The Everyday Exotic

The dis-oriented author is a traveler. I travel over twenty weeks a year on business and travel frequently for pleasure. I see a lot of interesting things on the road but sometimes it is the everyday things, when viewed in different contexts, that seem the most exotic.

Today it was pizza.

I am a mid-westerner so to me, New York City is exotic. Today at a client's office we had lunch brought in — authentic New York pizza. When the pizza came there were about ten pies (yes, they're called pies here in the big city!)

The first thing I noticed was the selection, two chicken, one sausage and seven regular. Regular? I was curious, it turns out that in New York City, regular means cheese. Where I come from nobody, except my daughters, eats cheese pizza.

When it was my turn, I went to the table and got a piece of sausage pizza. The piece was huge — all the pieces were huge. I had trouble even getting the pizza on my plate. It had a paper-thin crust and was so greasy that the sauce and cheese were just sliding off. I finally managed to get a piece onto my plate. I found it hard to pick up the floppy, greasy slice. As I looked around at the New Yorkers in the room I wondered how they were managing.

None of them were having any trouble eating their pizza. How did they manage? To a man they folded their slices down the middle. I had never seen anything like it.

Where I come from nobody folds pizza. In fact at the midwest's most famous pizza place, Gino's East, nobody would dare try. Gino's is home of the deep dish Chicago-style pizza. A Gino's pizza is about 3 inches thick on a deep crust with deep thick gooey cheese.

Wikipedia has a great article on pizza that describes the different styles from all over the world. I love Chicago-style pizza but after biting into a NY slice — I think there is room in my life for a second love. And yes, I'll fold mine next time.