Awesome image courtesy of Astronomy Photo of the Day:
As usual, click the picture to embiggen. Click here to read scientific goodness about what you’re looking at. Looking at this makes me wish I was right there, with a big slice of thin, street-vendor pizza folded in my hand and the warm summer evening in front of me. Yeah, that’d be good, the sort of scene that would make me feel young and full of possibilities. Hell, in that kind of mood, I probably wouldn’t even gripe about the humidity…
I can’t recreate the sunset for you… well maybe I can in photoshop. 🙂 – but I can get you as close to NY style pizza pie as humanly possible in SLC – Este… we need to go, soon.
cheno
Start surfing for cheap airfare for the next NYC “equinox” because I don’t know how long the FREE guest room, a mere ~10 miles from this spot, is going to be vacant. I would recommend the early date. Before last week the humidity wasn’t too bad but this week it’s in the unbelievable range. If you weren’t sweating like a dog, you’d think that you wouldn’t need to ever drink anything, just inhale and hope the condensation in your lungs doesn’t drown you.
Cheno, you’re on, just name the time.
Keith, that just sounds… icky. I think I was there in June when I visited NY ten years ago, and it was pretty bad then. I don’t know how the natives deal with it, let alone we transplanted desert-dwellers…
Natives, huh? OK, a few things:
1) The picture appears to be ~34th Street and ~Park Avenue, which puts it within a half mile of where I’m currently sitting.
2) I have noticed that Manhattan has appeared sunnier lately (the other day, I actually had to shield my eyes as I walked West because the sun was so bright.
3) I don’t know what SLC – Este is, and I’ve never been to Utah, but I can say with some certainty that the “NY style pizza” is nothing more than an slandering of the term “pizza.”
Just for that, I’m going to head out & have a slice RIGHT NOW (it’s 1pm, and I haven’t eaten lunch yet – can you tell?)
Brian, Este is a restaurant here in Salt Lake City (SLC) that supposedly offers the closest to what you New Yorkers would define as “pizza” that you’re going to get way out here in our desert outpost. Most of our local pizza places favor a thick crust and piles of toppings, more akin to Chicago deep-dish. But there are a few shops around that carry something you’d probably acknowledge as belonging to the pizza family… 🙂
Brian,
Accoring to the Este gang, their pizza according to native New Yorkers rivals or excels over the best NY has to offer. Pretty high claim but with no one else to compare it to here in Utah, I’d have to take their word for it.
mike
Cheno, I think the crew at Nevole’s might object to your saying there’s “no one else to compare it to.” They do the NY style, too, and the owner is a former New Yorker…
I’ll let you judge for yourself. I’ve had both and felt Nevole’s was a step above Costco pizza (which isn’t bad at all, mind you…) but it felt, “commercial” to me.
Eh, to each his own. I’m always willing to try new places, and there’s room in my heart (stomach?) for lots of different varieties…
Now, see – if he said “it’s the closest we can come given what we have to work with,” I’d believe him. When he says “rivals or excels over the best in New York,” he’s obviously lying.
I think he’s counting on none of his customers ever actually coming to NYC and trying the pizza…
Cheno, I don’t think we can win this one. In my experience, there’s no convincing New Yorkers that any pizza west of the Hudson even deserves the name. 🙂
It must be in the water… like someone from the south saying grits cooked down there are better… maybe it’s Hudson water that’s used to make the dough.. taste of death, old cars, money, oil.. things that we could only tap the Jordan river here in SLC for 🙂
Brian,
In all honesty, Dave, the owner of Este claims to have had actual flesh and blood New Yorkers eat his pizza here and claim great things. I may have to send you a pie – it will still taste good after a few days. That to me was a sign of eternal pie.
Actually, now that you mention it, I have some friends from Philadelphia (Philly is as particular about its cheesesteaks as New Yorkers are about our pizza) who claim that what makes a Philadelphia cheeksesteak great is the Amaroso rolls, which you can’t make anywhere else, because the water in the Delaware valley produces a certain taste in the bread.
Applying that theory, it wouldn’t surprise me if the New York water affected the pizza.
More likely, though, it’s the other ingedients. I have had good pizza outside of New York, but usually it’s of the “good as a food, but not the same as pizza” variety. New York Pizzeria’s make their crust with a mix of spices that I haven’t found elsewhere, and the thickness/consistency of the crust & cheese seem to be unique.
If Dave wants to send me a pizza, I’m happy to try it out and blog about the results. For him, it would be guaranteed exposure to thous…er…hundr…ok, dozens of people (many of whom will never visit Utah). But still, there’s pizza honor at stake here.
Drop me an e-mail (brian@familygreenberg.com) and I’ll send you my address…
Ooh, a challenge! This is getting interesting… Cheno?
I think the challenge is on then. My reputation as well as Este 🙂
If it’s okay with Dave and he agrees, (I’d even front the cost of the pie if necessary, but I think he’ll be up for the challenge as well) I’m going to document the making of the pie and create a short film about it. This should be loads of fun. I’ll get you an email off today.
cheno
Men. You all scare me. 🙂