Pizza

Hi New Haven,
I'm thinking that you're talking about pizza that we get here, just from different types of restaurants,..not what they eat in their home countries,..the two are very different.
Here in the Northeastern US, the most common differences I've noticed are:
1. The crust, in the "Italian" restaurants the crust is very thin, somewhat crisp and commonly will "bubble up" through the topping. The crust in the "Greek" restaurants is "spongy", not so thin, a bit oily and crunchy.
2. The "Greek" places use a tomato sauce, wher the "Italian" places use seasoned tomatoes (usually canned).
3. The "Greek" places put their toppings on first, under the cheese.
the "Italian" places put the toppings on top of the cheese.

These are just some observations.

Sounds about right to me, Jerry!

Actually, Greek pizza is the same as American pizza (the last a hit in German deep frozen food!): alternative copies of the original pizza ( > pezzo , italian: piece) from Campanio in the Italian province Latio.

Because I rarely have pizza I cant remember but, I think the two also use different cheeses...as in combinations or amounts of combinations...yes, here in the NE at least.

We don't have Greek pizza here, tho we do have a pizza with 'greek' toppings.

I suspect most of us are eating American pizza, since 'proper' Italian pizza is much simpler than most North Americans would touch.

That's right Beth. Actually italians developed pizza after we did (so I was told by the italian relatives). Nowadays you can get a crispy thin bit of olive oiled bread with either tomatoes or tomato paste with various topings in italy.

My Sicilian neighbours make 'pizza' by making an olive-oily dough, rubbing it with more olive oil and garlic and putting tomato chunks on top quite sparingly. Then they either bake or bbq it. That's it, that's all.

Most of the family is quite disparaging about 'American' pizza, though the Nona sometimes asks me to pick her up a slice of Mediterrean topping pizza at Pizza Pizza.

hmmmmmmmm, do you still have Pizzeria Uno's in the U.S. We lost our last one here about 5 years ago. I kinda miss it.

More of the history of pizza:

http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Flats/5353/pizza/links.html

I guess the italians just meant pizza-american-style then.

We still have pizzeria unos Beth. We have one a few blocks from my house. i don't much care for them.

I've never seen an advertisment for Greek Pizza.

Is Chicago-style considered Italian pizza?

Here in the Bay Area we have a California version of Uno (there are Unos here as well), called Pizz'a Chicago. They serve up a deep dish pie much like Unos, but with a lighter crust than the leaden stuff that Unos puts out.

Anyone ever eaten at Due? Gino's? Giordano's?

Pizza is critical here in NYC. It's available from $1.50 a slice to $30.00 for a whole pizza. We must have a pizza store or restaurant every two blocks.

New Haven:

If you live in New Haven, CT-- there is supposed to be a famous pizza place there---do you know it? I lost track of the name.

I live in Boston. Good pizza.

Should have added that NYCity has the best of all kinds of foods. I lived there for 3 years and I never starved

New Haven:

Loved the food in Boston and in fact I really enjoy Boston...great city.

I love NY!

Best foodie location in the U.S. is the San Francisco Bay Area. NY is a close second.

Even the oldest living pizzaiolo (pizzabaker) in Napoli says that olive-oil in the dough is a no-no, since olive-oil is heatsensitive and could turn rancid in the extreme heat of a woodfired pizzaoven. He uses either sesame oil, or corn oil, since they both have very high smoke points, and are taste- and odorless. The olive oil is drizzled on the freshly baked pizza.

Apparently the first pizza in Napoli was the Pizza Margeritha, made by the pizzaioli to celebrate Quenn Margeritha. It was made with fresh tomatoslices, Mozzarella, and basil leaves, thus showing the italian tricolore!

My favorite pizza is our pizza, of course! Favorite topping is tuna and onions, some hot pepperoncini oil on that, and I'm in pizza heaven!