JosephB

Excellent idea Katie. A head-to-head comparison of the two Lombardi's. Just for the sake of comparison, make sure you order one tomato and mozzarella.

OK McDuff, if you're within striking distance of NYC, you have to invite me over for some pizza making in that oven. I'll supply the ingredients. OK, the wood too. I'm 40 miles southwest of Boston, about 30 miles north of Providence and 23 miles east of Worcester. 95 north to 495 north, and you're here. Or 84 to I-90. (It's been a long time since I've been to Nuevo York.) There's nothing quite like tending the fire all day, then stepping down the back steps with the pizza on the peel, and three minutes later bringing it in the house. I made 21 pizzas in it one day. I have room for 7 in the mini van. I hear that Boston is lovely in May.

I just saw beautiful softshell crabs at Citarella on the UWS for $5.99 each.

I have the utmost respect for Peter Reinhart when it comes to bread. When it comes to pizzas or bagels, though, he is not in a New York state of mind. There may be a handful of exceptions, but typical NY Vulcan Pizza is: 1. A relatively lean if not completely lean dough. 2. Made from high protein bread flour. I'll bet my life on it. You are right, of course, about the recipe used in New York pizzerias (and in Italy), but my point was to say that in a home oven with a stone insert and common ingredients, the recipe from The Baker's Apprentice gave me the closest thing to New York pizza crust I have ever made, and I have tried many, many times,always with lean recipes. I can get bread flour and have "authentic" recipes, but I'm not in New York, with that great New York water (my favorite!), and I don't have a restaurant-type oven, so I have to work with what I have. FYI, Reinhart considers his Neo-Neapolitan dough recipe (American Pie) to be representative of the classic NY-Style pizza.

Are any of you Renhart fans using his Neapolitan or Neo-Neapolitan dough recipes from his book, American Pie ? If so, what do you think? Or has he published these same recipes in his other books?

OK McDuff, if you're within striking distance of NYC, you have to invite me over for some pizza making in that oven. I'll supply the ingredients. OK, the wood too.

Don't know about pH paper, but I saw rennet yesterday at my local health food store. Dang, I was hoping to join in on this plan, but judging from the forecasts I've been hearing I suspect I'm going to have to be in the garden, desperately trying to catch up. Weren't for that I'd be volunteering to bring the rennet; but I can't imagine you'll have any trouble finding it in town. You're near Fairway, aren't you? bet you they would have it. Near Fairway? Now how did you know that?

I need to find rennet and pH paper for this project. There's no time to order them on the internet. Where do you think I can find these items in town? Thanks.

Lombardi's 32 Spring Street NYC (212) 941-7994 Saturday, April 17, 2004 1:30 pm Please confirm that you will be joining us: SarahD Bergerka slkinsey JosephB Pan Blondie

Rich, Thanks for sending me to this thread. OK, where should we stay so that we can hit a superb BBQ and Mexican place on the same day (lunch - dinner). I'd like to keep the driving in the narrow range. Should we get a hotel in Ft. Worth instead of Dallas for the one night we're there? Thank you.

That would be great. Pictures are very helpful. I wanted to use this recipe, but we're going to try something a little less ambitious first. Here, except that we're going to do one batch with raw milk.

Darn! I forgot that you were away next weekend. Don't worry, we'll do it again - projects like this require several sessions to perfect the product. Did I mention that I'm getting raw, grass-fed milk from PA to make the mozz? Should be good.

County Line seems to be on a lot of lists. Thanks for the tip.

Thanks Russ. Any thoughts on Dallas? We're there for one full day and night on Sat., 5/1 - lunch and dinner.

I hope you Texans can help me out. My wife and I will be in Lubbock on Sunday, May 2, 2004, just for the day. Can someone recommend a good place for lunch. We're looking for something characteristic of the area. Thank you kindly.

We're planning a mozzarella-making session on next Sunday(4/18) at my place. Anyone interested?

Hi Southwesterners. I recently discovered Pizzeria Bianco in Peter Reinhart's American Pie. Reinhart mentions that Chris Bianco teaches pizza making classes. Has anyone out there tried one of his classes?

Monica, Your story is inspiring. Thank you.

Some of you may be interested, as I was, to know the law with respect to coal-fired ovens in NY. After a small bit of research, I found that § 27-848.04 of the NYC Admin Code. (Building Code) requires that all applications for the installation of fireplace and stove equipment must comport with the City’s Air Pollution Control Code, which prohibits at Admin. Code § 24-173 the use by any person of solid fuel in fuel burning equipment, except that solid fuel in the form of anthracite coal (bituminous coal is absolutely prohibited) can be used for fueling boilers in existence on or before May, 1968. This certainly explains why no new coal ovens can be built in NYC, but doesn’t explain how the existing coal-fired pizza ovens became grandfathered. The statute permits coal to be burned in coal-fired boilers existing before 1968, but says nothing about coal-fired ovens – a pizza oven is not a boiler. Suffice to say that there must be some administrative decision somewhere which allowed Grimaldi’s and the others to revive the old coal ovens they found.

Maybe by "one seating" they mean that they're not turning over any tables. So at 5:30 they're seating 4 tables, at 6:30 4 more tables will be seated, and so on.

This time of the year a 5:30 pm reservation is like a late lunch. Don't forget your shades. How can it be that there's only one seating when you were offered 5:30? Can't be.

Brian. I'm delighted that the NYC Pizza Survey was so helpful to you, and that you enjoyed Grimaldi's. Maybe you can coordinate your next trip to coincide with one of our future outings. That would be great fun.

Word has it that Ed Levine ("New York Eats") has a new book on pizza coming out in the fall. The title will be, A Slice of Heaven: A Pizza Companion (Rizzoli) Look here.

Pizza Today recently did a nice piece on Patsy Grimaldi. Here. I had no idea that Patsy sold Grimaldi's in Brooklyn 2 years ago. He apparently still has an interest in the store in Hoboken. His partner is Sean McHugh. Patsy claims that the oven contributes 80% to the quality of the pizza. 50% comes from the dough. OK, at 71 Patsy's math skills can be forgiven.

Ah, so they won't be open on Sunday. OK. I'll swing by tonight and brave the madhouse. Thanks again Blovi.