What's a Barnegat?

We went out to dinner last night with a lovely couple. H met the guy through work. His wife is a stay at home mom. I'm surprised when they mention that they have a son in college. Both look far too young for that.  Not in a weird artificially lifted sort of way. Just healthy and happy. Pretty typical around here - a good sign!

Ordering was a little difficult...mostly because there were about 10 things on the menu that looked appealing. We get great seafood - generally much better than back in Switzerland. Makes sense given how close we are to the coast.

When it came to the "Are there any questions on the menu?" part, I had a few. "What's a Barnegat?" I asked, a little timidly. The waiter came out with something that sounded like, "ohs'aplayse -Baerrrngtbeyatdaschrr."  I was as clueless as ever and had to ask him to repeat it about 3 times. He looked at me wide eyed (how could I not know what Barnegat is!) and came back with a couple of quick (and just as jumbled sounding) variations on the explanation. This isn't the first time this has happened - the Jersey accent isn't without its challenges.

Finally, the woman we were eating with came to my rescue with a hint: "It's really pretty - we go there every summer. The kids just love it there. The lighthouse is pretty famous." And then it registered - it wasn't some sort of fancy smoked bacon or local root vegetable I'd never heard of....but rather a place - one of the long skinny islands down at the Jersey shore.

Once that was settled, I went ahead and ordered the Barnegat Bay scallops - seems they have a good reputation. I wasn't let down - they were large and tender, perfectly cooked and anything but chewy...and the parsnip purée that came on the side was worth trying to repeat at home.
There’s no lack of interesting food around here! The people are friendly...and nearly everyone we’ve met loves to eat and cook, so we have at least a few things in common with them. I think we’ll be fine – just have to get a little swifter at deciphering the darn accent...