i see a lot of people on the forum talking about what a good pizza or coffee taste like.

one question:

have you ever been to Naples, Italy?

because, if you want to talk about pizza and coffee with knowledge, you must go there and try some.

i know i'm sounding like a snotty bastard, but, please, before stating that Illy coffee is good (read on this forum) or assuming that pizza with cheese on top is real pizza (also read here), please go to Naples.

when i say pizza i mean pizza made with a traditional oven, with fresh mozzarella made of bufala milk (not cow milk) and fresh tomatoes, not tomato sauce.

for coffee i mean something made with a good moka (Bialetti ones are good) or a good espresso machine that is kept turned on at least 12 hours a day and is frequently cleaned.

it is very hard to find properly made Italian coffee or pizza in Italy itself, believe me, and the Italian restaurant owners in the world that claim to know how to prepare said products are, for the 99%, liars.

i wouldn't talk about the quality of Tacos or Burritos because i've never been to Mexico, and i assume that i don't know what a proper spring-roll tastes like because i've never been to China.
that said, i've been to England many times, tried a lot of restaurants and i can say the cuisine there is, for the better part, very bad.

i hope that when you speak about Italian cuisine, or any other one for that matter, you do it with a similar frame of mind and with a genuine sense of curiosity.

i'm a snotty, snubby bastard. please bear with me and my broken English.

Yes, I've been to Napoli twice and both times I've gotten lost - on the city buses, not the trains. I'm cool with the trains.

Yes, pizza and coffee are the very finest in Southern Italy. I spent a whole week in Lipari when I was 19. By far the most memorable (if not the best) week of my life. I'd also like to add that grilled fish is better there than anywhere else in the world. But you've got to do something about those damn cats.

Unfortunatley, most of us cannot hop on a plane and fly over to Naples everytime we have a hankering for coffee or pizza so we try to do the best with what we have.

Your English is excellent, by the way. If my Italian were half as good as your English, I wouldn't keep getting lost in Naples.

One more point I'd like to add:

A Chinese-Canadian friend of mine who has spent years in China and Hong Kong but now lives in B.C. tells me that the best dim sum in the world is actually located in Vancouver.

Fancy Pants wrote:One more point I'd like to add:

A Chinese-Canadian friend of mine who has spent years in China and Hong Kong but now lives in B.C. tells me that the best dim sum in the world is actually located in Vancouver.

he's very right, my girlfriends parents take us for Dim Sum alot and from what I've had ( while theres no real comparison seeing as I've never been to HK) most places here are very good

The definition of pizza in Italy has apprently been coded in law. Ah, Bella Italia!

With all due respect, Don Gaetano; why would I go to
Sicily for New York-style pizza?

Maybe you are confusing good with authentic.
Something can be considered good without necessarily
being authentic.

Permutations. Go figure.

gaetano, in a beautifully snobby post wrote:i know i'm sounding like a snotty bastard, but, please, before stating that Illy coffee is good (read on this forum) or assuming that pizza with cheese on top is real pizza (also read here), please go to Naples.

gaetano, illy coffee _is_ good. but you will note, in my personal claims about illy, that i qualify this by saying that it is only the best _widely available_ coffee i have found.

the best coffee i have ever had, incidentally, she came in the form of beans to someone i know from sicilians who brought it from sicily. this coffee, it was exquisite.

gaetano wrote:
i know i'm sounding like a snotty bastard, but, please, before stating that Illy coffee is good (read on this forum) or assuming that pizza with cheese on top is real pizza (also read here), please go to Naples.

I would very much like to do this.

If there is an Internet Putz Exchange Student Program, or perhaps a C/NC Vote-Study Program that you are aware of, please let me know.

gaetano! you are a gem! but i must agree with whoever said there is a dif between genuine and good. although, new york style pizza is authentically new york style pizza. unless someone here can totally negate that, which is likely. mm. i sincerely disagree on the illy tip, tho. those little tins of prepressed 'spresso packets fuckin' freak me out dooders. i will stick with my somewhat shitty (yet so very very good) sea-best. unless someone has a buddy pass to italy for me.

gaetano wrote: i've been to England many times, tried a lot of restaurants and i can say the cuisine there is, for the better part, very bad.

I am English. I am neither proud nor ashamed of this. But I hear this bad food thing all the time and it puzzles me somewhat. Where the hell are you guys eating when you come over here? Little Chef? Service Stations? Straight out of the first dustbin you walk into? Where?