I had a great trip to the East Coast of the USA, thanks to airbnb. While I am a regular with airbnb homes, this time around, airbnb also had Experiences. As mine was a solo trip, I decided to take the Brooklyn Pizza Walk with Dani. For more details https://abnb.me/XR2My3ubnQ?s=51
I decided I would keep my quirks while I travel, vehemently stay vegetarian, though grabbing a bagel or donuts on the go would be convenient. "Does this have egg? ", is a question that's understandably frowned upon.
So, even before I booked the experience (almost two months before I left for the trip) , I asked if I would have vegetarian options . Dani said she is vegetarian herself and I would not miss a thing. Encouraged, I signed up. Eating slices of famous pizza while exploring Brooklyn to digest them, sounded great , given I would be on my own. I am fan of food walks and think of them as one of the most fun things to do as a group.
I like my pizzas thin crust, simple and light. Wood fired with the bare essential ingredients, is the style I enjoy. The Domino's style ones , always leave me guilty, full and feeling not so great - so I don't seek them out. I was curious to know how the NY pizza experience would be.
A dewy Tuesday morning (Sep 11 2018), 2 subway train rides later, I made it from Manhattan to Brooklyn's Bedford Avenue, Williamsburg.
Our group had foodies from Germany, Chicago, New Zealand. We got introduced to our lovely host, Dani.
That's her - holding up a map of New York, to take us through the history of how pizza came to NewYork.
Dani did the intros and led us to our first join - Joe's Pizza in Bedford Avenue.
Now, I was too hungry to take a picture of the classic slice, that came to us at Joe's - so here is a long shot pic below. This it was my personal favorite in the entire tour of 5 different slices. Thin fully baked crust, with just the right balance of salt, dough tomato and cheese. There is such a thing as too much cheese. This one felt light , fresh and was super delicious. Dani said the commercial pizza's come with so much of cheese and not so fresh tomato sauce so condiments like chilli and oregano are added to neutralize and pump flavor into not-so-fresh ingredients.
Dani explained to us what a NewYork style pizza meant. She pointed out the different styles of ovens ,dough,in each place and the history of how the joint came to be. Now, so as to not give too many things away, let me just say Dani knows her pizza and it was great to learn how to identify a good pizza.
Our second slice was at Vinnie's that offered great variety and novelty in their pizza topping. It was fun to choose from many variations. I am a fan of the Caprese salad, so chose the Caprese pizza .
Fresh tomatoes, Mozzarella and Mint - what can go wrong?
The third, was a place called "Best Pizza" - what a name to call yourself while 1000s of vendors around you sell pizza!
The Grandma's slice here, was unique - it had the cheese layer first and then the tomato sauce on top and was square in shape. Here is a pic - just looking at it is salivating.
That's the oven at Best Pizza
Our next slice at "Best Pizza", was something I had never heard of before - White Pizza , or pizza with no tomato sauce. It was intriguing to look at. Pizza without the tartness of tomato?
Turns out the caramelized onion on the cheese and sesame crust made up for this. It was unlike anything I had had before. Apparently , White pizza's are a thing now and pizza places have section dedicated to them. Dani tells us we don't find this sesame crust, onion combo elsewhere.
Three places in Williamsburg later, Dani took us through a subway train, to Bushwick. Now Bushwick, apparently hosts the world's largest Street Art collective called the Bushwick collective. Take a look at the streets and the works of art. Imagine an entire neighborhood that's painted all its walls! We walked around the streets of Bushwick , before heading to our next pizza place.
Artichoke's Basille at Bushwick , was our next spot. We sampled their signature Artichoke pizza - which had a secret white sauce (simmered for 6 hours !) and a thick crust, almost like focaccia .
This was the heaviest of all the slices , delicious nevertheless. Dani made us walk quite a bit to Roberta's our next stop, to help make room for the last slice.
Roberta's is a Neapolitan style pizza place (getting to call your pizza place Neapolitan, is quite an effort - read more https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neapolitan_pizza )
I was already full by this time, may be, that's why I did not enjoy this one as much as the others.
This is our group , with Dani holding the pizza box. It was fun getting to know each other .
The pizza walk was an experience I really had fun with. Exploring a new area , new food, with complete strangers and striking conversations. I am sure I will take more airbnb experiences in the future. If you are travelling to NYC on leisure and love food, I heavily recommend this tour.
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