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I’ve never had bomb Italian noodles in NYC. The reason why is I am not a foodie and I have not time to just try tons of subpar places trying to find what is best.
If you go to Whole Foods or Trader Joes, and make it at home, it’s basically good enough as far as I know. Plus a $8 bottle of red and toast some garlic bread. At home.
Don’t get me wrong, I am not cheap either because I appreciate nice experiences. But I am not going to experiment and spend $2,000 worth of restaurant receipts just to find some diamond in the rough.
A bowl of noodles, pasta sauce, piece of nice cheese and bottle of wine should be $30 grocery bill for two people at home. That includes maybe a few specialty ingredients from an Italian market:
Noodles. Hoagies. Where are you a transplant from Bad Water? No NY'er uses those terms.
I love Pio Pio, and the Peruvian chicken places I've tried elsewhere have simply not compared. The Matador combo there is always my go to.
I will say that, living in Honolulu, the pizza is only average at best, but it's not one of those things that I truly crave for to make much of a difference, though every now and then I do get a real craving for a good slice.
For me--and acknowledging that I can get this elsewhere, too, but I write about it here as I grew up eating it in NYC--I've been longing for good West African, good Indian, and a nice hero/sub. Those are some things that I try to find whenever I'm back on the mainland, and particularly back in NYC.
True story, went to Peru many years ago to explore, imagine my surprise when I didn’t find anything that resembled Pio Pio type chicken /green sauce there. Food there didn’t blow me away, but the ceviche I had in a restaurant by the beach was insane.
When I moved to NJ, the one thing I was sad about was pizza. Since, I’ve been blown away by the quality here. With the migration of people comes migration of food and quality.
Where, and have you found equivalent Italian bakeries? I moved to Jersey for a year in the late nineties, and I couldn't take the food/lack of availability, so I moved to the Island.
I know that things have improved since then...
***
To the OP's point: I now live in the Charlotte area, where the food scene is poor: it sucks, especially when compared to smaller Greenville SC.
I miss:
- Real pickles
- Charbroiled diner burgers
- Smoked pork fried rice; most areas outside of NYC metro don't smoke the pork.
- Italian bakeries
- The mozzarella in the South is substandard: flavorless/oily. My favorite pizza was Gino's in Howard Beach.
Where, and have you found equivalent Italian bakeries? I moved to Jersey for a year in the late nineties, and I couldn't take the food/lack of availability, so I moved to the Island.
I know that things have improved since then...
***
To the OP's point: I now live in the Charlotte area, where the food scene is poor: it sucks, especially when compared to smaller Greenville SC.
I miss:
- Real pickles
- Charbroiled diner burgers
- Smoked pork fried rice; most areas outside of NYC metro don't smoke the pork.
- Italian bakeries
- The mozzarella in the South is substandard: flavorless/oily. My favorite pizza was Gino's in Howard Beach.
- I also miss real delicatessens.
Gino is better than New Park? I’m gonna go this weeekend to try.
Where, and have you found equivalent Italian bakeries? I moved to Jersey for a year in the late nineties, and I couldn't take the food/lack of availability, so I moved to the Island.
I know that things have improved since then...
***
To the OP's point: I now live in the Charlotte area, where the food scene is poor: it sucks, especially when compared to smaller Greenville SC.
I miss:
- Real pickles
- Charbroiled diner burgers
- Smoked pork fried rice; most areas outside of NYC metro don't smoke the pork.
- Italian bakeries
- The mozzarella in the South is substandard: flavorless/oily. My favorite pizza was Gino's in Howard Beach.
- I also miss real delicatessens.
Calandra's bakery in Fairfield, NJ rivals any that I have ever been to. Absolutely top notch bread, rolls, and pastries. Makes sense as it is the highest % Italian town in the nation.
Spot on. NYC pizza is trash for the most part. How can it be good when Mexicans and Albanians mostly make the pizza? Nothing against Mexicans and Albanians but Imagine Italians making Mexican or Chinese food? Would anyone even pretend that it’s be “great”? Pizza is better in NJ, CT, and even LI.
Due to cost of labor and rent, restaurant /takeout food in NYC has become mostly trash unless you’re willing to fork over a hefty premium for some of the better restaurants.
There are a few niche cuisines that NYC is still superior in only because they’re not around in any meaningful way anywhere else in the US.
There are a number of Italian owned places I eat at where the head chef may be Italian, but he has Mexicans or other Latinos working under him. If the ingredients are of quality and they are trained properly, they can make a quality product just like any of us Italians can. I eat a lot of pizza and there are a few places owned by Italians, but where they train Latinos and the product is just as good as when the owner makes it. In other words, very few places are run with just Italians, unless they are able to hire them direct from Italy. Only a handful of such places and even then the entire staff will not be Italian. That said, I have eaten at some good Italian restaurants and pizzerias here with the owner being from Italy or being Italian-American and trained in Italy, but as good as they are, they still cannot compare to what you get in Italy, simply because of how much has to be imported from there and some things grown there are just better because of the climate, soil, etc. You can get quality here, but you will pay much more here.
There are a number of Italian owned places I eat at where the head chef may be Italian, but he has Mexicans or other Latinos working under him. If the ingredients are of quality and they are trained properly, they can make a quality product just like any of us Italians can. I eat a lot of pizza and there are a few places owned by Italians but where they train Latinos and the product is just as good as when the owner makes it. In other words, very few places are run with just Italians, unless they are able to hire them direct from Italy. Only a handful of such places and even then the entire staff will not be Italian. That said, I have eaten at some good Italian restaurants and pizzerias here with the owner being from Italy or being Italian-American and trained in Italy, but as good as they are, they still cannot compare to what you get in Italy, simply because of how much has to be imported from there and some things grown there are just better because of the climate, soil, etc. You can get quality here, but you will pay much more here.
Try New park .
Always was a Italian crew of 4- 5 people behind the counter
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No NY'er uses those terms.
