Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

You can send the wife and kids around the corner on Coney Island Avenue to The Orchard, which is probably the best fruit store in the City (better than anything in Manhattan), and that should kill 30-45 minutes or so. There are two good bakeries between The Orchard and Dom's as well, which might burn another 15 minutes.

I ate at Co. for the first time last week, and I must say that I was a bit disappointed. I thought that the pizza was indeed very good, although I didn't enjoy it as much as I enjoy the much more simple pizza sold at the Sullivan Street Bakery. It reminded me quite a bit of the style of Mozza, although definitely superior to it. Very good, while not reaching greatness.

What was disappointing to me though was the ambiance of the restaurant, which I think is run rather thoughtlessly and without graciousness. Those dining at Co. are divided neatly into to groups: 1) those that are friends or family of Jim or his investors; and 2) everybody else. Preference is very clearly alotted to Group #1, who who walk right past those waiting in line for their reserved tables, and are otherwise treated with great favor and courtesy. Those of us in Group #2 are left to wait in line, get treated coldly, and allowed to watch the show. I didn't care for this aspect of the restaurant at all, and is probably the main reason that, while I will probably return some day, I am in no great rush. Lahey is a great cook, but perhaps not a very good restauranteur.

American's should realize what is going on here, and that this is not something to celebrate as being in the best interest of pizza or pizza lovers. The Associazione is nothing but a trade group of medoiocre pizza makers trying to restrict competition and protect their turf from superior competitors through bureacratic regulations administered from Brussels. It is an outrage that a tourist trap like Brandi (you will hear more German and Japanese spoken there than Italian) should be in a position to tell true artisans such as Da Michaele (which does not comply with the new Rules but serves a vastly better product) and others what they can call their pizza. In fact, its really an outrage that Italy has reached the low point of abdicating its sovereignty to Europe in allowing bureacrats in Brussels to dictate how pizza -- or anything -- can be made in Naples.

Pop Burger is in my opinion exceptionally poor. Instead of being troubled to cook you fresh burgers when you place your order, they instead pre-cook them, and throw them back onto the grill to reheat. The result is an overcooked and tastless hockey puck. The other slider place that engages in this practice, and ruins their burgers as a result, is Burke in the Box at Bloomingdales (is that place even still there). In any case, both of these places are amongst the worst in the City and give mini-burgers a bad name.

The frozen durians we get in the United States -- both whole and boxed -- are the merest shadow of the fresh fruit, particularly the more highly processed durian in the clear plastic boxes. They will give you a sense of what the fresh fruit is like, but no more than that. Many of the odor notes are entirely lost, and the pungency and taste in general are highly muted. Since part of the fresh durian experience is the extreme strength of these factors, you will of course not get this. Try it, but don't let your experience convince you, one way or the other, whether you like it or not.

Hopefully, irradiated fresh durians -- along with Thai mangoes and mongosteens -- might soon be allowed past the food police in the U.S., and we will be able to get the real thing here.

I'm sure that the gelato is fine, but it seems to me more than a little sad that the food situation in this town has gotten so bad that people will wait on line, and get so excited, over gelato made from a mix (as per the NYT article, nothing is made on premises, but the mix is shipped from Italy pre-made). For me, this is the real story behind Grom. Its a new low, not a new high. A victory for happy mediocrity.

If anybody wants to support a real artisinal -- or at least something approaching it -- product, the guy selling gelato in Chelsea Market actually makes the stuff himself.

I absolutely do not care, and shame on Land O' Lakes for joining in the anti-science demagoguery. There is no rational basis which has -- or can be -- stated by anybody against cloned foods. No scientific evidence whatsoever exists to prove or suggest that such food would be harmful, and the speculative musings of Luddites should not be confused with scientific proof. Such anti-cloning, sentiments are based not upon intellectual examination, but upon subjective aesthetic preferences. People are of course entitled to whatever aesthetic preferences they have, but neither anti-cloning, vegetarianism, or any other subjective aesthetic preference should be imposed on the public at large, particularly as these preferences will have the necessary affect of increasing human suffering and starvation.

Cloning stands to revolutionize food production by greatly increasing the quantity of agricultural products. This is a serious threat to the established agro-industrial order, which Land O' Lakes and their ilk are looking to protect. I have no interest in allowing Land O' Lakes and the dairy interests to keep the price of dairy products artificially high, with the massive barriers they have created to insulate themselves from compeitition (do you realize that there are goverment imposed floors on milk prices in the United States to protect these interests?). Land O' Lakes move is just a cynical attempt to keep the present dairy oligopoly intact.

I also want to point out that the ersatz John's franchisees at other locations -- like in Times Square -- serve horrible meatballs. Don't order them there. Other than the pizza, which is somewhat similar, the food at the non-Bleecker Jonh's is completely different than is served at the Bleecker location.

I'm glad that Ed made special mention of Haagen Dazs, and left out Ben & Jerry's. In my opinion, the former is a rare example of a large worldwide brand which maintains high standards (a la Hellman's Mayonaise) as it did when it was still a small business. Ben & Jerry's, in contrast, is a brand which has long ago gone the way of most large brands and become an industrial product of inferior quality.

If one doubts this, there are two simple ways to put it to the test. The fun way is to get a pint of each in Vanilla, and taste them. Most people are able to discern the differences between these two brands quite easily. The other way is to read the ingredient list on the two pints. Haagen Dazs is made with more or less the same stuff you would use to make ice cream in your own home -- if you wanted to go through the bother. Ben & Jerry's on the other hand, consistently includes gums and thickeners, which no doubt make it easier to make and distribute, but lead to a far inferior mouthfeel and consistency. Perhaps the secret to the sucess of Ben & Jerry's is that they mix in lots of candy, and there are few flavors where you can really taste the ice cream. When you think about it, B&J is really more candy than ice cream. Some of the best Haagen Dazs flavors on the other hand, Vanilla, Coffee, Mango, Peaches & Cream, etc., involve no such tricks, and the ice cream is the star. This is espcially laudable of Haagen Dazs, as govenment interference in the dairy industry has led to spiralling milk costs, and as a result, its a lot cheaper to fill up a pint container with candy and cookies (which include lots of cheap corn syrup, starches, and such) than with ice cream.

As for the list, I will nominate Chinatown Ice Cream Factory for addition. Some of the flavors can be a bit artificial, but others are superb, including their Coconut, Banana, and a very interesting Avocado.

I had to register to reply to the comment that De Marco is 90% as good as Di Fara -- a statement which I cannot comprehend or relate to on any level at all.

Di Fara could easily be the finest pizza -- slice or not -- available anywhere on earth, and certainly has no equal on this Continent. Domenic is a true artisan, and takes immense pride in his product. De Marco on the other hand, is nothing but an attempt by his kids to palm off their father's lifetime achievements and reputation, and sell a horribly inferior product based upon the aura created by him. The De Marco kids seem entirely unashamed to serve garbage food, made with little or no care, and served with little or no pride. Unlike every other pizza place in town without a pizza maestro to learn from, these guys have no excuse. They know how to make a quality product, but don't care to bother to do so. There is nothing sadder in this world than unfulfilled potential, and De Marco is the absolute personification of it.

I agree wholeheartedly with Ed's inclusion of Sullivan Street Bakery, but believe it should be higher on the list (#2). Sullivan Street serves a very high quality product in the true Roman style, which was totally unique in New York when they started. I do find it frustrating however, that they treat the pizza as something of an afterthought vis a vis the larger bakery operation they have, and do not take any efforts to serve their pizza warm. It would be nice if they could focus a bit more on the pizza, and took care to serve it at its best.

My only other quarrel with the list is that being a "10 Best" list, it necessarily includes 10 stores. It is an unfortunate reality that there are no longer 10 places in this City which serve a good slice of pizza, and the list is necessarily over inclusive. The pizza in this town -- like many food genres -- has become completely miserable over the years, and New York can no longer meet the burden of filling 10 spots on such a list.