Foods that aren't nearly as good outside your metro area. (shop, moving)

[tmac9wr]

Originally Posted by Ohiogirl81

As do cities like Pittsburgh, and Cleveland, and Chicago, and Youngstown, and Steubenville, and Cincinnati, and Buffalo, and New Orleans, and Newport, Ky., and every steel and/or mining and/or manufacturing town in Pennsylvania with a population of more than 50, and Kansas City, and Detroit, and ...

Best Italian food I've ever had outside of my Italian grandmother's house was at a little dive in Steubenville.

Ok, I understand that point...I just don't see how that relates to my point about seafood. Italian heritages and seafood don't really connect in the way you were going for (at least how I interpreted what you were saying)...

A large group of Italians can leave New York and settle down in Chicago. A group of lobsters can't say "OMGZ I'm going to live with Spencer and Heidi in the hills!" and create a large community of Maine lobsters off the Southern California coast...the Italians can do that, but Lobsters can't...you can argue that each region of the country (at least the coastal parts) has great unique seafood because each region specializes in their own styles.

[eek]

everything.

[kidphilly]

Originally Posted by nyc2va76

As for cheesesteaks, You might want to try Jim's on South Street.

That pile of onions can be scary but good - esp around 2am - coupled with a slice of Lorenzos pizza and you are living

[TB Fla]

Originally Posted by carverR

No, pizza is just not the same outside of New York, New Jersey and Philly.
There plenty of New York style pizzerias in South Florida most established by New York expatriates and it still does not taste the same.
As fas bagels or bialys go, yes you can get them anywhere but
only in New York that taste as they should be. After all they were introduced in the City. Even Italians eateries outside of the area are simply not the same as there is hardly more vibrant Italian area than the tri-state. Same goes for Philly cheesteaks of course...

Do you know why the same exact food with the same exact ingredients still don't taste the same in places like South Florida as they do in NYC? Its the tap water used to make the food. Tap water is different everywhere. They say the tap in NYC has minerals that add a certain taste to the food made there. So a NYer who grew up on food made with that tap will go elsewhere and say the same pizza dosen't taste the same.

[WestbankNOLA]

Originally Posted by TB Fla

Do you know why the same exact food with the same exact ingredients still don't taste the same in places like South Florida as they do in NYC? Its the tap water used to make the food. Tap water is different everywhere. They say the tap in NYC has minerals that add a certain taste to the food made there. So a NYer who grew up on food made with that tap will go elsewhere and say the same pizza dosen't taste the same.

Good point
I've oftern heard people say this about the bread used for poboys in NOLA and cheesesteaks in Philly.

[grapico]

It costs $482.79 to get a decent pizza in San Francisco — $17 for the pie, $85 for cab fare, and $378.80 for the flight to New York. Throw in $1.99 for tinfoil.


"
"Californians do a lot of great stuff with their green-market goods," fellow pizza nerd Mario Batali says, but "some of it's just not pizza." I called the Iron Chef to help me figure out why San Francisco — a formidable food town — can't birth a respectable pie. Part of the reason, of course, is that while Rice-A-Roni and zinfandel are native to Northern California, pizza is not.
"New York has a grand tradition of pizza making and holds it dear," Batali says. Which means institutions like Arturo's have been using the same equipment for decades. "An oven captures the gestalt of beautifully cooked pizza. And it imparts that."
I'm not comfortable attributing a pizza's quality to gestalt — it sounds like something a California pizzeria would list as a topping. But Batali's theory makes sense to David Tisi, a food-development consultant who has spent much of his career studying pizza.
"As you cook, some ingredients vaporize, and these volatilized particles can attach themselves to the walls of the baking cavity," Tisi says. "The next time you use the oven, these bits get caught up in the convection currents and deposited on the food, which adds flavor." Over time, he says, more particles join the mix and mingle with the savory soot from burned wood or coal — the only fuels worth using — to create a flavor that you can't grow in a garden: gestalt, if you will.
That explains why the only San Francisco pizza I can tolerate is from Tommaso's, a restaurant whose wood-fired oven has been crackling since 1935. Still, there's something off with the crust.
"Water," Batali says. "Water is huge. It's probably one of California's biggest problems with pizza." Water binds the dough's few ingredients. Nearly every chemical reaction that produces flavor occurs in water, says Chris Loss, a food scientist with the Culinary Institute of America. "So, naturally, the minerals and chemicals in it will affect every aspect of the way something tastes."
Batali himself encounters the water problem at his upscale New York restaurant Del Posto, where he makes traditional Italian food. The tap water in Manhattan is far different from that of the motherland. His solution: create his own mineral-water composite. Working from a chemical analysis of l'acqua italiana, Batali's team basically clones the H2O that gives the food in Italy its — well, its gestalt. He plans to do this at Pizzeria Mozza in LA, but the joint's Italian-style pie is too lightweight for my taste. Which means I'm still waiting for some other enterprising chef to deliver my New York pizza fantasies to the Left Coast. Hint, hint.

[Rachael84]

Originally Posted by grapico

It costs $482.79 to get a decent pizza in San Francisco — $17 for the pie, $85 for cab fare, and $378.80 for the flight to New York. Throw in $1.99 for tinfoil.


"
"Californians do a lot of great stuff with their green-market goods," fellow pizza nerd Mario Batali says, but "some of it's just not pizza." I called the Iron Chef to help me figure out why San Francisco — a formidable food town — can't birth a respectable pie. Part of the reason, of course, is that while Rice-A-Roni and zinfandel are native to Northern California, pizza is not.
"New York has a grand tradition of pizza making and holds it dear," Batali says. Which means institutions like Arturo's have been using the same equipment for decades. "An oven captures the gestalt of beautifully cooked pizza. And it imparts that."
I'm not comfortable attributing a pizza's quality to gestalt — it sounds like something a California pizzeria would list as a topping. But Batali's theory makes sense to David Tisi, a food-development consultant who has spent much of his career studying pizza.
"As you cook, some ingredients vaporize, and these volatilized particles can attach themselves to the walls of the baking cavity," Tisi says. "The next time you use the oven, these bits get caught up in the convection currents and deposited on the food, which adds flavor." Over time, he says, more particles join the mix and mingle with the savory soot from burned wood or coal — the only fuels worth using — to create a flavor that you can't grow in a garden: gestalt, if you will.
That explains why the only San Francisco pizza I can tolerate is from Tommaso's, a restaurant whose wood-fired oven has been crackling since 1935. Still, there's something off with the crust.
"Water," Batali says. "Water is huge. It's probably one of California's biggest problems with pizza." Water binds the dough's few ingredients. Nearly every chemical reaction that produces flavor occurs in water, says Chris Loss, a food scientist with the Culinary Institute of America. "So, naturally, the minerals and chemicals in it will affect every aspect of the way something tastes."
Batali himself encounters the water problem at his upscale New York restaurant Del Posto, where he makes traditional Italian food. The tap water in Manhattan is far different from that of the motherland. His solution: create his own mineral-water composite. Working from a chemical analysis of l'acqua italiana, Batali's team basically clones the H2O that gives the food in Italy its — well, its gestalt. He plans to do this at Pizzeria Mozza in LA, but the joint's Italian-style pie is too lightweight for my taste. Which means I'm still waiting for some other enterprising chef to deliver my New York pizza fantasies to the Left Coast. Hint, hint.

lol that's an interesting way to put it.

[nycricanpapi]

Originally Posted by eek

everything.

I agree nothing can be compared with the type of food that can be found in NYC. The food outside of NYC taste so different.

[Ohiogirl81]

Originally Posted by tallydude02

I was wondering about that too.

Northeastern Ohio, southwestern Pennsylvania, and northern West Virginia have large Italian populations. Is their Italian food subpar because they are out of the northeast corridor?

I forgot about West Virginia ... and my grandfather's brother settled in Nitro when he emigrated from Italy. Apologies.

Originally Posted by tmac9wr

I just don't see how that relates to my point about seafood.

I wasn't talking about seafood ...

[LASam]

Originally Posted by eek

everything.

LOL, of course this would come from the NYC contingent. I don't know any other city on City-Data where the forumers have such a high self image. Must be nice!