The Decline of NY Style Pizza
Recently my friend Rochelle shared a regional pizza ranking scorecard she stumbled onto somewhere on the interwebs. And it went like this:
#1 Chicago
#2 Detroit
#3 California
#4 New York
Now there is a lot that’s wrong with this on its face. Primarily it’s that Chicago is a city with three very different styles of pizza. Most of us think of the Chicago stuffed deep dish pizzas, when conceptualizing pies from the windy city. But some of Chicago’s best pizza isn’t stuffed, but rather simply a thick crust pan pizza with cheese out along the edge. And then there is the most widely eaten pizza in Chicago itself, which is thin crust tavern pies. These are cut into squares so each piece can fit neatly on a cocktail napkin.
Also, I might argue that California style pizza is more like a flatbread, but I don’t want to open up that can of worms today.
Really, what I wanted to focus on was New York’s place at the bottom.
The First Thing Missing
Our realtors swung by this morning. In theory, our house will officially be on the market tomorrow. And there will be an open house on Sunday. Is that Father’s Day? Well, I guess it is. It will be a great excuse to get out of the house and be treated to something nice.
If you’ve got friends moving to the area who are looking for a modest home that’s tucked into the woods, but walking distance to SUNY Albany and the Nanotech campus, and within the Guilderland school district, we’ve got just the place.
To get the house ready, the family has been packing up a lot of stuff. We’re making regular donations to Goodwill, and throwing out everything that can’t be given away.
There was some question about what to do with the OXO salad spinner we’ve owned for years. It has been cracked but functional for as long as I can remember. Frankly, it didn’t seem to make sense to put an already damaged salad spinner into a moving truck and haul it to the midwest. Goodwill wouldn’t want something that appeared broken. So off in the trash it went.
Maybe that was premature.
Do Not Try This Ever
There were a few people who read yesterday’s post and reached out about the cliffhanger ending. For those who may have missed it and don’t have the time to read a second post, I’ll repeat the last line from yesterday.
“Later that day was almost a nightmare. I was lucky and dodged a figurative bullet. But that’s another story.”
For the record, I’m going to blame Steve N. He doesn’t blog as often as he should, but he’s incredibly active over on Yelp. While he loves pizza with a passion, he’s also an insatiable heat seeker. When wings are ordered hot, they are never truly hot enough to satisfy. We’ve eaten together all around the region, and I only recall two other times when he found something to be actually spicy. One was a hot pepper condiment at Taj of Glenmont, and the other was a Thai dish ordered at the top of the heat scale at Tap Asia on Lark Street.
The reason why I hold him to blame is that his love and interest in hotter foods has been infectious. And over the past year and change, I’ve been more actively exploring fiery Thai, Indian, and Sichuan dishes. More importantly, I’ve been really enjoying the experience.
Well, there’s a place in New Lebanon New York called M&M’s Tap and Tavern, which is supposed to have the hottest wings bar none. And Steve thought it would be a good idea to assemble a few people to split an order of the things. Despite my better judgement, I decided to tag along. But things didn’t go exactly as planned.
Brewery Fed Burgers
Well, this past Saturday was my last Official Yelp Event in the Capital Region. That’s it. My tenure with Yelp runs through the end of the month. Soon a new Community Ambassador will be hired to lead the charge, and leverage the power of Yelp to support as many great businesses around the 518 as possible.
Looking back, I feel really good about the work I’ve done in the role. These events are a big part of it. We’ve partnered with Slidin’ Dirty, fin – your fishmonger, 9 Miles East Farm, The Hollow, Honest Weight Food Co-op, The Ruck, Cider Belly, The City Beer Hall, Sunhee’s, Savoy Taproom, Yankee Distilling, Dutch Apple Cruises, Remarkable Liquids, Crave, Indian Ladder Farms Cidery & Brewery, Artisanal Brew Works, IL Faro, Lucas Confectionery, Hudson-Chatham Winery, Great Flats Brewing, MopCo Improv Theater, Albany Distilling Company, Brewtus Roasting, Spa Mirbeau, Field Notes at Lansing Farm, The Adelphi Hotel, Shmaltz Brewing, The Cheese Traveler, Yesfolk Tonic, Riverside Maple Farms, Albany Cooking School, Mazadar, Albany Pump Station, Dinosaur Bar-B-Que, and more.
Still, there were events that for some reason or another just never came together. Most likely it was my fault. I know I dropped the ball on putting something together with Lost & Found. And while I always dreamed of doing a sake tasting class somewhere, I never had the time to reach out to potential partners.
But Saturday’s event at Chatham Brewing for a beer and burger brunch brought together a lot of threads, and tells a tale about how small local businesses can work together and create a sustainable ecosystem for everyone.
Do Not Donut at Dunkin’ You Nut
Yep. Today is National Donut Day. These National Days may be fun reminders to treat ourselves to some of our favorite indulgences, but they’re also stupid. There are just so many of them, it gets ridiculous. For example, today also happens to be National Chocolate Ice Cream Day.
Obviously, the only thing to do is head down to The Dutch Udder and have them make you a hot donut ice cream sandwich. It’s on the menu all the time, but today is your perfect excuse to get one. The glazed donuts they use are made by Schuyler Bakery in Watervliet, aka the town that time forgot, and are custom made to contain no hole.
Otherwise the ice cream would leak out.
Schuyler Bakery happens to make my single favorite donut in the Capital Region. It’s their old fashioned. Today, for the holiday, they have a limited number of maple bacon donuts too. Part of me would love to try them, but I can’t imagine they could be as good as the Park Side Eatery maple bacon donuts of blessed memory. Up in Saratoga Springs they used their own in house smoked bacon. Damn, those were good.
Too many people have no idea these small independent places even exist, whereas the most popular place for donuts in the Capital Region is also the worst. The worst. Worse than supermarket donuts. Worse than convenience store donuts. Even worse than having no donut at all.
So let’s take a minute today to recall why friends don’t let friends go to Dunkin’.
Daniel B Eats Zongzi
As it turns out, today is the dragon boat festival. I had no idea, until Vivian Chan told me earlier this week. It’s hard enough to keep track of the Jewish holidays I’m supposed to celebrate. So all of the other beautiful traditions around the world tend to be things I stumble upon every now and again.
Anyway, Vivian’s family has been preparing the traditional glutinous rice dumplings one eats to celebrate the festival at Hong Kong Bakery and Bistro on Wolf Road. I can’t remember if I ever mentioned it on the blog, but that’s my favorite restaurant in the area.
So after reading Emily L’s guest post on Tuesday, I was compelled myself to get out and try one. But I was short on time, so I picked up a couple of zongzi to go.
The End of Cooking… Again
Controlled chaos. That’s the state of our lives right now. The house looks like a disaster at the moment, but I think that’s just the disorder of all the boxes required for the decluttering of our possessions. Once they get filled, sealed, and put away, it will look much tidier.
And then there are all the helpers we need to manage. We have a handyman for the small inside work. There’s a contractor to patch up some damage in the exterior siding. I just found a gardener to help make the yard look more presentable too. And I’ve put in a request for Habitat for Humanity to come and take away some extra furniture we’ve emptied out which is just taking up space.
Mind you, we’re shooting for all of this work to be completed in less than a week. And within that time frame, I have an Official Yelp Event, some fixed work deadlines, and a trip to visit family on Long Island. Plus hanging over my head are the mission critical tasks of summer camp paperwork, getting the kids enrolled in Michigan schools, and submitting an application for a really interesting job in Ann Arbor.
Something has to give. And that seems to be cooking.
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