Does any 4-mile stretch of the United States have a better mix of food from more Spanish-speaking countries than Bergenline Avenue in Union City, West New York and North Bergen?

On assignment to write a story for the August “Food” issue of New Jersey Monthly (www.njmonthly.com), we went to North Hudson and surveyed a two-block radius centering on the corner of Bergenline and 43rd Street in Union City.

We counted one Mexican restaurant, one Peruvian, two Salvadoran, three Colombian, five Cuban, two generically Latino rotisserie chicken joints, a live poultry market with a line to the street weekend mornings, the Armenian-Lebanese Los Angeles Café serving arroz con pollo and gyros, plus a big Hispanic supermarket, three bodegas, two bakeries and a pizzeria.

That’s just for starters: the local phone book lists no less than 178 restaurants with Spanish names. Taco Bells don’t count.

For hyper-concentrated pan-Latin gastronomic diversity, Bergenline and vicinity is hard to beat.

It began in the mid-1960s when refugees from Castro’s Cuba opened restaurants. Then starting in the 1980s people from other parts of the Spanish-speaking world moved in, and opened restaurants featuring their own distinctive cuisines.

We loved palomilla steak at a traditional family-oriented Cuban joint. We stuffed ourselves with a Colombian paisa platter (beef, pork, pork rind, fried ripe plantains, two eggs, red beans, rice, chorizo, avocado, and corn bread). Other highlights: mole poblano from Mexico, Salvadoran pupusas, Peruvuian parihuela seafood soup, Venezuelan arepas and a Chilean chacarero sandwich.

We also ate at upscale restaurants including an Argentinean chimichuri grill, a Madrid-inspired tapas bar and a chic waterfront Nuevo Latino bistro.

We have trying to work off the weight gain since.

We name all the restaurants in the August issue of New Jersey Monthly (www.njmonthly.com). It’s your guide to buena comida.