The Chicago Bulls vs. New York Knicks is not the biggest rivalry between the big Apple and the Windy City, the most famous dish in both cities is……PIZZA!
The crispy-thin New York-style pizza derivates from the Italian Neapolitan pizza and was originated in NYC in the early 1900 by a pizzeria founded by Gennaro Lombardi, located in New York City’s Little Italy. The NY-Style pizza is a large pie, typically cut in 8 slices that you can fold in half and eat with one hand as is often eaten as fast food. It has a thick and crispy crust only on the edges and thin and soft in the middle with basic ingredients and a base of traditional tomato sauce grated with mozzarella cheese and traditional toppings such as pepperoni. You can usually condiment with dried red chili pepper flakes, parmesan cheese, garlic powder or oregano.
The deep-dish Chicago-Style pizza was created in 1943 by Ike Sewell, founder of the famous Pizzeria Uno in Chicago. Deep dish pizza is more like a full meal, is a smaller pie than the New York-style with no more than a 12-inch diameter. It is a thick crust pizza baked in a pan like a cake, covered with mozzarella cheese and filled with vegetables such as pepper, onion, mushroom and garlic and meat such as pepperoni, sausage or meatballs, and as a finishing layer a tomato sauce and sparkled parmesan cheese for more flavor. The deep-dish pizza is “upside down” from the regular pizza, this is to prevent the cheese from burning due to the cooking time required for deep-dish pizzas which is from 40-50 minutes. Chicago’s most famous pizzerias are Gino’s East, Pizzeria Uno and Lou Malnatis.
As the ongoing debate of crust vs. convenience continues between New York or Chicago style pizza, you can agree that pizza remains a worldwide favorite!
