New York vs. Chicago pizza

[wolfsblood07]

Please vote for which one you prefer and tell why.
My vote: New York
Reason: New Yorkers understand pizza.  It's not the amount of cheese or crust, it's the overall quality.  Chicago pizza is too much.  They tend to load up on Wisconsin cheese and too much sausage so that you lose the overall flavor of the pizza.  Chicagoans think that a slice of pizza should weigh two lbs. and be three inches thick.
Back east the pizza remains truer to its Italian origins.  In Chicago you can see that American greed and gluttony has crept into the picture at the expense of taste and quality.
I'm sure there's decent pizza in Chicago but New York pizza is better in my opinion.

[gfgman]

Pizza vs. what?

[GMan ducks for cover]

[AL]

Pizza vs. what?

Very well put, GMan.

It's not the amount of cheese or crust, it's the overall quality. 

Sorry, but I cannot agree with that statement!

[rayguy]

Having owned a NY pizza place in Florida, I can say that thin crust Chicago pizza is very much better than NY pizza.  This is my preference. There are a few good pizza places in New York City, but not many.

Also, why does everyone automatically think Chicago pizza is deep dish?  This is not entirely true. Chicago Pizza
(to me and to most other people from Chicago) is a very thin crust, toppings going to the edge of the pie (not the big fact dough rim typical of NY pizza), and sliced in squares.

Deep dish is strictly for tourists who visit the Chicago Loop where deep dish first became famous by people who eat at places like Geno’s and Uno’s.  Outside the Loop, thin crust has always been king.

[Mad_Ernie]

Also, why does everyone automatically think Chicago pizza is deep dish?  This is not entirely true. Chicago Pizza
(to me and to most other people from Chicago) is a very thin crust, toppings going to the edge of the pie (not the big fact dough rim typical of NY pizza), and sliced in squares.

Deep dish is strictly for tourists who visit the Chicago Loop where deep dish first became famous by people who eat at places like Geno’s and Uno’s.  Outside the Loop, thin crust has always been king.

Good points, Rayguy.  There are actually more places in the Chicagoland area that serve the thin crust style than deep dish.  Many of those same places may offer a deep dish, but again, that's for the tourists.  Deep dish has caught all of the attention because it's more unique, not because it's more prevalent.

[BTB]

Chicagoans think that a slice of pizza should weigh two lbs. and be three inches thick.
Back east the pizza remains truer to its Italian origins.  In Chicago you can see that American greed and gluttony has crept into the picture at the expense of taste and quality.

My first reaction is that the writer knows little to nothing about Chicago pizza. I don't mean to offend, but that unfortunately is not unusual as the national media has perpetrated the myth of "Chicago Style" being exclusively a deep dish thick style (and exaggerated that style's thickness tremendously).  I love good deep dish pizza, but I also love the many, many varieties of great thin crust pizzas that exists all around the greater Chicago metropolitan area.  Wolfsblood, what would your reaction be if you learned the fact that an estimated 95% of all pizzas made in the Chicago area were in fact "thin crust" pizzas and not the deep dish style that you must have had in mind? 

One's taste often depends on their upbringing, location, and experience.  If you were brought up on New York style, then you're more likely than not to prefer that all your life.  If you're brought up on Chicago thin or deep dish or other midwest styles, you're likely to be a bigger fan of those.  They are all good and have their pluses and minuses in my estimation. 

New Yorkers understand pizza.

Again, no offense intended, but I truly don't think the writer understands Chicago pizza.
                                       --BTB                     

[tdeane]

Having owned a NY pizza place in Florida, I can say that thin crust Chicago pizza is very much better than NY pizza.  This is my preference. There are a few good pizza places in New York City, but not many.

I think perhaps, you don't understand NY pizza.

[NepaBill]

I can't believe I actually read this post let alone responded.  Why does this really matter? Do we need yet another reason to divide people? Let's see we have Democrats and Republicans..  We have various races of people that are divided because of skin color, Religions have and continue to divide people.  I like to think that "In the pursuit of the ultimate pizza" people would have more tolerance and respect for what others consider to be "THE BEST"!  After all, if we all thought the same way, we would only need one pizza place. Wouldn't that suck?

TASTE is ultimately subjective! You can say "each to their own" when you want to point out that we're all different and we all like different things.

[Essen1]

I can't believe I actually read this post let alone responded.  Why does this really matter? Do we need yet another reason to divide people? Let's see we have Democrats and Republicans..  We have various races of people that are divided because of skin color, Religions have and continue to divide people.  I like to think that "In the pursuit of the ultimate pizza" people would have more tolerance and respect for what others consider to be "THE BEST"!  After all, if we all thought the same way, we would only need one pizza place. Wouldn't that suck?

TASTE is ultimately subjective! You can say "each to their own" when you want to point out that we're all different and we all like different things.

Amen!

I'd also like to add that you can't argue about taste. What suits one might not suit the other. Leave it at that.

[sourdough girl]

OK, I have to chime in here, too.  I've thought this from the beginning, but figured I'd watch to see what happened.

I agree with both Bill and Mike.  The pizzas of the two cities are different... and that is good.  One is not necessarily better than another.

My grandfather, the Lithuanian immigrant, used to tell me when I was very young...  Well, I guess I can't repeat EXACTLY what he said because it mentioned a specific nationality, so I will paraphrase:

"Do you know what the _____man said when he kissed the cow?  'Every man to his own taste.'"
Grandpa was right....

~sd

[November]

"Do you know what the _____man said when he kissed the cow?  'Every man to his own taste.'"

"Come, come, scatter no words, returned Panurge; everyone as they like, as the woman said when she kissed her cow." - François Rabelais (Gargantua and Pantagruel, Book V, 1564)

[sourdough girl]

"Come, come, scatter no words, returned Panurge; everyone as they like, as the woman said when she kissed her cow." - François Rabelais (Gargantua and Pantagruel, Book V, 1564)

Wow, thanks November!  I'm surprised to learn that my grandfather, from peasant stock, was learned enough to paraphrase Rabelais!  I have new respect for him, all these years after his death!

~sd

[November]

I'm surprised to learn that my grandfather, from peasant stock, was learned enough to paraphrase Rabelais!

There's no telling where your grandfather acquired the quote.  It's a quite common one.  Gargantua and Pantagruelis may not even be the first source for the quote, but Rabelais was the first to use it in literary form rather than simply as a proverb.  As a proverb, "Every man as he love, said the good man when he kissed his cow." (my translation) was recorded in John Heywood's Proverbs (1546).  There are at least a dozen works from the 1600s through the 1800s that have rephrased it.