Oh no she di-n't.
Oh yes, she did.
In our annual food showdown inspired by opposing team cities in the Super Bowl (now dubbed the Slashfood Bowl), Marisa has gone to pizza. I knew she would, and knew that I would have to come up with something. Now I know that arguing that there might be something better than New York-style pizza (which happens to be my favorite kind) is just asking for it, so since I have to rep-ra-zent for the New England Patriots, I am merely going to say that Boston-style pizza simply exists, because really, I can't say that it's better. I just can't.
Apparently, there is no definitive information about Boston-style pizza. I only knew that it might exist as a real style of pizza after I tried something called "Boston-style" in -- of all places -- Santa Monica, CA. However, after doing a tiny bit of research, it seems that Boston-style pizza is either pizza that is inspired by Pizza Regina, a pizzeria in the North End of Boston, or it is "Greek-style" pizza.
Pizza from Pizza Regina is similar to New York style with a thin, yet chewy, crust, but has a thicker layer of cheese.
Getting more deeply into it, some readers over at Slice chimed in with what Greek-style pizza is. The dough for the crust is left to rise slightly longer than regular dough, so though the crust ends up thin, it seems lighter because it has risen longer before baking. Also, the crust is heavily soaked with olive oil because 1) it is baked in a pan rather than directly on the floor of a brick oven, and 2) there is a lot of oil used in the pan.
Greek-style pizza's sauce has more oregano in it, and the cheese is a blend of mozzarella and -- this is interesting -- cheddar cheese. The addition of cheddar cheese apparently leaves pools of orange grease on top of the pizza. As for the toppings, just because it's Greek-style doesn't mean it has Feta cheese and Kalamata olives. The toppings are the same, though some say that they have seen the "toppings" under the cheese.
So there you go. Boston has its own style of pizza - baked in a pan, thicker crust, and cheddar cheese. Sounds to me like Boston-style pizza is just pan-pizza with a little bit of cheddar tossed in.
If you have thoughts or knowledge on Boston-style or New England Greek style pizza, please leave a comment!
Second Helping of Slashfood - June 19
Competitive-Eating Contest to Pit Humans Against Elephants
The Backyard Boom - The Hungry Bride
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
1-30-2008 @ 9:04PM
EAC said...
Greek-style pizza starts appearing from New Haven, CT onwards. I remember my family in New Haven getting Greek pizza from places like Clark's Pizzeria and a place called Mykonos. It wasn't the ne plus ultra of New Haven pizza - that triumverate of Sally's, Pepe's, and Modern. But it was still very good, and you could call and pick it up, or go in and eat it, without having to endure a two-hour line. If it's done right, the distinctive crispy-chewy cheese, lifted by the oregano, is a plus; if it's done wrong, yes, it's a puddle of grease.
Reply
1-30-2008 @ 9:07PM
Denielle said...
NOTHING compares to NY Pizza. I'm a New Yorker living in Boston and I CRAVE for the GOOD STUFF constantly!
Reply
1-30-2008 @ 9:26PM
cmonkey said...
You could say New Haven pizza, which some (myself included) would say is superior to New York pizza. But, New Haven is perhaps more of a Giants city than a Patriots city anyway.
Reply
1-30-2008 @ 11:20PM
Bob S. said...
Eh. Boston and New York pizza are pretty much the same, barring whatever confusion little regional spots like Pizzeria Regina might contribute. But aside from them, any thought otherwise is just intercity rivalry and hubris. There's lots of awful pizza in both cities, too. (It's like the cheesesteak sub; Philly may want you to think it's unique, but it's a commodity, and any Boston- or New York-area sub shop that can't make a good one will go out of business soon enough.)
But Greek pizza, which in the Boston area as far as I know is fortunately available only at storefronts that say [some name] House of Pizza, is really awful. (House of Pizza is not a chain; it's just a convention that Greek-owned pizza shops use.) It really is awful -- both uniformly awful and uniformly uniform -- but I can't say your description reminds me of any I had in those joints. Plenty of non-Greek pizza is finished in pans too, and for all the awful taste, I don't recall ever noticing olive oil (which I like a lot) or cheddar (ditto, and for a time Boston had a small chain of allegedly British pizzerias featuring cheddar cheese). I'm not saying it couldn't happen, but it didn't within my experience. Honestly, I remember the crust of House of Pizza pizzas being more like the miserable crackerlike Midwestern pizza crust, although somewhere between the Midwestern crust and the East Coast-style crust. Which belies the thought of olive oil, as that would make for a much more tender crust. It isn't pizza if you can't fold it, and House of Pizza pizza is very hard to fold.
If I were going to name one pizza shop in Boston to offer as a model for anything that might be considered "Boston-style pizza," I'd say Santarpio's. But good pizza in Boston is ubiquitous, and you should just find your favorite neighborhood spot.
But the Greek House of Pizza pizza is an aberration and absolutely not "Boston-style pizza"; whether they use olive oil and cheddar or not, I have to object to that characterization. As I say, the real moniker for edible pizza is East Coast-style pizza, and to my decades of experience, if you take out the tiny handful of spots in each city that are best and worst, it's pretty much the same up and down the Boston-NYC corridor.
Reply
1-31-2008 @ 6:05AM
Alexis said...
Check out Za in Arlington for some really unique pizza. Not saying it is "Boston-style" but it is definitely unique. (Their Mac and cheese pizza is really good.)
Reply
1-31-2008 @ 8:06AM
calamari said...
There's clearly an opening to invent Boston pizza. White pizza with clams immediately springs to mind as an approach.
Reply