even if they have something they call a hard roll, it’s not the same thing.
In Philly, Amoroso’s Bakery in South Philly created- and still creates- the gold standard in kaiser rolls. Not to mention the sub rolls used for Philly Cheesesteaks.
And, of course, Lee’s Hoagie House sammiches.
Your average 7-11 or WaWa in Philly is using Amoroso’s if it has a shred of self-respect.
I am very familiar with buttered rolls. I always figured it was a Jersey thing. But for breakfast I prefer the only Jersey staple, Pork Roll, egg and cheese on a roll.
This is precisely what I’m talking about. The little popular science articles in newspapers or general interest magazines or the TV news, NOT the in depth studies that you will get from what I consider real science sources. The sort of “science” that leads restaurants to offer such things as a hamburger patty sandwiched between two grilled chicken breasts, or a chicken breast between two hamburger patties. In the meantime, I’m trying to get a beef patty, plain, with two non-starchy vegetables. Oh, and I don’t want the veggies battered and deep fried, either. Fortunately, a lot of places serve broccoli, which I like, and I can have two servings of it.
Re: “regular coffee”, I would always take “regular” to be a specification of size and nothing else. In the old days, you’d get small, regular or large. Nowadays, regular seems to be the smallest size, so you have regular, large, and venti/bucket/whatever. But you still have to specify what tyupe of coffee you want. E.g., a regular white coffee, no sugar; or a large black coffee with two sugars.
LOOK ,I ASKED JUST ONCE, for a buttered roll.
I was young, I was confused, I didn’t know what direction I was going in.
One night, after running away from home, I was scared, I WAS
SCARED !
OK I asked for a roll, and then getting more confident I asked for a BUTTERED roll.
OK I know that I was wrong, but I wanted to experiment.
Now don’t throw that back in my face DAMN YOU !
The tradition of shorthand (shortspeak?) ordering of coffee in the NYC area is to use a descriptor like “regular” for “milk, 2 sugars” in conjunction with the size of the cup given as small, medium or large (typically 8, 12 and 16 oz. cups). You’d say “Buttered roll, medium coffee, regular” or something like that. Or the way I’d order it, “Large coffee, skim with one Splenda”. If you said “One regular coffee, please” the return question might be, “what size?”
The whole “tall, grande, venti” crapola at Starbucks still irritates a lot of people. (Why yes, I’m one of them.) It’s also made the ordering of coffee and whatnot a lot less uniform so all of this is, at least in part, talking about a bygone era.
Maybe I’m lucky, but I’ve never been in a Starbucks that hasn’t recognized small/medium/large when ordering. Only once or twice have I ordered “large coffee” and had the counter person come back and ask “what type?” Dammit, just give me coffee!
Other than that, 100% agree with robardin, including how he orders his coffee (or she/her, as the case may be).
I grew up in Connecticut, and we called it a “hard roll with butter”, but we got them most weekends, and sometimes for a treat before school. I never realized it was a regional thing. I have noticed they aren’t as common as they used to be.
I knew that “buttered rolls” was a regional thing, because all the rest of the country eats is donuts. Also, try to get coffee with milk outside of the Tri-state area…you can’t. It’s cream. Nasty. I did not realize that a “regular” coffee was a ny thing.
One of the reasons they refer to blue jeans as ‘dungarees’ is the predominance of Navy and merchant shipping ports here, dungaree was the original term for sailor’s pants. If you walk up to any US merchant marine, coast guard or navy veteran and say dungaree they will immediately think of their old working uniform.
mrAru probably has 40 or 50 pair of dungaree ‘jeans’ knocking around the farm, he bought a triwall of them at a DRMO auction once to have seomthing to wear around the farm that was durable and cheap.
I think robardin hits it here.
Big cities need street food that is fast and portable; people who accustom themselves to such foods think of them as a standard, even preferable way to eat. People who don’t live in big cities have more time and space to eat; the terms of street food are just constraints: *a buttered roll for breakfast? That’s all? *
Why would anyone put butter on a bagel?
If I can’t get cream cheese, I’d just as soon have it dry.
I disagree with **robardin **in only one respect - buttered rolls are not coffee cart only items. They are also available at delis/bodegas/corner stores (or whatever you call the place that sells non-prepackaged cold cuts, freshly-made sandwiches, coffee, lottery tickets,cigarettes and a small selection of groceries and household products). They’re almost like convenience stores, but not quite.
Eastern Connecticut - I can get one at the local 7-11. I have occasionally had one as breakfast which is so totally not good for me, it is like 2 days worth of carbs on one fairly bland package.
And I have been known to bring back a couple bags of weck when visiting my mom in western NY. I can and have made my own weck, but it is easier just to hit the Geneseeo Wegmans on the way out of town and pick them up, because I can also pick up some horseradish and sliced roast beef 
A buttered hard roll AND coffee. The coffee is an important part of a well balanced NY breakfast on the go.
‘regular’ coffee is also a thing here in Atlantic Canada. It’s usage is not as common as a ‘double-double’ but it’s definitely used here.
First of all, I would never order a buttered hard roll “to go” because it is too sloppy to eat anywhere except at home if you eat it properly. The only way to appreciate all the flavor is to dunk it in your coffee.
A true hard roll is only found within 100 miles of New York City. It resembles what is called a Kaiser roll in most of the country or a bulkie roll in New England, but it is firmer, has a slightly crisp crust, and a mildly sourdough taste. My favorite variety usually has poppy seeds on top, as well.
Most Mom & Pop stores in Bergen County, New Jersey, where I grew up sell hard rolls every weekend morning. You buy a half dozen or however many you want.
To butter the hard roll, you first slice it horizontally, then butter both the top and bottom halves, then stick the halves back together. You then cut the roll vertically, producing two half-moon shaped butter sandwiches. These are the perfect size to dunk in your cup of coffee. The roll soaks up the coffee like a sponge. When you bite into it, you get this indescribable amalgam of the roll, the butter, the poppy seeds, and the coffee, all together.
Since this tends to drip coffee, it is pretty messy to eat, which is why I always ate them only at home. They are the perfect compliment to a breakfast that also includes crumb cake.
Growing up, I thought everyone ate buttered hard rolls, but then I moved to Massachusetts, and then to California, and then to Texas, Wisconsin, and Florida. It is only a New York-New Jersey thing.
Q. Why would anyone put butter on a bagel?
A. When I lived in Florida, I couldn’t get hard rolls, but they did have very good bagels called Ray’s New York bagels, in Publix supermarkets.
So I treated them like hard rolls, buttered them, and dunked THEM in my coffee!
I hope you realize this conversation ended over 4 years ago.