301867 Fri Apr 14 08:41:25 -0700 2006 6 27 General Chowhounding Topics 0 1685820 Nice article in the current issue of 'American Heritage' magazine on the history of pizza in America. See link below. -- Paul Link: http://www.americanheritage.com/articles/magazine/ah/2006/2/2006_2_30.shtml Image: http://www.americanheritage.com/assets/images/articles/magazine/ah/2006/2/2006_2_cover.jpg Fri Apr 14 08:41:25 -0700 2006 0 Paul Lukas 1 1685837 Thanks for the link. Back around 1956, before pizzerias had hit the small town I grew up in, I had a regular Saturday night ritual. A high school buddy would come over the to house, we would make pizza from the all-in-one kit pictured below, and devour it while watching "Have Gun, Will Travel" and "Gunsmoke" on the tube. I also have had pizza with Rheingold beer a few time. Image: http://www.americanheritage.com/assets/images/articles/magazine/ah/2006/2/2006_2_33.jpg Fri Apr 14 11:36:18 -0700 2006 1685820 0 Gary Soup 1 1685844 Paul: I know from previous threads that you have spent a good bit of time in Rhode Island getting acquainted with the local (often oddball) foods. Have you had the pleasure of gorging on cold, greasy pizza strips, which generations of RI children have loved? It would have been nice for the article to mention lesser known regional stuff like that (in addition to the obligatory Pizzeria Uno discussion). For the uninitiated, pizza strips are bread smeared with a thin veneer of sauce. No cheese -- making them a true link to the ancient pizza traditions. They are found at dozens of Italian bakeries in RI, and sometimes at convenience stores, on the counter near the cash register, in a greasy box, separated by greasy wax paper. Nothing tasted better after a hard day at school. When you go to a bakery to get some, the only choice you have to make is "Ends or middles?" Did I mention they are greasy? But boy are they good. Fri Apr 14 12:15:51 -0700 2006 1685820 0 Bob W. 1 1685873 "“The pizza could be as popular a snack as the hamburger if Americans only knew about it,” The New York Times lamented in 1947" Some Americans did. My Dad grew up in the Bronx, and for his gang, and all their contemporaries, pizza was the favorite snack. They called them quarters, he told me, because a big pie cost a quarter. What a shock he got when he arrived at his favorite place to be told that quarters now cost fifty cents! I went to law school in New Haven, so of course I had pizzas there, and in Naples too, but I'm still loyal to the New York coal-oven pie. Fri Apr 14 14:18:33 -0700 2006 1685820 0 Brian S 1 1685876 Thanks for the link. I plan to read the article on the way home tonight but as I browsed through it I noticed an accompanying article by Jon Mariani about "America's 10 Greatest Pizzas." He cites Naples 45 in New York's Met Life building. I want whatever Mariani is smoking - the Naples pizza is awful, worse than mall food court stuff. I worked in that bulding for 5 years and frequently we wound up ordering it for late work nights. It's flavorless stuff, almost as if it's made by people who have never actually eaten real pizza and were only working from pictures. The only reason we bought it was because it was hot and quick. We could go down and pick it up, avoiding the inevitable lukewarm and late delivery food. Since I left that job I've never once thought about eating that stuff again. Bleech! Fri Apr 14 15:18:52 -0700 2006 1685820 0 Bob Martinez 2 1685889 Do you like traditional Neapolitan pizza? I haven't been to Naples 45, but I've heard similar criticisms of the pizza at A16 in San Francisco, which is exactly like what you'd get in Naples, and quite diffrent from any of the various American styles. Link: http://lauriston.com/pizza.html Fri Apr 14 16:47:53 -0700 2006 1685876 0 Robert Lauriston 3 1686915 I've never been to Naples. The pizza at Otto in NYC is supposedly semi authentic, or what passes for Batali's take on it. It also has a cardboard crust, more like a flatbread than anything else. Very little flavor. It's authentically bad. Fri Apr 28 11:57:43 -0700 2006 1685889 0 Bob Martinez