Entries tagged with 'una pizza napoletana'
Posted by Adam Kuban, May 18, 2009 at 10:48 PM
Chicago Upstart Great Lake Has Country's Best Pizza
Alan Richman (left) and Lucali proprietor-pizzaiolo Mark Iacono (right) hold a copy of the June 2009 issue of "GQ" in front of Iacono's Lucali (the No. 2 pizza in the U.S.) at press event celebrating the story's May 19 publication. The issue contains Richman's "American Pie," a list of the top 25 pizzerias in the country.
In the June issue of GQ, food writer extraordinaire Alan Richman ranks the top 25 pizzas in the U.S. after visiting what he considers the top 10 pizza cities in the country.
The story is much too monumental to really do justice here. (Richman sampled 386 pizzas at 109 different pizzerias.) Go read it for yourself on GQ.com—or do yourself a favor and buy the magazine on the newsstand. It comes out tomorrow (May 19). For pizza freaks, this one really is worth having in print. Here are the salient points:
Italians Do Pizza Wrong; the U.S. Gets It Oh So Right
I totally agree with Richman here:
Pizza was created by the Italians—or maybe by the Greeks, who brought it to Naples, but let’s not pile on the bad news. Right now it justly belongs to us. We care more about it. We eat more of it, and unlike the Italians, we appreciate it at dinner, at lunch, and at breakfast, when we have it cold, standing up, to make hangovers go away. Italians don’t really understand pizza. They think of it as knife-and-fork food, best after the sun goes down.
Pizza isn’t as fundamental to Italy as it is to America. Over there, it plays a secondary role to pasta, risotto, and polenta. To be candid, I think they could do without it. Not us. Over here, it’s one of the few foreign foods we’ve embraced wholeheartedly, made entirely our own.
Oh, snap. Suck it, Italy. [More analysis, after the jump.]
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Posted by Adam Kuban, April 4, 2009 at 12:00 PM
Looks like Pure and Simple, that short documentary on Una Pizza Napoletana that we blogged about last summer when it appeared in the NYC Food Film Festival, is finally available in its entirety online, thanks to New York magazine's Vulture Picture Palace.
It follows obsessive pizzaiolo Anthony Mangieri through one day in the life of his renown Naples-style pizzeria. At nine minutes, it's a bit longer than most web video we bring you, but it's the weekend. It ain't gonna kill you to watch. And, who knows, you might learn something.
Posted by Adam Kuban, October 13, 2008 at 12:45 PM
Photograph from Paulie Gee on Flickr
On Saturday Slice–Serious Eats sponsored a talk called The Pieman's Craft as part of the New York Wine & Food Festival. A crowd of about 35 people showed up for the event, including some familiar faces—and some new faces that we were able to put to Slice screen names (which is always fun!).
Noted pizza expert Ed Levine talked to Anthony Mangieri, drawing out his piemaking history and, eventually, his philosophy.
Photograph from Paulie Gee on Flickr
The session was also a bit of a juxtaposition of styles, with Ed bringing some Vinny Vincenz plain pies to illustrate a very good New York slice and some Totonno's pies (Second Avenue) to rep the coal-oven school.
After about a half hour of talking and eating the first two examples of NYC pizza, Mangieri went to town making the pies everyone had no doubt been salivating for. After the jump, the UPN process.
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Posted by Adam Kuban, September 30, 2008 at 2:00 PM
Clicking in to the Slice inbox today, we've got some criticism of UPN.
Just had dinner there Sunday evening for the first time. Is that really supposed to be some of the best pizza in New York? Because all three of us were just totally underwhelmed. The crust was tasteless and soggy where it wasn't unpleasantly burned, and except for some nice cherry tomatoes, the toppings were nothing special. My friends were visiting from D.C. and wanted some really great pizza, so we trekked over there at my suggestion. I must admit I was mortified. Yuck!
Thanks for listening,
Cybercita
Q: So, Una Pizza reopens tomorrow after its vacation, and I'm supposed to go to dinner with my brother (from out of town) that night. Is it gonna be a madhouse? A: I'd imagine it'll be no more a madhouse than it usually is—but maybe more so with the blogz blathering about it. Get there early, friend! 349 East 12th Street, New York NY 10003
Posted by Lance Roberts, July 28, 2008 at 10:00 AM
Editor's note: In mid June, Slice reader Lance Roberts emailed me, asking if I'd help him complete his pizza itinerary. He was visiting New York City from Los Angeles, and he wanted to pack in as much pizza as he could—but only the best. I gave him some recs. He came, he ate, and then he wrote. What follows is a wonderful tale of 2.5 days of pizza mania. Buon appetito! —The Mgmt.
An N.Y.C. Pizza Tour from an L.A. Perspective
As a Los Angeleno who grew up in Detroit, it's a little odd that I love pizza so much. Neither city is known for great pies, but as someone who fell in love with the stuff from an early age, I learned to make do. I grew up on Little Caesars, and when I turned 15, I got a job at Toarmina's Pizza in Michigan so I could learn how to make my own pies (and eat pizza five days a week).
When I reached the peak of my limited powers in the kitchen and was looking for better pizza, I took trips to Chicago, where I fell in love with deep dish. It took a few years of living in Los Angeles (and hitting up 50-some different places) to make me realize that thin crust was the way to go. I found some pizza I really liked liked. Then I climbed what I consider the Mount Everest of pizza—Pizzeria Bianco in Phoenix, where I hope someday to have my last meal.
Finally I felt like I "knew" pizza. But there was one big gap on my resume. I'd never had a slice in New York. That all changed earlier this month.
With Adam Kuban's help and some suggestions from Slice fans and friends, I made up a very aggressive itinerary designed to give me the best pizza New York City had to offer. Whenever I try a new place I get a plain cheese or Margherita pie to get a baseline, so it was only fair I practiced the same methodology in New York (with a few exceptions). The results of the experiment? To put it mildly, my head nearly exploded. After the jump, seven of New York's best pizzas—and one real stinker.
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Posted by Ed Levine, July 14, 2008 at 7:30 PM
Where: Una Pizza Napoletana, 349 East 12th Street, New York NY 10003 (at First Ave.; map)
When: 3 p.m., October 11, 2008 (Saturday)
Cost: $85 a ticket (available here)
Attention all serious eaters and pizza fanatics: On October 11, Slice founder Adam Kuban and I are going to be hosting a Serious Eats–Slice pizza-tasting and discussion with Anthony Mangieri at Una Pizza Napoletana. This pizza event is a fund-raising benefit and is part of the New York City Wine & Food Festival.
We're going to talk and eat pizza with Mangieri, surely one of the country's great pizzaioli. There will also be coal-fired brick-oven pizza from Totonno's as well as regular gas-oven New York slices to compare and contrast with Mangieri's Neapolitan-style pizza, along with wine, beer, and chocolate.
Everyone attending will also receive an autographed copy of my book, Pizza: A Slice of Heaven.
Tickets are $85, and all proceeds go to Share Our Strength and the Food Bank for New York City.
So come and eat pizza and hang out with Anthony, Adam, and me at Una Pizza at 3 p.m. Buy your tickets here.
Posted by Adam Kuban, May 23, 2008 at 3:00 PM
Click for map »
Just got word from George Motz, one of the masterminds behind the NYC Food Film Festival, that the pizza component of this year's summer screenings will be held al fresco in the parking lot next to Grimaldi's, 19 Old Fulton Street, Brooklyn NY 11201 (map).
What better place than under the Brooklyn Bridge for a line-up of three films that starts with Motz's own short film Brooklyn Pizza?
When: 8 p.m., Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Cost: Free
Here's the complete line-up:
- Brooklyn Pizza: Motz's short, six-minute film is basically pizza porn, following the pie-making process from start to finish at the Coney Island Totonno's, Di Fara, and Grimaldi's
- Pure and Simple: A short documentary on Anthony Mangieri and his venerated Neapolitan-pie shop Una Pizza Napoletana. Directed by Fabrizia Galvagano and Julie Haslett, 6 minutes
- In Pignata: Calabrian Fireside Cooking: "Follows a Southern Italian farmer in her eighties through a typical morning on her farm as she ponders the loss of local food traditions." So this one's not exactly pizza, but it is Italian, so deal with it, sliceheads. Directed by Jessica Theroux, 24 minutes
Chairs will be set up in the parking lot for your comfort, and there will be a Grimaldi's tasting. More info at nycfoodfilmfestival.com.
Full disclosure: I'm friends with George and will be serving as a film judge for this year's NYC Food Film Festival.
Posted by Adam Kuban, May 14, 2008 at 3:45 PM
Robert Sietsema of the Village Voice revisits Una Pizza Napoletana and, as per his first word on the place, doesn't quite like it:
The pies arrive literally smoking, with charred dough on one side or the other. I ate the standard Margherita, which shocked me with its $21 price tag, Sicilian sea salt or not. It was good, but a little too substantially charred for my taste, and the “bone” (the thickest part of the crust) was a little too doughy. Still, as an example of the Naples style, it was about 95% there.
The other pizza I tried, the bianca, was a white pie (well, duh!) with a heavy dose of buffalo mozzarella on top. To begin with, Naples pizzerias almost never use buffalo mozzarella, preferring the fiore di latte that is the equivalent of our Italian-American mozzarella. While I don’t usually argue with dairy generosity, this pie had too much cheese, lending a rubbery quality to the pie. In Naples, when they apply cheese, it is in small chunks....
Related
All UPN posts on Slice
Photo Gallery: Robert Sietsema Visits Naples, Sends Slice Pictures
Forget UPN, Sietsema lurves Il Brigante for Naples-style pies [VV]
Posted by Adam Kuban, November 19, 2007 at 6:30 PM
From left: A Di Fara half-plain, half-artichoke pie; pizza-makers at Franny's; an Isabella's Oven Margherita D.O.C.; Una Pizza Napoletana's marinara pie.
Last year around this time Slice/Serious Eats contributed to Pim Techamuanvivit's Menu for Hope charity raffle. Our giveaway was a guided pizza tour for four. Well, the winners—Anthony Kinik and Michelle Marek of Montreal food blog An Endless Banquet—finally made us make good on our prize. (It took them almost a year because they live in Montreal and I secretly think they were waiting for the loonie to beat the dollar before making a trip to the U.S.)
Anyway, after much back-and-forth emailing, we settled on a proposed route: Di Fara, Franny's, Adrienne's Pizzabar, Isabella's Oven, Una Pizza Napoletana, Joe's Pizza, Bleecker Street Pizza.
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