What Is New York Pizza?

What is the big deal about New York Pizza? Why is New York considered the best place to get pizza? The recipe for pizza is pretty much the same everywhere right? Dough, tomato sauce and cheese is all you need. Throw in a couple of toppings and bam, you have a pizza. So what is the big deal about New York pizza? I spend my summers in South Carolina and I always had a craving for pizza but my uncles refused to take me to any pizzeria. All of us hailed from northern NJ but I had never eaten pizza outside of New York. According to them, pizza from anywhere but New York was horrible. A few years back I went to San Francisco with my husband and wanted to have some pizza. He quickly talked me out of it, telling me if I ate pizza in San Francisco it would turn me off of pizza for ever. I couldn't understand it. Pizza is pizza is what I though. What is so special about New York pizza and why is it considered the best? After finally getting my way and grabbing a slice of pizza out of state, I realize why New York pizza is the best. Although eating that pizza hasn't turned me off of pizza all together, it has turned me off from eating pizza anywhere else. I finally get why the best pizza is in New York.

For starters all New York pizza is wide and thin and can be folded. Folding the pizza is part of the fun. If you try to eat it without folding it, you are likely to burn yourself with the oil from the cheese as it drips off the end. It has a thin and crispy crust which comes from the dough being hand tossed. The dough itself is the key to the great pizza. Most of the Pizzerias in New York use high-gluten bread flour. Although most people believe the real secret behind the great tasting pizza crust is the water in New York. Yes, many people believe that the compound make up of New York tap water is the big secret behind the great tasting pizza. In fact people believe this so much that many out of state New York Style pizzerias actually order the water to be sent to their store so they can replicate the recipe. Sending water out of New York has been one of the ways that people all over the world can enjoy New York's pizza.

The ingredients play a big part in New York pizza. Unlike some places in other parts of the country that will use Ragu sauce and packaged cheese, New York pizzerias use only the freshest ingredients and they prepare them right in the restaurant. There is one restaurant in Brooklyn that roasts the red peppers right there in the oven. The mozzarella cheese is fresh and it is the full fat kind of cheese. To ask for any sort of low fat pizza is a sin in these places.

It took me a while before I fully appreciated the fact that New York does indeed have the best pizza anywhere. Once you have a taste of that Heaven, nothing will ever compare.