A real NY slice of pizza

What is the New York slice? For me, it's the pizza of my childhood during the 70's and 80's. I'm talking about the pizza that was in almost every little pizzeria in town. In those years when you went for a slice, you got a wedge cut off a freshly made, usually still-hot pie produced by a master of the craft. As one pie disappeared, a new one would be made and baked in a regular gas-fired pizza oven.

The pies themselves were generally large and very round, thin but chewy (not crisp) with smallish crusts. Abbondanza was the guiding principle behind the application of the sauce and cheese. A thick layer of hot, gooey, cheese covered a tangy, generous ladling of tomato sauce.

Unfortunately, you don't see really good examples of this kind of pizza much anymore in New York. There are terrific artisanal pies of the "no slices" school of thought but in most regular pizzerias, bready pizzas are made en masse, by seemingly semi-skilled labor, smothered with an assortment of bulky toppings and set out in glass cases to await the mealtime rush.

But like my own version of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker, I've discovered that on Jamaica Avenue in Queens, Margherita Pizza is still making pizzas the old-school New York way. I'd walked past this little pizzeria on my way to clients at least a half a dozen times with nary a second glance. I'd never seen the name mentioned in any discussion of New York pizza and from the outside, it appeared completely unremarkable. Yesterday however, when I walked by I happened to look inside and was immediately struck by the complete lack of glass display cases on the counters.

After finishing up at my client, I decided to investigate further. When I arrived, only one slice of a pizza pie and about three slices of sicilian were sitting on the back counter awaiting customers. A whole pie, which looked mostly complete was being checked in the oven and the dough for a third pie was just that moment being tossed into the air by obviously expert hands.

I waited about 3 minutes for the fresh pie to emerge and ordered two slices. The Ivory-bill opened its beak and produced a pair of madeleines for me. The slices were just as I remember them, rocket-hot, and delicious. Margherita has been in business for 41 years. The counter guys told me that the owners who are in their 70s come in each morning at 4:00 AM to make the dough and sauce from scratch. This is pizza that is being made with pride and love.

Margherita Pizza

16304 Jamaica Ave
Jamaica, NY
11432-4912

Phone: (718) 657-5780

About 5 blocks from the Jamaica Center - Parsons/Archer E,J,Z station

Do re: Miso

Recently, I'm back to using a lot of miso and I'm glad to say that I've re-located the source for the best stuff:

http://naturalimport.com/shop_for_miso

I've been using Mitoku company's all-natural, traditionally produced misos, shoyus and mirins for some time now and although the importer/distributors keep changing the products stay just the same.

I've just placed an order for each and every miso they carry, so stay tuned for the great Miso Taste Test.

The "Best" Nori

"Which one is the best?" Is a question that comes up more and more these days. With great selection comes great indecision. These thoughts occurred to me while looking at the nori shelf of N.Y. Chonghap Market, a Korean supermarket in Jackson Heights. Apparently, Koreans consume a great deal of nori and they like to have lots of different kinds. Unfortunately, to an outsider (ABC-American Born Chinese) such as myself, they all look just the same.

My solution to this particular polylemma was to buttonhole a nice young Korean lady who was trying to go about her business and ask her The Question. A look of some perplexity crossed her face. This was a matter requiring serious thought. After about 45 seconds of carefully looking over all the packages of nori spread out before us, she tentatively picked up one particular three-pack and said softly, "I think, this the best."

Is it the best? I dunno. But it IS pretty tasty indeed. Salty with a pleasant olive (!) oiliness, excellent with a bit of rice as illustrated on the package. If you are working on developing a ground-breaking Asian/Mediterranean diet plan, this would be an obvious candidate for inclusion. Here are the ingredients: Seaweed, olive oil, salt, sesame oil. The little penguin illustrates an "Antarctic sea salt" claim.

You've tried the rest...

Fair warning to the squeamish; you should probably find the Alt and F4 buttons and hit them immediately, whilst closing your eyes and chanting, "LALALALALALALA" at the top of your lungs.

On to the topic of the day which is "Things that I wish I'd known about pumping breast milk six months ago."

First: Some womens' breast milk will taste terrible after freezing and defrosting. This is apparently caused by a surfeit of the enzyme lipase. If you plan to pump and save, freeze one bag of milk wait a day or two, defrost it and taste it. It should be mild, bland and lightly sweet. There shouldn't be any strange flavors or odors. If you do have the problem you might try some DIY pasteurization. Scald the milk, freeze, defrost and check it.

Now some people say that it doesn't matter, that even though the milk tastes strange, baby will drink it anyway and it'll still taste better than formula. Having tasted the formula and tasted the defrosted milk, and watched The Tiny Leader's reactions consuming each, I have to say I disagree. The formula is better tasting and the T.L. can definitely tell the difference. He DOES NOT LIKE the defrosted milk and knowing how I dislike unpleasant dining experiences, I imagine that he feels similarly.

So what to do if you have unfreezable milk? I suggest that you just keep the milk refrigerated, feeding with the freshest and tossing anything that expires.

Very few of the resources on lactation mention this problem for some reason. It's only when I went agoogling with specific keywords like "bad-tasting" and "frozen" that reports began to turn up. I suspect that it is an under-reported problem.

Second: Lansinoh storage bags were the sturdiest, they have a double zip lock and we didn't experience any leakage with them. Gerbers were frequently leaky.

Finally: When shopping for a breast pump, have a look at the Whittlestone pumps. I've heard that the mechanism is a little gentler on the tender parts but we can't attest to that one way or the other because we've never used another pump. The real reason I'm a Whittlestone booster is because the people at the company are very nice. If there's a problem with any part, they'll overnight a replacement to you, and they cover the return shipping. They are just good folks.

What is tinycult?

Tinycult is how I refer to my life these days. As my friend the Bespoke Esq. likes to remind me, I used to be fond of saying that people who have children are like recently inducted members of the smallest of cults. All their time and talk comes to revolve around the object of their devotions and they slavishly attend to the needs and desires of the diminutive, beloved, de facto leader.

So now I pen these dispatches from the inside. Tinycult is my new way of life, my therapy, my deprogramming exercise and my way of sharing some useful intel with kindred spirits.

Indeed I marvel...

...that these people stay in business. Went by Marvel's the other day and tried to drop off some clothes. I have a number of silk herringbone and linen shirts that are semi-casual wear. In the past, I've routinely had these laundered on hangers, usually for about a buck and a half a piece. Marvel's Cleaners however informed me that this could not be done, they send the shirts out and the presses would destroy my puny shirts. My shirts would have to be dry cleaned. OK - so how much? $5.75 per shirt. My soiled shirts and I speedily departed together.

A day later, Banana Republic sent me to receive free alterations from their outsourced tailor - Manny's Cleaners. When I arrived, Manny was making ever so delicate adjustments to the bodice of a young lovely's prom dress with sensitivity and not inconsiderable patience. To my delight, I discovered that they charge $1.50 per (men's) shirt for laundering or dry cleaning. The work is done on premises and they both pick up and deliver. I asked Manny for some of those stickers used to mark stains, Manny told me, "You won't need them, we'll take care of everything." I have yet to get my alterations back or have any cleaning done, but I have a good feeling about this guy. Manny's Cleaners

CORRECTION: So it turns out that dry cleaning is $4.00 per shirt, but they will launder my silk and linen shirts for the $1.50. I got my alterations back and they are A-OK. Cleaning looks good too.