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Old 07-22-2012, 09:43 PM
 
12,973 posts, read 15,716,760 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ScoopLV View Post
The thing about Italian food is that there really is no such thing. What we now consider "Italy" was up until very recently a hodgepodge of city-states, non-Italian colonies and kingdoms. San Marino, for instance, never embraced the "nation state" and continues to be an anachronism. While there is considerable national unity, their food is still very much regional.

Which is why I wonder why I meet Americans who tell me that they're "Italian." They don't speak Italian. (And don't even say "capiche" correctly. Furthermore, it's "Capisci?" or "Capisco.") They don't know squat about the food -- other than Italian-American food. And they've eschewed the traditional hyper-local food culture for this "abbondanza" thing.

Honestly, I have no idea what to make of it. I find it peculiar to say the least. People I know with names like Charlie Kreuzenheimer don't go around telling people that they're German. But Charlie Bonano? Fuhgeddaboutit. And for some reason, they think that because their great-great-great grandparents left Sicily in 1903, that "food runs in their blood." Some of the most wretched meals I've ever had to politely eat have been from the "I'm Italian, so I know food" crowd.
It is amazing how you can use so many words to disguise the fact that we agree.

My first wife's family was in the business. FIL was an Italian butcher. Uncle was a baker who had a brick oven in his home which was shut down by the City of NY in the 70s. Continued to sell baked goods for a commercial Italian bakery. Grandmother spend 45 years as a restaurant cook. Blue eyed blond 200 lbs overweight. But worked into her 70s.

I am a little curious as to what creds it is you claim on Italian cooking?
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Old 07-23-2012, 03:12 AM
 
Location: Sunrise
10,865 posts, read 16,920,499 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by lvoc View Post

I am a little curious as to what creds it is you claim on Italian cooking?
I've lived there. I speak a little Italian. Enough to get by in a kitchen. I'm a professional cook. Italian food is my focus, although that's not what I'm currently doing professionally. When I leave Las Vegas, I'm going to open an Italian restaurant -- that does things the way they do in Italy. Buy the freshest, closest ingredients and do as little to them as possible.

The Las Vegas Italian restaurants that import the Rialto fish market every week simply aren't Italian. Sure, they're cooking Italian food with Italian ingredients. But they've thrown the philosophy of Italian cuisine right out the window. Nobody in Venice would buy produce that came anywhere but the Veneto. They aren't shipping much Parma ham down to Syracusa.

They make the best with what they've got. That's why their food became so good in the first place.
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Old 07-23-2012, 12:06 PM
 
12,973 posts, read 15,716,760 times
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Great answer. I do happen to like real Italian cooking though I have been brainwashed to the northern Italian variety. But when you open your restaurant I will be there if it is on my travel path...
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Old 07-24-2012, 10:07 AM
 
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Ive been to Italy several times. Ive had tourist trap pizza sold from a cart outside of tourist attractions that was vastly overpriced that was better than some of the top marketed stuff in the states. Best pizza I ever had was in a town I stopped at off the beaten path. Italians arent known for their universal knowledge of English like the Dutch for example, so once I left Sorrento there was no English. Walk into a pizzería, no English menu which is a good sign. I just point to a pizza and out comes a pizza with nothing but cheese, red sauce topped with just onions. Onions. An onion pizza. It was the best pizza Ive ever had and I still dream about it and wonder if I could find it again if I had to.

Talking to some locals and doing some research, I learned that the food is good in Italy because of the volcanic soil and mediterranean climate. Its quality over quantity so buffalo mozzarella is treated right from the beginning. Tomatoes are picked when ripe and only shipped a few miles, not when green and pumped with ethylene like here. Eggs are free range as a rule not as an exception to be marketed to the "crunchy" crowd. etc.
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Old 07-24-2012, 10:32 AM
 
Location: Sunrise
10,865 posts, read 16,920,499 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by demoknite View Post
An onion pizza. It was the best pizza Ive ever had and I still dream about it and wonder if I could find it again if I had to.

Talking to some locals and doing some research, I learned that the food is good in Italy because of the volcanic soil and mediterranean climate. Its quality over quantity so buffalo mozzarella is treated right from the beginning. Tomatoes are picked when ripe and only shipped a few miles, not when green and pumped with ethylene like here. Eggs are free range as a rule not as an exception to be marketed to the "crunchy" crowd. etc.
1) You don't need to find that exact pizzeria again. Every town in Italy has a place like that. No tourists, just locals, a brick oven that is 200 years old or even older, and the best pizza in the world. Which is why I'm puzzled when people tell me they went to Italy and didn't find good pizza. The answer must be that either a) These people have been eating Hot Pockets their entire lives and wouldn't know good food if it jumped in their mouths; or b) These people didn't venture more than 100 feet away from a tourist zone.

2) If I've harped on anything consistently here on C-D, it's BUY LOCAL. Buy from Gilcrease. Buy from Bar-10. Buy from the farmer's market. Grow as much of your own as possible. Not for the savings (although that's nice), not for the health benefits (but that's nice, too), but because you only get a limited number of meals in your lifetime. MAKE THEM COUNT.

When someone loads groceries into their trunk, they have irrevocably decided on the quality of their future meals. I don't see the point to having anything but the best -- it tastes better and usually COSTS LESS. (Or costs around the same amount of money.) But that means going to five or six different markets on a regular basis. Sure, Walmart is convenient. But the food is mediocre at best.
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Old 07-24-2012, 10:45 AM
 
Location: Vegas
233 posts, read 495,864 times
Reputation: 229
I grew up in Central Florida and everyone had an orange tree or grape fruit tree of some sort in their yard and to this day I can't eat oranges from the store lol. I have a tree in our back yard here and only one orange blossom made it past all that wind this spring and I can't wait till till its ripe! haha

As far as going to farmers markets and places I'm one of those people that walk and have no clue what to get to make things lol... Keep going back and hoping I'll figure it out one of these days!
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Old 09-16-2012, 11:20 PM
 
Location: Viva Las Vegas
487 posts, read 743,697 times
Reputation: 317
I hope I'm doing the right thing in booking a table for 10+ at Metro Pizza on Tropicana
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Old 10-03-2012, 08:39 AM
 
Location: Orange County/Las Vegas
2,492 posts, read 2,707,250 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by aitchem View Post
I hope I'm doing the right thing in booking a table for 10+ at Metro Pizza on Tropicana
The pictures I saw on Yelp of the pizza at Metro look pretty good.

How did it taste?

I'm on a pizza search in Las Vegas so far no winners.

I have tried Biaggio's and it is not bad.
Also Napoli Pizza which I didn' think was that great.
Rosati's Pizza is close to me. Has anyone tried the pizza there?
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Old 10-03-2012, 12:39 PM
 
654 posts, read 1,317,543 times
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A number of people have recommended Grimaldi's, so I just got around to trying it last night.

Meh.

It's not like it was bad, mind you, it just didn't inspire in any way. Crust was fairly decent but not great. Sauce was uninspiring & toppings were just OK. I'd just as soon go to Metro, although their pizza's a little more greasy.

The search continues ... next on the list, I guess, is New York Pizza & Pasta. Then BJ's.
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Old 10-03-2012, 01:57 PM
 
3,598 posts, read 4,929,055 times
Reputation: 3169
Quote:
Originally Posted by delgadobb View Post
A number of people have recommended Grimaldi's, so I just got around to trying it last night.

Meh.

It's not like it was bad, mind you, it just didn't inspire in any way. Crust was fairly decent but not great. Sauce was uninspiring & toppings were just OK. I'd just as soon go to Metro, although their pizza's a little more greasy.

The search continues ... next on the list, I guess, is New York Pizza & Pasta. Then BJ's.
Agree on Grimaldi's. Not bad, per se, but not amazing. For amazing, you have to go to Settebello's on Green Valley Ranch by Whole Foods.
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