when I get home from California

[yesthattom]

Yes, when I get home I want to have a wonderful romantic time with C, but the second most important thing will be to get my ass to a pizza joint* and get a god damn chicken parm sandwich then over to a Chinese restaurant and get east-coast style ANYTHING preferably Chicken with broccoli.

How do people in this damn state survive without either of these things??!?!?!?!?!

Footnote:
* -- Just to be clear: I mean a family owned, non-franchise, "New York Style" place. No Chicago style, Dominos or Pizza Hut, or fancy vegetables.

Comments

[dossy.livejournal.com]

I've thought about relocating to California ... but I've always come to the same conclusion:

It's a lovely area (beaches, woods, mountains, etc.) ... I just can't stand the people.

Living in NJ/NY really spoils you.

[cyan-blue.livejournal.com]

Oops, we forgot to point you towards Arinell's pizza, which occasionally hits the NY slice mark. But yeah... not much good pizza or bagels in this state. I run for the pizzeria when I am home, too.

[awfief.livejournal.com]

you obviously need to open up a New York style sub/pizza shop.

[dossy.livejournal.com]

The challenge will be transporting New York City tap water all the way to California.

I remember hearing years ago what I considered urban legend that the tap water from the northeast is what gives New York pizza its special properties. Even Slashfood linked to a bunch of related articles.

[rainbear.livejournal.com]

Challenge? This is why they have trucks designed to carry liquids.. ;-D


And I can't remember the name of the place, but a friend of mine moved to Atlanta years back, and said he found a pizza place down there, who's owners were from Jersey, that had water sent down from Newark every month.. given the sulfur content in southern water tables, I can completely see how the water can make a huge difference.. :)

[dossy.livejournal.com]

Given that additional cost of transporting the water ... were they still able to sell a slice for $1.00? That's part of the success formula, too, IMHO. :-)

[rainbear.livejournal.com]

Probably more like $3-4.. but it's Atlanta, a City, and decent pizza, so they can probably get away with it.

Hell, even up here, you're hard pressed to find decent pizza for $1.00 a slice.. ;-)

[dossy.livejournal.com]

Huh?! New York, it's a City, and well, New York pizza, and I think any pizzaria that tried to charge more than $1.50 a slice would get run out of town!

[rainbear.livejournal.com]

Ah... but in Atlanta, the "decent pizza" bit is rare.. ;-)

It's all about market ;-)

Vito's

[dballing.livejournal.com]

Vito's in Santa Clara is (I think) the name of the place I used to go when I was a displaced New Yorker working at Yahoo's old Santa Clara offices.

Re: Vito's

[figmo.livejournal.com]

Two other places to consider:

1. Pronto Pizza in Sunnyvale
2. Tony DiMaggio's in San Jose

The latter is worth the pilgrimage. A bunch of us expatriate east coasters used to shlep down to DiMaggio's frequently (it's on Monterey Hwy at Capitol Expwy) from Cupertino to savor their pizzas. Their strombolis also rock.

Re: Vito's

[kimuchi.livejournal.com]

Is DiMaggio's more of a take-out joint? I feel like I may have been there with my friend the New York-style pizza connoisseur.

Re: Vito's

[figmo.livejournal.com]

No. DiMaggio's has a take-out counter in the front and lots of seating, as well as two TVs. You order, and then they bring the food to your table. Somehow they also keep track of your tab from behind the counter.

[rmd.livejournal.com]

one of the things that very subtly weirded me out about seattle until i figured out what was going on was that hole-in-the-wall teriyaki and thai food joints fill the economic niche out there that hole-in-the-wall sub shops occupy out here.

[ljtourist.livejournal.com]

Yes! The only passable pizza out here that I've found is Pagliacci's, and then only if you eat in. They can't deliver a good pizza to save their lives.

But the situation you point out leads to the following local joke:

"Where's a good Thai place?"
"Just down the street from the coffee shop."
"Which coffee shop?"
"It doesn't matter."

[rmd.livejournal.com]

The only passable pizza out here that I've found is Pagliacci's

jet city pizza was really good when i was living out there. i got pizza from their kenmore branch a fair bit. (i was living in bothell)

HI TOM, WE'RE HIJACKING YOUR BLOG TO TALK ABOUT A TOTALLY DIFFERENT CITY.
to make up for it, i've just flashed the screen. hope you were looking.

[yesthattom.livejournal.com]

boobies!!!!

[ljtourist.livejournal.com]

I may have to try them, then. The pictures on their site don't look too promising, though. I'm also amused how they bill themselves as "Seattle based" yet have all their locations spread out around Seattle with only 1 inside city limits. There's not one close to downtown (where I live and work).

[kimuchi.livejournal.com]

Heh, I think it's a matter of what you're used to. What I missed most when I moved out here were:
1) gyros made with real gyro meat and real gyro bread (not kebabs in lavash bread or pita bread)
2) subs made on GOOD BREAD w/out fricking pickled peppers
3) good pizza with reasonable vegetables on it (I'm not picky about what part of the country my pizza claims to be from, as long as the crust is well executed and I can get some sort of veggie combination without the compulsory purple onion and artichoke heart)

I did eventually find 2 out of 3, but I also got used to the burritos and pho and whatnot instead.

In any case, I wish you'd said something sooner. One of my friends is the master of finding New York style pizza in the bay area; I don't really care so I don't remember any of his finds but I could've sent along recommendations. As far as small family-owned joints that can take care of your chicken parm needs goes, Gumba's in Sunnyvale and Lucia's in Redwood City could both make a solid attempt, I think.

I don't really know what distinguishes east-coast style Chinese so I can't tell you if I've had it out here.

[rainbear.livejournal.com]

Off to Alfredo's for the chicken parm and then to Main Star? ;-)

[yesthattom.livejournal.com]

Nunzios and Main Star :-)

[rainbear.livejournal.com]

*grin*

[stitchinthyme.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I never realized that some things were unique to the NY/NJ area until I moved away. It's been a struggle finding decent bagels, pizza, cheese steak, and subs anywhere else. The food is one of the few things I miss about NJ.

[yesthattom.livejournal.com]

Sing it, sistah!

[rainbear.livejournal.com]

Bagels: Next to impossible.

Unless they're from the NY area originally, it's like people have no clue how to make bagels. I was in Louisville not too long ago, and the bagels were like rolls. In other words: baked, not boiled/baked.

[stitchinthyme.livejournal.com]

We found some decent ones near our current home (Fairfax, VA). But yeah, most people around here think Einstein Bros. actually has real bagels. Not!

[rainbear.livejournal.com]

Oh hell. They don't even have real bagels *in NJ*! ;-)

[stitchinthyme.livejournal.com]

Better than most of the ones around here, or in Florida! They wouldn't know a decent bagel if it bit them on the ass. :-)

[rainbear.livejournal.com]

Back to the earlier thread of water.. the southern states have lots of sulfur in their water... makes for craptacular breads. :-/

(Or maybe the people who moved to FL from NY/NJ forgot how to make bagels? ;-) ) hehehe

[stitchinthyme.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I've heard that too. I did notice that it was also very hard (read: next to impossible) to find good bread in FL and that's the best theory I've heard as to why.

Bagels in Colorado

[mrfantasy.livejournal.com]

I hated how much they sucked. Doughy circles. I bet the high altitude didn't help out there. The best bagels were from a grocery store bakery, and those were merely adequate.

But yeah, I don't ever want to live outside of the Northeast again, and it's all about the food. I mean, the one thing I feel like is hard to find around here is good BBQ, and I don't eat much of that anyway, and even then I've been to one or two decent places.

[yesthattom.livejournal.com]

Yes they do. "The Bagel Dish" in Highland Park. (Gay-owned, by the way).

They taste so good, you'll think you're in Brooklyn.

[rainbear.livejournal.com]

Cool! (Though I was referring to the Einstein Bros chain.. ;-) )

I'll have to take a trip down to HP one of these days ;-)

[kimuchi.livejournal.com]

Einstein's out east is Noah's out here...and man. They're OK for what they are, but eating one is lik a day and a half's worth of simple carbs and definitely not a bagel.

Still it was worse in Japan -- once I bought a "bagel" that turned out to be some sort of soda bread.

[pyrzqxgl.livejournal.com]

How do people in this damn state survive without either of these things??!?!?!?!?!

Vegetarianism. :-)

[yesthattom.livejournal.com]

No thanks!

[gatopreto.livejournal.com]

We found a decent pizza place close to us in SF, though it's owned by Brazilians. Chinese take out as been so so and it has not been a big deal. I have seen some awful chicken and eggplant parm sandwiches with tomatoes on them. What I really miss is real bagels.

[stitchinthyme.livejournal.com]

Chicken parm sandwiches...oh, how I miss really good ones. Still haven't found any around here. And I said the same thing about bagels a few comments up. Definitely one of the things I missed before we found the bagel shop near our current home.

Cheese steaks, too. Most of the places around here call them "steak & cheese" -- when I see that, I don't even bother to order, because if you don't know what it's called, you probably don't know how to make one, either.

[kimuchi.livejournal.com]

Where are you located? There's a cheesesteak place on El Camino in Belmont or the south end of San Mateo that displaced east coasters tell me is pretty good (I've never had a cheesesteak in it's native environment, so I can't judge).

[stitchinthyme.livejournal.com]

I'm still on the east coast -- northern Virginia. At least it's close enough to get back to NJ without too much hassle on occasion.

[worthyadvisor.livejournal.com]

You're very right about the Pizza problem in California (although, I'd also offer Boston's north end for good Pizza, seeing as I've rarely been to NJ and was in upstate NY which is pretty much like western Mass.) But I will say that what California lacks in the pizza department is more than made up for by taquerias and asian food!

[qnetter]

Pizza? Absolutely.

Chinese food? Hm. I can hardly stand to eat at a Chinese restaurant in NY or NJ after moving West -- everything seems light years better to me out here (whether "here" is the Bay Area or Seattle).

[sfo2lhr.livejournal.com]

You NY/NJ people are nuts!

Everyone knows the best pizza is arugula and tasso sausage with cilantro pesto on cornmeal crust! (á la the old Ruby's on Third St., SF)

Much better than canned tomato sauce, supermarket mozzarella, and Kraft oregano, which is what NY pizza seems to be made of...

(Heh.)

[figmo.livejournal.com]

The best NY/NJ pizzas are made, as yesthattom said, at little "mom and pop" joints with that great "Mafioso" crust that has that chewiness and elasticity the California crusts lack.

A good east coast pizza doesn't need arugula and tasso sausage or cilantro pesto. Granted, the pizza you mentioned sounds tasty and wonderful, but it's not what I crave when I crave "pizza."

[yesthattom.livejournal.com]

Ugh! I seriously considered blocking this post!

ARUGULA ON PIZZA??? HEATHEN!

[rainbear.livejournal.com]

*Mobster voice:ON*

Arrugula. It's a veg-e-ta-ble.

*Mobster voice:OFF*

(Who gets the reference.. it's easy! ;-D )

[mrfantasy.livejournal.com]

You can take the boy out of Jersey . . .

[figmo.livejournal.com]

Your comment about pizza places reminds me of the dialog I always have when I visit my mother in NJ.

Mom: "What do you want to eat?"

Me: "Pizza."

Mom: "Do you want it from Pizza Hut, Papa John's, or is the little place next to the Shop-Rite okay?"

Me: "You have to ask?"

[cos]

This reminds me of the first strip in the K Chronicles book Fear of a Black Marker - which is about the author's trip to California and his rant about what is and is not pizza. Unfortunately, I can't find that comic online.