Thanks for calling me "ridiculous" - you've made my day.
Pizza in the US stinks, even in Greek neighborhoods. (Except, of course, for your pizza joint, which was apparently the Eight Wonder of the World).
I've never had a good pizza in the States, and I've been all over the country: San Francisco, Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia, Washington, Denver, Providence, Miami, and New York. Everywhere I found the same greasy and bland concoction, overloaded with oregano to hide the lack of flavor. In fact, Italian food in the US seems largely to be just oregano with different nondescript things under it.
If you haven't managed to find good Italian food in Argentina, you are either looking in the wrong places, or on an extremely tight budget. But even on a tight budget, excellent pasta of all kinds can be found at neighborhood raviolerias, made daily from fresh ingredients. It is a matter of knowing where to shop. Which may be harder for an expat than it is for the locals.
ssr said:
Sara, you're being ridiculous.
I grew up in NYC with fantastic pizza and Italian food everywhere. And it still boggles my mind how all of the "Italians" here in Argentina manage to screw Italian food up so badly. There may be a decent place here and there in this city of millions (most of whom are desperate to tell foreigners about how "Italian" they are) but that's just not good enough. Having to trek halfway across the city to get a decent pizza is ridiculous.
I worked at a pizza joint in high school and my boss would get there early in the morning every day to start preparing for the day. His sauce was fantastic and his recipe a secret. All of their ingredients were top-quality and expensive because they were proud and competitive and making the best pizza in the neighborhood is how they earned the loyalty of their customers, even if they were a bit more expensive than some other joints.
That pride and competitive spirit doesn't exist here. Pizza joints are content to sell crap and their customers are content to eat it. It's nasty.
I don't even try pizza here anymore. It's not worth it. Better to gorge when I'm back home and just hold on to the delicious memories than eat any of the crap served here.
