True NY

I owe a debt of gratitude to Joe Rosenthal for helping me to make true NY style pizza. Before one can make something, one has to know what one is making, and to make it well, one has to understand the details and nuances of said thing. Joe Rosenthal goes into detail about NY style pizza, what it is and how to make it, and he leaves no stone unturned. Thanks to his tips, procedures, and dough formulation I’ve been making excellent NY style pizza at home.

Here are two recent examples of my homemade NY style pies.

NY style pizza made in a typical home oven — plain cheese.
NY style pizza made in a typical home oven with homemade Italian sausage and sautéed mushrooms.

It’s the Culture

Why does NY City have the largest concentration of the most famous pizzerias anywhere outside of Italy? Why does NYC have so many fantastic pizzerias, compared to the rest of the country?

I have heard it said over and over, “It’s the water!” as though NYC water had some magical properties to it. But that myth is easy to debunk. If New York’s water were the secret to its great pizza, there would not be great pizza elsewhere, and we all know that is not true. Not only is there great pizza all over the USA (just not in the numbers NY has), but there’s also great pizza everywhere in the world—especially in the pizza capital of the world, Naples.

There are two reasons why NY has so many great pizzerias compared to other parts of the country. Continue reading “It’s the Culture”

Manhattan Copycats

I’m slowly becoming more and more enamored with simple foods. And I’ve discovered simple foods generally are created on a triune foundation. Three components that come together to make delicious magic. I want to elaborate on this more at some point and hope to write a full post about it in the future.

I found myself with the opportunity to spend a full day in Manhattan,  and I decided while I was there I would eat a couple of copycat items that are attempting to elevate themselves above their inspiration. I found a restaurant that’s making copycat Five Guys burgers, and one that’s making a copycat Chik-Fil-A sandwich.

Continue reading “Manhattan Copycats”