6 ms·
Many who grow up in the NY area grow up on pizza. In childhood, it's often eaten as a quick meal that doesn't require cooking. In adolescence, pizza is one of t
by rcme 4y ago
Many who grow up in the NY area grow up on pizza. In childhood, it's often eaten as a quick meal that doesn't require cooking. In adolescence, pizza is one of the only foods you can afford to eat out with your friends after school. In college, there's nothing like a drunken slice of pizza at 1 am. It's hard to overstate what a satisfying comfort food pizza is. There's truly nothing like it.
- dieselgate 4y agoI, personally, occasionally miss choking on the super stringy cheese of bowling alley pizza of elementary school era birthday parties. Do not miss drunken pizza of college as much.. Now it's just mostly costco frozen 5-pack
- kasey_junk 4y agoThat’s not just NY. I suspect it’s basically all of the US.
- yamtaddle 4y agoThe Ninja Turtles got this picky-eater-as-a-child fella to give it a fair shake. Was my undisputed favorite type of food for like 15 years straight (when I started trying more things and discovered Middle Eastern and Indian food). And that's out in a part of the country with mostly-bad pizza options. Nothing half as good as a so-so NY slice, certainly.
- cammikebrown 4y agoNowhere in the US is a slice as consistently affordable and ubiquitous as NYC.
- o_____________o 4y agoIt's different in NY due to the ubiquity, downward pressure on price, and all-hour coverage. You can be nearly anywhere, at any time, and be fed in minutes. You often eat while standing and remaining social. The experience anchors itself in your mind as an instant, omnipresent solution to hunger. There's also probably something to the infinitely nuanced territorial aspect of which slice is better (the answer is Prince Street).
- noduerme 4y agoLess mentioned about NYC is the 24-hour egg and sausage breakfast sandwich, fresh off a griddle. This, more than pizza, was my staple when I went to college in New York.
- Grazester 4y agoI see you did not go to college on a tight budget.
- ahoho 4y agoEh, not so long ago you used to be able to get a decent bacon egg and cheese from a bodega for $3
- selimthegrim 4y agoWhat are chopped cheeses going for these days?
- yunwal 4y agoStill under $5 if you’re getting them on a Kaiser roll (as opposed to a sub)
- noduerme 4y agoKaiser rolls are really the shit. It should be noted to the class warrior above... you used to be able to sit down in a lot of sit-down restaurants on the Lower East Side, and get a basket of free kaiser rolls and butter before you even ordered food. A foreign concept, I know! You could eat em and scram if you were of the mind to. That was when people had more class than to get a little nudge of self congratulations from judging each other's pocketbook based on which cheap fast food they ate, hoping for a popular online mob to agree with their stupidly ill informed opinion. But this will all fall on deaf ears, so, hallelujah there's still cheap breakfast sandwiches, and let the culture warriors who never experienced human civilization stick it up their ass.
- micromacrofoot 4y agoAbsolutely not. I've lived in a lot of places in the US, and almost none of them outside of a couple of major cities in New England had the equivalent of a NY slice. This has only changed somewhat recently (maybe past decade or so). Even still, it's not nearly as ubiquitous. It's kind of similar with bodegas, a lot of people will say "we have corner stores too" but that's not a bodega. It sounds snobbish sometimes but there are a lot of actual differences.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- null_shift 4y agoNew Haven CT has the best pizza in the US (and arguably the world)
- avisser 4y agoYeah, this guy needs to visit Wooster St stat. Also, my fave place after living in New Haven for a year was technically in West Haven (Zuppardi's) but that's splitting hairs.
- yunwal 4y agoI’ve spent time in New Haven and NYC and… not even close. Sure there’s good slices in New Haven, but there are also pizza deserts, and a lot of them. New Haven does compete with NYC on restaurant-style pizza though.
- avisser 4y agoMost of the good places in New Haven (Pepe's, Sally's, ...) didn't even do slices. New Haven style requires a fresh, whole pie.
- micromacrofoot 4y agoYeah this is how this conversation typically goes "but we've got good pizza from X, Y, Z restaurant" — is not the same as just walking to the corner and paying $2 for a big cheese slice — the NY slice is essentially a street food, like street tacos are in some states along the mexican border
- adamdusty 4y agoIn the southwest it's tacos instead of pizza, in my experience.
- acchow 4y agoIn Californian cities, we mostly eat tacos instead of pizza.
- balderdash 4y agoYou’d be surprised how hard it is to find pizza by the slice in many cities in the US
- kevinwang 4y agoSadly I feel this way about fast food chains and not pizza or tacos or anything cool (suburbs of California)
- jnsie 4y agoI agree and would compare it to chips (French Fries) from a chipper in western europe. Grew up on the stuff and a bag of chips was affordable after school, was cheap when in college, and food from a chipper is a relatively cheap and delicious dinner option. I live in the US now and it's funny that I've not come across chips as a standalone meal, except in Irish/UK expat communities.
- MuffinFlavored 4y ago> Many who grow up in the NY area grow up on pizza. Average pizza slice that we're discussing is according to https://www.nutritionix.com/i/nutritionix/new-york-style-pizza-slice-1-slice/5702be98746faf380d44f3b4 https://www.nutritionix.com/i/nutritionix/new-york-style-piz... 500+ calories, lots of saturated fat, lots of sodium. How healthy is it to grow up on pizza?
- lotsofpulp 4y ago>How healthy is it to grow up on pizza? See USA statistics for obesity, diabetes, hypertension, and heart disease.
- moloch-hai 4y agoThat you can blame on sugar in everything. Even what was blamed on saturated fat turns out to be caused by sugar and trans fat ("hydrogenated vegetable oil", now more-or-less banned, with certain disgraceful exceptions). Pizza is relatively benign.
- lotsofpulp 4y agoThe dough is all carbs, which causes the same problem as sugar, and I am sure many places use sugar in their sauce. Unless you are doing a lot of cardio, a slice of cheese pizza is pretty void of nutrition.
- moloch-hai 4y agoThe starch in dough is broken up into glucose, which is absolutely fine: nobody gets sick from eating starch. It would be better with some fiber, so your intestinal bacteria could have some of it. The problem with sugar is that it is half fructose, and fructose is processed on the same pathway as alcohol, in the liver, and causes the same illnesses as alcohol. It is much better, if you must eat it, to eat enough fiber with it that your intestinal bacteria get much of it instead. If you don't keep your intestinal bacteria well-fed, they are obliged to eat you instead.
- astrojams 4y agoAs a person who also grew up in NY, the slice was part of my childhood. I'd walk home from middle school and then high school and pass the local pizzeria where I could pick up a slice, Italian ice, and play coin operated video games. Galaga, Donkey Kong, and Pacman. I miss those carefree days where the world was simpler and the pizza tasted better.
- SergeAx 4y agoI generally like pizza, but more interested in rich and sophisticated toppings, not just dough and cheese. Normally I have pizza about once in a month (except when I am vacationing in Italy, of course). If what you are saying is close to reality, I think I have an answer to US obesity problem.
- balderdash 4y agoDon’t forget the the pre-drinks or dinner slice!