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NYC Slice

elkue.com

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Re: NYC Slice

#301
post #102
post #94

I'm not a New Yorker, but a New York food person I follow has a small rant about how people obsess about the best NYC slice, but that the real point of NYC pizza is that it's available everywhere in the city, like that you are never far from a good NYC slice --- so that the idea of seeking out particular slices kind of misses the point. NYC'ers: how bad is that take? (None of this is to say that it's illegitimate for…

Honestly, a solid take! It’s more of an optimization problem — find the best balance of quality, proximity, and price, and you’ve got your favorite slice shop. If you’re at a friend’s or a loved one’s, that solution changes, and you begin to associate the flavor of that slice with them and their home. Sometimes it’s worth it to make a trip out to one of the pizza Meccas—Lucali, Joe’s on Carmine, L&B Spumoni Gardens,…

I really think another good thing about NYC pizza is that they aren't trying to make NYC pizza. They're just trying to make the best pizza possible.

Re: NYC Slice

#302
post #15

Many who grow up in the NY area grow up on pizza. In childhood, it's often eaten as a quick meal that doesn't require cooking. In adolescence, pizza is one of the only foods you can afford to eat out with your friends after school. In college, there's nothing like a drunken slice of pizza at 1 am. It's hard to overstate what a satisfying comfort food pizza is. There's truly nothing like it.

> Many who grow up in the NY area grow up on pizza. Average pizza slice that we're discussing is according to https://www.nutritionix.com/i/nutritionix/new-york-style-piz... 500+ calories, lots of saturated fat, lots of sodium. How healthy is it to grow up on pizza?

100g of salted mozzarella has 300 calories, saturated fat, and sodium. Ultimately, pizza is basically 3 ingredients: bread, tomato sauce, and mozzarella. Most people don’t consider those individual ingredients particularly unhealthy.

Re: NYC Slice

#303

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed. A good pizza is $20 retail, $8-12 at home. I think the pizza problem is two-fold. Like Jewish Delis, ethnic Italians are exiting the business and selling the local shops. Instead of working 60 hours a week in the shop, the kids are mortgage brokers and IT guys. The other issue is that manufactured pizza components are better and cheaper. You can be a lower skill operator and still churn out a mediocre product…

> Like Jewish Delis, ethnic Italians are exiting the business and selling the local shops. that was the problem a generation ago. The new problem is that very few customers now know what good pizza should/could taste like, they're not very "Italian" any more either.

Maybe regional, but most of the mom & pop pizza shop families around me are Albanian. The pizza is great.

Re: NYC Slice

#304

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even the late Anythony Bourdain could espouse on the greatness of an "objectively terrible" Wafflehouse meal. There's a time and place for everything, and even the snobbiest of us food snobs can appreciate the time and place for the likes of Little Ceasars, Costco Pizza, Wafflehouse, et al.

Little Ceasars is worse a in that it’s a bad pizza that gets worse over time. It sort of tastes like nothing until it cools, at which point it tastes like cardboard.

It's absolutely inedible the next day as well. Next day cold pizza for breakfast is the shit, but Little Caesars turns into cardboard and slime.

Re: NYC Slice

#305

> but the overall quality of your average slice in the city has definitely suffered This is true of the big national chains, too. They've kept prices relatively stable for damn near 25 years, at this point, but quality has gotten far worse over that same time span. That mouth-watering Pizza Hut pie you remember from 1992 isn't all nostalgia—every now and then I find single-location or small-chain joints that make piz…

[deleted]

Re: NYC Slice

#306

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Arsicault is also about three times the price of a croissant in Paris

Everything in SF is about three times the price of Paris ...

I live in a cheap flyover country city and our "good" croissants are also about 3x Parisian prices... but aren't good.

Re: NYC Slice

#307
post #218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I 100% agree, and I've only visited NYC a couple times. Each time I visit, I try to eat at least one slice of pizza and one bagel every day. The thing that blows me away is how generally good they are, no matter where I buy them. Of course I'll look at reviews, but I won't walk more than 5 blocks to get a slice. Never been disappointed. Same thing visiting Paris - you can hunt for the BEST croissant, but the remarkab…

Has any NYC bagel aficionado living in Boston tried Bagelsaurus? (In Porter Square, on Mass. Ave.) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xup2Lcd4Ers

The line is consistently out the door, so they have to be doing something right!

Re: NYC Slice

#308

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I genuinely feel bad for you. I really enjoy Little Caesar's (and most pizza.)

The ideal place to be is knowing when pizza is bad, but still being able to enjoy bad pizza. That kinda goes for most things, really.

No, the ideal place is knowing when pizza is bad and not getting bad pizza.

Re: NYC Slice

#309

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No Fini and No Razza (NJ) L'Industrie is the best ny slice in NYC (possibly the world?) as of 2023 IMO

I live close to l’industrie and am both happy for massimo and bummed for myself that it’s gotten so popular. I miss being able to get a slice without waiting in line for a super long time, but I agree, maybe the top slice in the city.

i live near it also, i remember going in when it was the little shop and you could just get a slice without the loudspeakers. the pizza has gotten a bit better since then too, and they didnt serve sandwitches back then

Re: NYC Slice

#310
post #90

Native New Yorker here. Out of towners are obsessed with the BEST slice, but the true measure of NYC's 45 degree greatness is the decent quality following a Poisson distribution. My tip: just travel to any random spot in the five boroughs. First; you will be impressed how close you are to a pizza spot wherever you are. Second: you will be impressed with the slice, and with the variety of people who are good at making…

I 100% agree, and I've only visited NYC a couple times. Each time I visit, I try to eat at least one slice of pizza and one bagel every day. The thing that blows me away is how generally good they are, no matter where I buy them. Of course I'll look at reviews, but I won't walk more than 5 blocks to get a slice. Never been disappointed. Same thing visiting Paris - you can hunt for the BEST croissant, but the remarkab…

Just want to say you took the words out of my mouth on this one. I was given the exact same advice re: Parisian croissants, and I feel exactly the same way about Arsicault in SF. I’d I’ve never had a better one in the US, let alone SF.

Note to others: Arsicault is worth the visit if you’re in SF! Also don’t be a sucker and wait in line for an hour on a Saturday morning. Just go at like 11am on a Tuesday and walk right in.

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