I recently went to Naples and IMO the secret to just how amazing everything tastes there is the quality of produce. I don't know whether you can even export it - I don't know whether that kind of quality travels.

On the Netflix show ugly delicious one of the chefs explain supposedly in Naples chefs will choose their mozzarella freshness by the hour (e.g. 6 hours or 12 hours) but to make "authentic" Neapolitan pizza with Neapolitan mozzarella you're not going to get Mozzarella fresher than 7 days old...

> I recently went to Naples and IMO the secret to just how amazing everything tastes there is the quality of produce. I don't know whether you can even export it - I don't know whether that kind of quality travels.

Bingo. Produce and ingredients are generally very high quality in Italy, because people care about and make their purchases based on that, rather than simply looking at how much they're getting at a given price and how good it looks on the shelves.

yes -- but on the same show they highlighted people making ridiculous high quality fresh naples-style pizza in other countries other than italy - japan, denmark, etc.

the cheese is the hardest part of the pizza to replicate outside of italy for sure, you can easily buy high quality imported olive oil, flour, and san marzano tomatos.

yeah the guy from Denmark resorted to making his own mozzarella by rearing his own cows - hence the point about exporting.

Japan have decent local dairy (Hokkaido milk) and their overall attitude to produce is similar to Italy which probably is a big contributor to their food culture

I don't know, I think the tomatoes you find in Italy are far superior to anything I have found in the US. I still dream of the bruschetta in Tuscany.

I think grocery store tomatoes are "optimized" for being shipped, not taste.

Given the stories I hear from pretty much everyone in my circle who's been to the US, there's a general problem with food there tasting bland, in comparison to Europe. Like others, I suspect the ingredients in the States are worse for some reason (perhaps they've been optimized too much for shelf life).

Send them to Santa Fe.

Bland will NOT be your problem.

However, you have to understand that a lot of the US really doesn't deal well with food that isn't bland--a holdover from WWII rationing and canned foods, probably. IIRC, McDonalds(?) went through a huge engineering process to attempt to add an ingredient to their pipeline. They found that adding cucumber was fine, but avocado was a step too far for the midwest.

> McDonalds(?) went through a huge engineering process to attempt to add an ingredient to their pipeline. They found that adding cucumber was fine, but avocado was a step too far for the midwest.

That's something I'd love to read in more details about. Personally, I'd say avocado is a step too far in anything that isn't fruit salad. But so is (pickled) cucumber. I wish they'd remove it from their burgers altogether. The reasoning is, pickled cucumber overwhelms everything else with its sour flavor. McD burgers I experienced (in several countries, Europe and Asia) have a balanced composition of tastes, and that slice of cucumber there is as if someone threw a grenade into it. I usually hunt it down and eat it with my first bite, so that I can enjoy the rest of the burger in peace.

> Given the stories I hear from pretty much everyone in my circle who's been to the US, there's a general problem with food there tasting bland, in comparison to Europe

I think that heavily depends on where your circle is eating at in both places.

>perhaps they've been optimized too much for shelf life

this has definitely happened to tomatoes. Supermarket tomatoes vs heirloom varieties are night and day

Not sure in NY, there I tried only ovest and a couple of others so I can’t really judge. In London I tried all the famous ones: Da Michele, 50 Kalò, Sartori, Santa Maria, Santorè, Franco Manca and probably many others that I don’t remember now. Da Michele I think is a bit overrated. In 50 Kalò I appreciated a lot the extremely fresh and flavourful ingredients but the pizza dough was not the best. Santa Maria, at least the original in Ealing Broadway, is probably more tasty and balanced compared to the others above. Franco Manca has a pretty good price/quality ratio, but it’s not as good as the previous ones. As a matter of personal preference Sartori is the best that I tried in London, just a sliver above all the very nice ones cited before, and also a bit better than his “twin” place Santorè. I’d like to go back to Napoli and try Sorbillo’s pizza there. In my place in Italy I can’t find a pizza as good as London, for what is worth...

Try Pizzarte and Naples 45 in Midtown

And for a different type of pizza but honestly my favorite pizza on Earth, try the Portobello pizza at Mediterraneo on the UES. They have no idea how good that pizza is otherwise they'd turn the whole place into a pizzeria and just do that everyday

Ah right, pizzarte was another one that I tried in NY, almost forgot. It’s really good, but still not at the level at the best that I tried in London or in Italy in my opinion.

in NYC una is the best i've found. it easily competes with the best in naples (in my opinion)

Thanks for the tip, I’m going to check after coronavirus.. if we still survive.

Thanks! First time I hear the name, so will definitely check it out next time I'm in the area (probably 2021 by the looks of things!)

i second this, una pizza is delicious, but you can find a slightly better pizza at song e napoli on west houston

https://songenapule.nyc/

"come state" :)

opps, grazie