Ah, well, we managed to do it again. We spent a weekend in NYC and failed to take pictures of most items of interest. Here are a few, though.
We checked out
Lombardi's Pizza in Little Italy. This was S's first time at Lombardi's. This place is so well known that I suspect it is derided in NYC as a tourist trap, but the pizza really is excellent. What makes it great-- as with all great pizza-- is the crust. It is nice and thin, but fluffy and chewy around the edge. It is made with nothing more than water, salt, flour and yeast. The trick, other than the simplicity, is that they use a coal fired oven that heats to about a thousand degrees. True neopolitan pizza is made from this sort of dough and cooked this rapidly, because the toppings should always be raw when the pie goes into the oven. The high temp cooks the toppings and makes the crust charred and chewy.
Pamela Sheldon Johns wrote the definitive
study. I'm sorry to see this book is now apparently out of print. I guess that is to be expected in a country that values its Papa Johns.
We fortuitously stumbled across two great espresso bars at just the right caffeine crisis points while we were in the city. Caffe Roma was a threadbare coffee and pastry place in Little Italy on Mulberry Street and was in a very elegant state of decay. Why do so many gringos like their establishments to be slick and new? Old is so nice. So was the espresso at Caffe Roma. Nutty, earthy, thick and rich with a wonderful caramel-colored crema. And do I even need to mention that it was in a REAL CUP... as in NOT PAPER? Are you listening Starbucks???? We were also pleasantly surprised that Chelsea Market housed a similar espresso bar with a barista nepolitana vera and identically perfect espresso. They also had a wonderful antipasti counter where we had a lunch composed of various verdure e paste.
And just so you know why I refer to her as The LOVELY S, here is a wonderful picture of my beloved across CPS from the old Plaza, in front of The Pond.
We checked out Lombardi's Pizza in Little Italy. This was S's first time at Lombardi's. This place is so well known that I suspect it is derided in NYC as a tourist trap, but the pizza really is excellent. What makes it great-- as with all great pizza-- is the crust. It is nice and thin, but fluffy and chewy around the edge. It is made with nothing more than water, salt, flour and yeast. The trick, other than the simplicity, is that they use a coal fired oven that heats to about a thousand degrees. True neopolitan pizza is made from this sort of dough and cooked this rapidly, because the toppings should always be raw when the pie goes into the oven. The high temp cooks the toppings and makes the crust charred and chewy. Pamela Sheldon Johns wrote the definitive study. I'm sorry to see this book is now apparently out of print. I guess that is to be expected in a country that values its Papa Johns.
We fortuitously stumbled across two great espresso bars at just the right caffeine crisis points while we were in the city. Caffe Roma was a threadbare coffee and pastry place in Little Italy on Mulberry Street and was in a very elegant state of decay. Why do so many gringos like their establishments to be slick and new? Old is so nice. So was the espresso at Caffe Roma. Nutty, earthy, thick and rich with a wonderful caramel-colored crema. And do I even need to mention that it was in a REAL CUP... as in NOT PAPER? Are you listening Starbucks???? We were also pleasantly surprised that Chelsea Market housed a similar espresso bar with a barista nepolitana vera and identically perfect espresso. They also had a wonderful antipasti counter where we had a lunch composed of various verdure e paste.
And just so you know why I refer to her as The LOVELY S, here is a wonderful picture of my beloved across CPS from the old Plaza, in front of The Pond.
1 comment:
How serendipitous...I found your blog, through Mel's, at just the time i was looking for a caz place to take my sister and nieces to eat in nyc during our trip in December. Perfecto suggestion for a quick, relaxed bite after a long and grueling day of shop til ya drop!
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