New Yorkers are passionate about pizza and bagels. But, that doesn’t mean we should insult other pizzas around the country.
Believe it or not, we do not have a monopoly on Italian food.
Redditor Sharp_Cloud4511 encountered this very issue with a friend. So she turned to the “Am I The A**hole” (AITA) subReddit for moral judgment.
She asked:
“AITA for embarrassing my New York friend over pizza?”
The Original Poster (OP) explained:
“Small, stupid AITA, but here we go:”
“Backstory: I (24f) live a few blocks from a pizza place in Seattle that is certified by the Associaziona Verace Pizza Napoletana–the Italian certification for ‘authentic’ Neapolitan pizza.”
“To be perfectly honest, I am not particularly picky about pizza: I think their pizza is great for Neapolitan-style, but I will also happily have deep dish, pan pizza, or, you know, on football night we’ll order a pepperoni and black olive on medium crust from Dominos.”
“I’ll happily chow down on a Costco slice after a long day of bulk shopping. I am not a pizza connoisseur, is what I am saying. But I do like the Neapolitan pizzeria for a ‘fancy’ pizza.”
OP’s friend is not as laid back.
“A friend of mine from college (25f), who is from New York, came to Seattle and visited me and a few other local friends. She wanted ‘good’ pizza, so I took her and some other friends to the place with the AVPN certification.”
“Well, she went on and on about how it wasn’t authentic and wasn’t real pizza and she should know because, quote, ‘I’m from New York and we know what authentic pizza is like.'”
“I said a few times, ‘This is just a different type of pizza than you’re used to, but it’s still some of the nicest pizza in the area’ which just sent her off on more tangents about how none of us understand how pizza is supposed to be made, name checking her favorites in NYC, and going on about authenticity.”
OP didn’t know what else to say.
“I kind of just let her wind down and then said, ‘Do you think Italy has real pizza? Naples, Neapolitan, is that what you mean by authentic pizza?'”
“She hesitated and then said yes, that was where New York pizza was from and then I showed her the flyer explaining that the pizza place that we were at had AVPN certification, and indeed used very specific flour and filtered/mineral water and flew in very specific mozzarella and tomatoes from Italy to maintain the certification–and that while there are AVPN pizzerias in NYC, there are only a couple, and none of her favorites were on the list.”
“To be clear, again, I don’t give a shit whether a pizzeria is AVPN certified–but then I eat Costco pizza. It was about her being snotty about it, not about what I prefer.”
“She got really quiet, but when we got out of the restaurant she said that I had tricked her, and that I should know that what she meant by ‘real’ pizza wasn’t AVPN-certified pizza.”
“And she’s not wrong. I did let her wind herself up before showing her that if ‘authenticity’ was her main consideration then her favorite NYC joint was less ‘authentic’ than my Seattle place, so maybe I did embarrass her unnecessarily. OTOH, I feel like she dug her own grave, more or less.”
Redditors gave their opinions on the situation by declaring:
- NTA – Not The A**hole
- YTA – You’re The A**hole
- NAH – No A**holes Here
- ESH – Everyone Sucks Here
Redditors agreed OP was not the a**hole.
“NTA. She was being a pizza snob, and you just played her game.” ~ JustBrowsing49
“She probably prepared that pizza speech on the plane.” ~ False-Explanation702
“I grew up in South Florida with retired New Yorkers, and all they did was whine about the pizza unless it was someone who used to live in New York making the pizza. But they’d complain it was the water blah, blah, blah.”
“Your friend is a walking cliche, and she’s mad because she made herself look like an idiot. Not your problem. Your intent was to try to take them someplace good. Her complaining about it was very rude. NTA.” ~ AlwaysAlexi777
“Also my experience with New Yorkers. For some reason they all (the ones I’ve met) insisted on bragging about how much better everything is. A guy at a bar kept bragging that in NY they sneer at ppl on the streets and look down at them. But then shut up when someone said ‘well down here you get your ass whooped for looking at someone the wrong way.'” ~ RushxInfinite
“I am a New Yorker that lived in Jacksonville, FL and the water was horrible. Even showering the water sucked. I never in my life felt dry water. And it was undrinkable. Don’t know about South Florida, but North water is disgusting.”
“As for pizza, I started to make my own after awhile. One place that I found that had decent pizza but charged 3x and crust was still 2x thicker. And I am not super picky about pizza.”
“Hell, I actually like Papa Johns and Pizza Hut. But eventually I just got tired of eating mostly bread with toppings. Which I also don’t mind as much as I would literally throw a slice of homemade bread with sauce and cheese in the oven.”
“Now as for bagels… :)” ~ MrGelowe
“I had pizza all over New York, from $2 slices off a cart on a corner to $25 restaurant (which was ok, overpriced….but restaurant.. ya know)”
“And there is nothing supremely special about it. There are vendors with huge amounts of cheese, little cheese and thin and crispy bases, soggy floury base (undercooked) but nice sauce etc… Etc..”
“There’s always 5 different places nearby you can order pizza from, but you know what, people don’t, they always order from ONE place, THEIR favorite. That’s their idea of I guess ‘pride in NYC pizza.’ The other places they don’t order from are just not considered.” ~ Sirix_8472
“I lived in Chicago for a while but am not from there. On three separate occasions I had three different friends from NY visit me there. Each one wanted to visit a pizza place and then proceed to go on about how Chicago pizza just wasn’t authentic and that as a New Yorker they new real pizza.”
“I mean they must have like pizza churches where they train these people to go out and evangelize or something. There is no other explanation.” ~ WillfullyUnwoke
We do love out pizza.