I knew I liked you Thraeg
But performative food snobbery is what gets me out of bed in the morning. Take your forum food-fight snobbery elsewhere cretin!
You can find Neapolitan Pizza in NYC. Probably not in Michigan, Columbus, Milwaukee, Denver or Jacksonville.
It’s there in the title, man: Let Us Argue About Food.
I actually had real fully authentic Neapolitan pizza for lunch today, delivered to my office. Not the best Neapolitan pizza in NYC, that would probably be Una Pizza Napoletana or Motorino, but excellent nonetheless.
I don’t think it’s food snobbery to say “this thing should not be called this.” I enjoy Chicago deep dish. It’s pretty damn delicious and filling. Bravo to anyone else that enjoys it.
It just isn’t pizza.
I have the same feelings about mashed cauliflower or veggie burger patties. They taste good on their own. I’ve literally ordered them by preference on occaision when the real deal was available. For the love of God, stop saying they taste just like mashed potatoes or hamburger. They don’t. No amount of wishful thinking is going to change that, and you’re doing a disservice to the food when first-time eaters get turned off by them not tasting like whatever you keep insisting they resemble. Let them stand on their own merits.
I mean my food snobbery for pizza is purely a personal preference. I’ll eat other styles, but deep dish is my preferred.
I stand by my statement that wide swaths of the country have shit pizza though. Seriously, South Dakota, get your act together.
However when the New York knuckleheads go on with their ‘soup’ nonsense? Not having that. Fine, you want to fold your sorry pizza, be my guest. But you decide to declare that NYC style is the One True Pizza, I will go to war for that.
Like California style like @Matt_W describes? I’ve had it, I even enjoy it. Pineapple on pizza? No hate there. White sauce? That’s getting pretty close to where I draw the line, but that’s because almost all white sauces are disgusting to me and I find them inedible. I may prefer a sausage and onion deep dish, all things being equal, but I will indulge otherwise.
But the sycophants from the New York and nearby regions go too far with their inferior pies. I don’t care if you like it, but when you declare it to be the end all? No, hell no.
It’s more pizza than pizza bagels are, or the California concoction of Matt.
It’s pizza.
Hey, no argument from me on bagels, pockets, or SoCal garbage.
Sorry, can’t hear you, too busy enjoying the awesome flavor combinations people can come up with when they aren’t fighting a holy war to keep infidels out of their little regional clubhouse.
For the record that’s half Eddie Gaedel (Gulf shrimp, garlic, red onions, capers, fresh dill), half Wrigley Field (Pesto sauce, feta cheese, teriyaki chicken, roasted garlic, sundried tomatoes) from Pizz’a Chicago in San Jose, and it’s sublime.
The best pizza is whatever you can make for yourself at home to eat right now. Just take an extra minute to pre-toast the crust with olive oil and herbs in a home oven, to boost flavor and reduce chances of bread soggies.
That bit of leftover Italian bread, with jar pasta sauce, garlic powder, the last slice of smoked turkey, a couple of rings of an onion, a sprinkle of oregano, and string cheese. That is the best pizza ever, right now.
A bit of homemade dough, with olive oil, tomato puree with red peppers, basil pesto, Italian seasoning mix, some sliced black olives, a bit of turkey bacon, and shredded colbyjack. Best pizza in the world.
Hey man, I’m the guy who was upthread rhapsodizing about pizza with turkey and yogurt and potatoes on it. That pizza looks awesome. What’s great about regional cuisine fights is that we Californians can just stand above it all because we win by default. There are more of us, ergo more people prefer our eclectic cuisine.
I’m getting the sense that you don’t even use ethically sourced prosciutto on your pizza…
That looks great. Maybe a tad heavy on the sundried tomatoes on the Wrigley Field side. Maybe it’s just me but too many get kind of off-putting in flavor since the drying also concentrates the sweetness of them. I’m probably strange, though.
When are we shifting from pizza to hot dog topping choices in the discussion?
Well, then I stand by Mr. Lightyear’s assessment.
Definitions are descriptive, not prescriptive, and if a bunch of people over a wide area and time call something pizza, then by definition they’re right. I learned that lesson as a teenager railing against when people started using “beanie” to mean stocking caps instead of this:
Ha, great image.
But: Boston. Yeah. It’s pretty shameful. Lots of places claim to serve NY style pizza… but don’t. The best sorta-thin-crust type I’ve had in the region is, well, Papa Gino’s. Sad.
Admittedly I don’t get down to the North End very often, so there may be a couple of legitimate restaurants, but you’re not supposed to eat pizza in a restaurant, anyway, you’re supposed to take it home from a pizzeria. And the majority of so-called pizzerias in the region are Greek. They make fine grinders and other grill food, but their pizza is very strange.
I must admit that I like California’s Round Table chain. That pizza is unlike any other that I’m aware of, and may not really be proper pizza at all, but still, something about it works for me.
I’ve never heard anyone use “beanie” to describe this:
I’ve never heard anyone use any word to describe that kind with the long tail because I’ve never seen one in person. Talking about this kind, which I wore on many a camping trip as a kid.
Everyone I knew called it a “stocking cap” until some time in the mid '90s when the usage started shifting to calling it a “beanie”. I got all indignant and argued with them because “beanie” already referred to the propeller hat, and it would be confusing to have the same word mean two totally different kinds of hats. Then I got over it because who fucking cares, nobody was changing their mind, the people using it that way had as much right to their usage as I did, the meaning was clear from context, and nobody appointed me guardian of the English language anyway.
The people fighting against decades of established usage to try and enforce their narrow conception of what “pizza” has to mean are doing exactly the same thing, but without the excuse of being 13 years old.
I would have called that a toboggan as a kid. Yes, like the sled. Technically the ones with the frilly ball on top were toboggans. Then I went up north and they would call that a toque.