In most of the United States, the sloppy Joe sandwich is a lunchroom staple, consisting of skillet-cooked ground meat, usually beef, spicy tomato sauce or tomato paste, and bread or a bun. Sometimes greasy and oversweet, the sloppy Joe has been served in school cafeterias for years. Certainly, when one considers the commercially available versions of the sandwich, this is what comes to mind; the manwich, for example, which is seasoned beef and sauce in a can, ready to be heated and poured over the bread.
Ideally, though, the meat in the sloppy Joe is both sweet and spicy At the same time, and is heavily sauted to give the sauce thickness, And far from the cold, greasy monstrosity served to school kids. It has become, in some more fashionable delis, an experiment in bringing Diners back to their youth with combinations that go well beyond tomato Paste and beef. One possible selection, for example, is pork in tomato Sauce with ginger, garlic, and chili sauce. With cheddar cheese and on a freshly baked Kaiser roll, topped with fresh spices, it is a far cry from something on a hamburger roll served by a lady in a hairnet.
In New Jersey, however, the sloppy Joe is...