It’s the Other Option in NYC pizza joints. You go in for a slice, you’re feeling a little extra-hungry, you opt for the Sicilian. Maybe it’s an extra nickel, maybe it’s the same as regular…depends on the last time they raised the prices.
Sicilian pizza in New York City is the thick kind. A regular slice is triangular, cut from the wheel of a nice thin-crusted pie. The Sicilian is rectangular. About the same amount of cheese and sauce, but the underlying bread is three or four times as thick.
Chicagoans visit New York and think Mmmmmm…thick pizza! And order a slice and are dreadfully disappointed when all that thick turns out to be dough instead of cheese and tomatoes and pepperoni.
Having recently returned from Sicily, and having eaten Real Sicilian Pizza, I have learned that it is no different from Neapolitan, or classic, pizza…that is, VERY thin, almost crisp, crust (spotted with char from the hot hot brick oven), covered with sauce and mozzerella (called Margherita) or sauce, mozzerella, and anchovies (called Neapolitan).
So, here’s the General Question: Who in NYC originally decided to make a fat-crusted pizza, and why was it designated “Sicilian” when Sicilians don’t make pizza that way?
Man, you’re making me homesick. Here in Assboink, Massachusetts all I can get is crappy round slices. All the pizza here tastes like Pizza Hut.
There is nothing better in life than a slice of Sicilian from L & B , with a nice bottle of Manhattan Special to wash it down.
Damn… I can’t wait to get back to Brooklyn.
Rose
You KNOW I love Mjoll and Ace like a coupla brothers, and Blue Twylight like…{peeks}…a sister.
But INFORMATION is what I crave.
I’m not fooled…I read the food threads in MPSIMS, I know approximately what percentage junk food makes up the Doper set’s diet. ONE OF YOU knows this answer.
Ike, I bet it is a marketing thing. Whoever originated the style needed a name to set it apart from the regular pie, as well as to justify the higher price. He probably thought hey! Sicilian! sounds exotic and dangerous!
Pinocchio’s in Harvard Square has the best Sicilian pizza in the world. Just thinking about it makes me wistful for good 'ole Cambridge… Of course, we never called it “Pinocchio’s” - it was always “Nokes”…
Okay, instead of waxing poetically about the perfect slice, I will try and answer the OP with a certified WAG…
Neopolitan Pizza (which is what the round things are technically called) is a very loose approximation of the stuff you get in Italy. It is an American invention based upon a foreign food, much like a good portion of the Chinese food we all are familiar with originated in New York City as opposed to Tokyo.
Needless to say Sicilian Pizza ain’t like either the Neopolitan or the original Italian stuff, so to differentiate between the two, some marketing guy came up with “Sicilian,” as it sure beats calling it “Pizza with too much goddamn bread” or “Chicago Style” - Oops! Sorry about the redundancy there…
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