I've decided to start a new segment here on the old blog, which I am calling the Disjunction of the Week. For those who have not sat through a grueling logic course (and then, like me, had the audacity to take a second one for kicks), I will explain that a disjunction is a choice between two options. Technically, logicians will also allow for the making of a third choice, "both." However, to keep things simple, I would like to limit us to an either-or scenario. It is my hope that readers will find my weekly disjunctions entertaining enough to participate in via the comment box, and also that they will motivate me to post more regularly, since I will now have a weekly obligation. Without further ado, this week's disjunction:
Does pizza come in "pies" or "trays"?
My answer: Having been acclimated to the entire pizza realm mostly by my father's family, I say that pizza comes in "pies." For the record, my father's family is half from Miners' Mills, Wilkes-Barre, and half from Jersey City, NJ. The Miners' Mills portion (Gramps) emigrated to Jersey City after World War II, but brought the Jersey City portion (Mamu) back with him to Harvey's Lake in the 1970s, and thus I consider my father mostly a Jersey boy. Among them, pizza can never come in trays, and I have inherited their point of view. However, special mention should be made of that rectangular form of pizza that could clearly never be a "pie," either. It is my opinion, since "tray of pizza" is not a phrase in our vocabulary, that these should always be called "sheets."
Now, it is of particular note that the pizza recipe prevalent in this area is largely the Old Forge style, quite distinct from anything available in the environs of New York or, from what I understand, Chicago, the two big-name varieties sold here in the US. The fact that the local pizza recipe is distinct does, in my opinion, warrant the change in its attendant vocabulary, and so I would never dispute with someone who calls one of these a "tray" of pizza. The phrase, however, remains foreign to me and I only use it when "going local" for the sake of you townies. This is one of the ways in which it is sometimes evident that I am not so much a Pittston kid as I sometimes think.
The Still of the Silence
1 day ago
6 comments:
I have to agree with your assessment, except for "sheets." I'm pretty sure I still call it a "Sicilian pie," but otherwise, it's a "Sicilian pizza."
Old-Forge "pizza" does indeed come in trays. I still laugh whenever I hear someone say that, though.
Having spent my early childhood in 'Chicagoland', I ma also in the 'Pie' camp. I never really experienced the 'Trays' until I met my wife, and to this day I still see the difference as Sic ilian/Neopolitan myself.
I suppose this could be one of those tests to determine the quality of one's claim to be a true-blue NEPA-er.
Jen, are you saying that, in your world, it is possible for a rectangle to be a pie? That is what I would call "hyperneoeboracensism." You people can't have all pizza in the form of a pie. What about french bread pizza?
French bread pizza is only eaten in school cafeterias. It's not real food.
Yes. Rectangles can be pies.
...Or pies can be rectangles. Is there a difference? Triv's logic component was insufficient to prepare me for this moment.
Anyway. It's impossible to be too New York, Brother Patrick. There is simply no such thing. The rest of you will one day learn that we have been right all along: pizza does not come in trays, garbage goes in the pail, and it costs $13 to cross a bridge.
I am actually rather surprised to hear that you place french bread pizza in a lower class than what you have already called "Old Forge 'pizza.'" I continue in my contention that rectangles cannot be pies. A pie is inherently circular, or at least eliptical.
I think it also deserves mention that my terminology of the "sheet" of pizza was, upon reflection, acquired in Connecticutian suburbia, where it seems the majority of pizza comes in Sicilian form. Thus, that is another, albeit a different, colloquialism.
I'll throw another one at you... Easter Pizza...
This is definately a pie, at least the way my grandmother and mostly everyone from the Pittston area make it.
Hmmm - makes you wonder!
Pie or tray, I never met a pizza I didn't like! ( I vote pie, except in Old Forge )
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