My vast legions of regular readers know that I'm a snob about pizza. As I said a few weeks ago, "To me, unless it's from New York, Chicago, or Naples, it's not really pizza." And I was just being nice about Chicago and Naples; I know they're sensitive.
But is it true, or am I overcome with romanticized fantasies? Is New York pizza really that different?
I was in New York last month and had the chance to find out. On our way to the airport with my brother, Murray, and 11-year-old nephew Harry, we stopped to visit the American Museum of Natural History. Murray and I had the same idea: We needed proper New York pizza.
There's no one best place for great pizza in New York. It's not like cheesecake or delis, where there are many good ones and a couple of places that are The Place. Great New York pizza is everywhere. We drove past a Sbarro's (sorry, real New Yorkers don't do chains). A couple of blocks east and we spotted a place that had the main marker: It looked ordinary. At first glance, it didn't even look like a pizza place. It did have one extraordinary feature: A parking place right in front. Clearly, God wanted us to have pizza here.
In New York, pizza is not made to order. You don't order a pizza. You get a slice. You choose from a range of pre-made pies and they toss your slice into the oven.
Pizza ovens in New York run at temperature of the sun. The crust is thin, which means it cooks fast. Even when not pre-made, a thin New York style pizza is done in less than two minutes. The ovens typically run at 750 to 900 degrees.
So, how did we do? I'll let the pictures tell the rest of the story:
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