Over the years, I have eaten just about every "New York" style pizza there is, and some are very good. I should point out very clearly that I have NOTHING against the coal/oil fired oven New York style pie (for that matter, Philly pizza is made in the same manner, and we can put a few good pies in front of you as well!). I've had the "real" Ray's (I think?), Totonno's, Lombardi's and many others less known. The one I usually end up in with the wife and kids is John's on Bleeker, which is light and well prepared. My post wasn't meant to be an indictment of pizza in the US at all. My mother was a Neapolitan trained pastry cook who came over in the late 50's, and I know first hand how recipes "morphed", due to the unavailability of ingredients, differing tastes, etc. The term coined by a chain restaurant not to be named by me is "immigrant Italian cooking", and like Tex-Mex and Americanized Chinese food, despite their less than authentic flavors, all certainly have their merits. I have, over the years, also tried numerous "wood burning" pizzas in various restaurants all over NYC. Some have been better than others, others I believe thought that the oven itself was going to somehow bridge the gap between the ordinary ingredients and lack of passion of the pizzaiolo. It didn't. In fact, I have to agree with a previous blogger that Il Pizzaiolo in Mt. Lebanon, near Pittsburgh, has gotten much closer than most. I don't want to be the little kid who tells the Emperor he's walking around in his underwear, and I'm sure I'll meet the same fate. But this pizza came with high recommendations, and was purported to be the real deal. Some of the reviews actually said it was better than the real deal. I'm here to say that it wasn't. Now, if it were 12.00, I'd go back and eat one again, because it wasn't a bad pie; in fact the waitress, who was a native Florentine, said to me (in Italian) that she had worse pizza in Florence. And I agreed with her, but that's not saying much either. There are countless good things to eat in Tuscany, but pizza is not one of them. At 21.00 (!), even the price gives the illusion of "I will charge what I must, but I will bring you to Naples at my restaurant". And it didn't. Again, the experience of eating pizza in Naples for the first time is one of those epiphanic moments, precisely because the food is so "familiar" that you are not prepared for how perfect it can be. You can't know how good real pizza is until you go there and taste. And I know that DaMichele has gotten popular with American foodies in the last few years, but there are a lot of good pizza places in Naples. DaMichele is right around the corner from the University, and there are plenty of days where I'd go there simply because it was cheaper than anywhere else. I am open to suggestions for good food anywhere, and pizza in particular, but please be careful with the use of superlatives.
