20130301_111817.jpg CIMG3582.JPG CIMG3618.JPGNY City March 2013.

Those NY pizzas in the photos look OK. Being a professional artisan bread and pizza baker, I've made thousands, I do see some problems with those pizzas though. The crust is too blonde. The oven temp should be hotter(more char and oven kick). Also the crust is too tight. The rim is flat, no life and bubbles. The dough was over mixed. Too much mixing over oxidizes the dough and makes the gluten matrix too tight. This results in a bland and lifeless crust. In the pizza world, Crust is king.

You are correct but it beats ANY pizza in Thailand..

20130301_111817.jpg CIMG3582.JPG CIMG3618.JPGNY City March 2013.

You are correct but it beats ANY pizza in Thailand..

Khwaibah, I'm probably too critical. Overall, the pizzas in your photos look excellent. Particularly the toppings. You would have an awesome dinner with those two slices, the big salad (in the top bowl), and a few cold beers.

One thing I've learned in Thailand is that it does not matter how good pizza looks. You don't know until you taste it.

One thing I've learned in Thailand is that it does not matter how good pizza looks. You don't know until you taste it.

It's funny you said that. Relating to bread, there was a famous 19th century French bread baker who said (loosely paraphrased), visually, if all aspects of a loaf of bread looks great, it will also taste great. Meaning it could never look great if all the right things were not done. Carmelization of crust, shaping, openings where bread was scored, oven kick, etc. At first I didn't believe him, but damnned if he wasn't right.

But you are right about pizza. Too many variables. You could find a place that makes a magnificent crust(highly unlikely), but the sauce and/or chesse is crap. If any one thing is not right, the whole pizza suffers.

Crust is king.If you think about it, pizza is flat bread with toppings. The sauce and cheese are toppings. You could have a pizza without sauce and cheese and it's still a pizza. There are famous pizzerias in New Haven Connecticut, that make pizzas topped with olive oil,fresh clams and herbs baked in coal fired ovens, and they're great. No tomato sauce or cheese. After eating one of those, no one would dare object to them being called pizza.

20130301_111817.jpg CIMG3582.JPG CIMG3618.JPGNY City March 2013.

Those NY pizzas in the photos look OK. Being a professional artisan bread and pizza baker, I've made thousands, I do see some problems with those pizzas though. The crust is too blonde. The oven temp should be hotter(more char and oven kick). Also the crust is too tight. The rim is flat, no life and bubbles. The dough was over mixed. Too much mixing over oxidizes the dough and makes the gluten matrix too tight. This results in a bland and lifeless crust. In the pizza world, Crust is king.

You are correct but it beats ANY pizza in Thailand

Hey, I found these NY pizzas over on Soi 11. (sorry just kidding)

Dukes.

Pizza and Pasta.

Both are excellent, but neither would compete all that well in New York or Chicago. I haven't tried all the places mentioned, but I have visited several. Why Not was a big disappointment, because it was a short walk from my home for two years, and I really wanted it to have good pizza. I settled for the house red and lasagna most of the time.

Looks as if we have run out of things to write about hambergers here so this may be the start of the 2013 pizza thread series.
Hope the guy who buys the margareta does not complain that it has too few toppings.