if the water had anything to do with it, then all NYC pizzas would be crap. The water in NYC (and most other big US cities) is more a chemical experiment than what is known to the rest of the world as H2O.
Difference? Historically there have been many Italians in that area and they have build up a tradition for the NYC pizza (compared to real Italian pizzes, these are still not that good).
Fresh green asparagus wrapped in bacon an cooked on the grill until the bacon is crisp.
A one of my girlfriends birthdays I was in charge of baking the cakes. At some point where I should have grabbed the container with sugar, I accidentally picked the one with finegrained salt. I was in a hurry so I didn't even notice it before it was waaaay to late and the cake was ready to be served. Luckily I had a lot of cookies and candy to replace the inedible cakes.
I disagree with the water theory. The best pizza I have had outside of NYC was in North Carolina - two brothers who moved down from the bronx to open up a place. It's how you make it as well as the ingredients.
It may help those engaged in this melee to know that there is no one "NYC" water. Upper Manhattan and the Bronx get it from one source and reservoir system. Manhattan south of 110th St or so (I'm not sure where the boundary line is exactly) get it largely untreated from the Delaware River and southern Catskills through a different reservoir system. Brooklyn and Queens get it from another source, and I don't know where Staten Island gets theirs from. As many have pointed out, you can get good pizza from places other than the lower 2/3 of Manhattan and outside NY City. I'm sure there is water so bad that you can't make good pizza from it, but it's clear that you can do fine with lots of different kinds of water. For what it's worth, Phoenix gets its water from the Colorado River, the source of a lot of Southern California's water. The City of L.A. gets theirs from the Owens Valley, east of the Sierras.
Slightly OT...but when I was in NYC for my first wedding anniversary 10 years ago, I had a pretzel from a street vendor that I could swear tasted like smog. Not exactly a good thing, not exactly a bad thing...but distinct and unforgettable. So I don't know if you can rule the water thing out...though I agree that bad pizza is probably due more to user error than bad water. =)
h2o? maybe-I think it's a northeast us thing: I've traveled all over the US and there's nothing like NY/NJ/PA ( I live in Central PA) pizza. California pizza just doesn't have the sauce flavor or the great foldable crust.
benlee: FYI-San Fran's great sourdough is from a decades-old starter, but there are also specific cultures/spores present in the air out there. They've even been named for the city!
i'd say it's the italians.
that and all the tough customers in ny.
FYI, NYC water now is way different than it was when I was a kid growing up in the Bronx. There's way more chlorine now and it just doesn't taste as good.
As I've been saying online for 4 years, the water thing is 100% myth. I get emails about this several times a week. According to Maggie Glazer, the myth that baked goods are better in NY because of the water goes all the way back to the 1700's when in the rest of the country people used well water and not municipal tap water. Half the time this wasn't too far from the latrine. In other words the original comparison was comparing NY water, which comes from a pretty good aquifer system upstate, to other systems that would be comparable to what the 3rd world uses today. This rumor says more about how rumors and 'common knowledge' are passed down through the ages than anything about your local water system's shortcomings today. As anyone who's read my recipe (http://slice.seriouseats.com/jvpizza/) or tasted my pizza here in Atlanta knows, it's not the water...
Nanuet Hotel
Nanuet, NY
My, my...it takes more than H2O to make good pizza. It's takes the embodiment of beliefs and soul to create magic and mozarella. The alchemy of alimentary proportions. IMHO, it boils down to these simple rules - high turnover = more production by the pizza man, seasoned ovens = better flavor and product, and lastly, NYC Dept of Health codes = everyones' on their toes, including Mr. D of Midwood. Guess who's favorite dishes are these inspectors lingering over?
OK folks... pizza at DeLorenzo's on Hudson St. in the Chambersburg neighborhood of Trenton, NJ is some of the best I've ever had- rivaling the crisp and delectable pies in Florence and even as good as Lombardis.
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