Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Location: The western periphery of Terra Australis
24,544 posts, read 56,043,908 times
Reputation: 11862
Advertisements
Quote:
Originally Posted by MD2LAFTW
Italian food is bland. But for this topic, probably Philly.
Bland? Interesting...I think stereotypical Italian food is a bit like Mexican, based a lot around a few ingredients. In this case cheese and tomato dominate.
Count me among those who don't find NYC Italian food Number 1. I've eaten my way through South Philly, Boston's North End and Providence's Federal Hill. In terms of quality, all excellent (though Providence's scene is smaller). I've also eaten some great meals in suburban North Jersey. I'd say a case could be made for any of those, and I'd challenge anyone who says there is a clear and definitive winner. Ultimately, I believe your poll will be driven by homerism, so I wouldn't put a lot of stock in the outcome.
As for the others, the couple times I've been in Newark proper, I've taken advantage of their great Portuguese restaurants - probably the best in the country. On the same token, when in Chicago, I tend to enjoy beef or fine dining. Only spent a few hours in Cleveland so no data. Finally, although smaller neighborhoods in size, I've also had some fine Italian meals in the Little Italy's of Baltimore and Wilmington.
Not real Italian food. There are too many people out there who believe that "real" Italian food is grocery store spaghetti and ragu sauce or Olive Garden chicken alfredo.
Italian food varies by region. What you find in Sicily will be VERY different than what you find in Milan. Most real Italian restaurants emphasize cuisine from a single region or even city. The reason I feel Italian food is so good (and anything but bland) is because, regarless of the region, the dishes emphasize fresh, simple ingredients and produce excellent flavor. Even a simple Caprese Salad (Buffalo mozzarella, tomato, basil, olive oil and salt) is incredibly flavorful if the ingredients are fresh.
Location: The western periphery of Terra Australis
24,544 posts, read 56,043,908 times
Reputation: 11862
Quote:
Originally Posted by lrfox
Not real Italian food. There are too many people out there who believe that "real" Italian food is grocery store spaghetti and ragu sauce or Olive Garden chicken alfredo.
Italian food varies by region. What you find in Sicily will be VERY different than what you find in Milan. Most real Italian restaurants emphasize cuisine from a single region or even city. The reason I feel Italian food is so good (and anything but bland) is because, regarless of the region, the dishes emphasize fresh, simple ingredients and produce excellent flavor. Even a simple Caprese Salad (Buffalo mozzarella, tomato, basil, olive oil and salt) is incredibly flavorful if the ingredients are fresh.
I think fresh ingredients are undervalued - that is changing now, though.
A simple dish with fresh ingredients is far better than some try-hard dish with lots of bad ingredients.
I mean....I don't really know. Number of Italian restaurants/volume, almost certainly #1....but is it undisputed champ for quality, too?
Well, there is some very good Italian food in NYC, but a great many of the Italian restaurants you come across in the city are run by Albanians, and are often mediocre. And pretty much everyplace in Little Italy is tourist garbage at this point, if that's not common knowledge.
There are good places here and there, and certainly a lot of excellent upscale Italian places, BUT there are excellent upscale Italian restaurants in lots of cities, and I personally don't think that comparing upscale places in one city vs another city is an especially valid way to determine "which city has better food", because you're just comparing chefs, and not local cuisine, if you know what I mean.
IMO your best bet for legit Italian inside of NYC is in Staten Island, which is still something of an Italian stronghold, having the highest percentage of Italian American residents of any county in the United States.
But trying to pick "the best" food is always going to be a dubious & highly subjective task at best.
Bland? Interesting...I think stereotypical Italian food is a bit like Mexican, based a lot around a few ingredients. In this case cheese and tomato dominate.
The stereotypical Italian food ("red sauce") in the US supposed to be based off Sicilian? It's certainly not much Northern Italian.
One of the hallmarks that a cuisine has been accepted is the very well-developed Americanized form (in the case of "red sauce" Italian -- the whole iconic spaghetti and meatballs, lasagna, parmigiana thing, been pretty much made into an image for the past century). Those versions of overseas cuisine that have been Americanized (same with stuff like Mexican and Chinese etc.) are often described as "bland" or "inauthentic" by some people who like to mention how "not close" to the "real thing it is" (though by that point, it's a cuisine of its own and not meant to be "the real thing back home" -- and who's to say whatever's "back home" too hasn't changed in the decades since Ellis Island closed).
I'd actually vote the suburbs of NYC and Staten Island.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
