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Wait, so people in Cambridge eat pizza with a fork?

The New York Times gets all saucy with its coverage of their new mayor's shocking habit of eating pizza with a fork. The man himself blames his Italian heritage - he says that's just how people in Italy eat pizza - but the story ends with this coda:

Pressed on why a mayor who prides himself on populism would opt for such a technique, Mr. Greinsky shrugged. “He’s from Boston,” Mr. Greinsky said of the mayor. “He doesn’t know any better.”

Tsk. Unlike Boston, which actually has a mayor from Boston, New York is governed by a guy from Cambridge (Cambridge Rindge and Latin represents). So how exactly do people in Cambridge get pizza into their mouths? And what would an equivalent Boston culinary crime be? Marty Walsh trying to order Manhattan clam chowder at Sullivan's?

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Comments

I eat pizza with my hands.

I eat those casseroles Chicagoans call pizza with a knife and fork.

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I think people in NYC just need something to get "outraged" about after being outraged all week about Chris Christie and the GWB.

On a serious note, DeBlasio probably spent 15 minutes shaking hands before sitting down to eat, without the benefit of a hand-wash break. I think I would be using a fork and knife, too.

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Damn straight. Last thing one needs in one's first few weeks in office is norovirus.

Also, for the record, I believe the dish to which Adam referred to is tomato soup with clams.

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Badly made New England clam chowder can also be referred to as wallpaper paste with clams. I feel sorry for anyone who's never tasted a really well made Manhattan clam chowder. I grew up at the other end of Route 2 where both Manhattan and New England chowders were served with no regional assumption. (Mac's in Cohoes made the best I ever had, though they've been closed for many years)

Good Manhattan chowder is nothing like tomato soup. It's clams and fresh vegetables in a mostly-clear broth. Although it may contain some tomatoes, they should not be dominant, and it definitely should not be thickened with flour or tomato paste! I love both kinds so I miss being able to get Manhattan clam chowder here.

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And agree that Rhode Island clear clam chowder is the best?

The other two are just that plus cream or that plus tomatoes.

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No, it is not the best!

A well-made pot of New England clam chowder is righteous.

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I bet he eats his Snickers with a knife and fork too.

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I love slicing a Snickers and then eating it. I like looking at the layers.

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Better question is where is there good pizza in Cambridge?

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Pinocchios Pizza & Subs 74 Winthrop St
Cambridge,

Hi Fi Pizza 496 Massachusetts Ave, Cambridge

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Gran Gusto has amazing, fork-worthy pizza, and it's in Cambridge.

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Hi-Fi is good if i'm going to the Middle East, but I question calling that pizza good if I'm sober.

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...in HVD Square is also not bad.

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Oggi's in the Holyoke Center in Harvard Square has really good pizza. Their main place is in JP but their little hole in the wall in the Holyoke is a great place for a slice.

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Armando's on Huron Ave. at the corner of Concord Ave. Family-owned, now in the 3rd generation.

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Area Four

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Emma's in Kendall Sq.

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I think having ordered fried clams, getting them, then exclaiming, "No, I wanted clam strips", would qualify.

Suldog
http://jimsuldog.blogspot.com

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and sometimes use a fork and knife, especially if I'm trying to br as neat as possible and not get any sauce on my clothes, or if it's very hot.

Deblasio probably didn't want to get sauce on his clothes and face, and then there's the hand shaking angle. I've never heard of forks and knives being the proper or accepted way to eat pizza in Italy, although I'm sure some Italians usr them for the same reasons listed above.

Deblasio's emphasis on his 'ethnic' background and various names chsnges sound contrived to me. The image he trys to project if being raised by a poor 'ethnic' mom also sounds contrived. He in fact came from a family with pretty goid connections and he didn't have a deprived upbringing.

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and I also use a fork and knife under your examples, and also if I'm in a situation where my hands might be dirty.

I've been to Italy and have seen Pizza being eaten both ways....usually it was sit-down restaurants with fork and knife. But Pizza is sometimes a 'street food' and I've seen guys fold an entire pizza up and eat it while strolling around.

I think the real issue with New Yorkers is that their past TWO mayors are from the Boston area. Bloomberg and now DeBlasio. They're insecure about it....which is funny because they have always accused Bostonians as having an insecurity complex.

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.. made it all the way to Italy & Italy's leading newspaper the "Corriere della Sera"---

http://www.corriere.it/esteri/14_gennaio_11/primo-scandalo-sindaco-new-y...

The author points out that, yes, people in Italy do use a fork & knife and then mentions that the mayor, at least, does not emulate Tony Manero in SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER & eat his slices two at a time and on the run. He also notes that De Blasio does at one point take a slice in his hand & bite into it. But I bet none of this will stop Jon Stewart from skewering De Blasio come Monday, as he has done with Donald Trump caught eating pizza in similar fashion.

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Is the Times playing off a stereotype of what populist is supposed to mean? Sounds like they are playing off the stereotype of the he-man who eats with is hands! Pizza - and in my book good pizza with viscous but still liquify sauce - is sloppy. If I am wearing a suit and tie - I don't want to get sauce on the clothes. It will not come out.

This pseudo news is better left to the NYC tabloids and Faux News.

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comes with a Subaru so why not.

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A fork is useful when you're just starting on that first piece of "right-out-of-the-oven" pizza, when the cheese is still so molten that the slice collapses when picked up by hand.

Then there's the celebrated custom of pasta twirling. Where I grew up, it was standard practice to eat pasta using a fork and large spoon for twirling. I don't see as many people doing that anymore and sometimes even have to ask for a twirling spoon when served spaghetti at Italian restaurants! I can't think of any other food that's eaten using both a fork and spoon at the same time. Is pasta twirling a dying art, or was it just a regional thing? I wonder if people who eat spaghetti with sauce are less likely to twirl than people who eat pasta with gravy.

Well, no matter how you eat it, Italian food is delicious!

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And.....get a few looks most every time. Sometimes I get an "oh how clever" as if I invented the practice.

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We Italians use to twirl spaghetti, of course;, but we only use a fork to do that. However children may use a spoon too, to help until they get mastering the technique.
If you do the same you 're on the right path towards Italian style.

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Using a spoon to fix the axis when twirling has the added benefit of bringing more sauce (or gravy) together with the pasta, giving it more flavor and thus enhancing the overall pasta eating experience.

I suspect pasta twirling is a bit like eating with chopsticks; if you develop the manual dexterity early in life, you'll always prefer eating that way.

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My mom's family always used a spoon, and I grew up doing so, but then I switched to eating pasta from a bowl, and proper swirling is done against the side of the bowl, no spoon required. I can't stand eating spaghetti from a plate, but if I ever did, I suppose the spoon might again make sense.

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that's almost my history with the technique....but sort of reversed. My family often served spaghetti in bowls when I was growing up, so we twirled without the spoon. On my own I use plates more often than bowls so that's when I break out the spoon. I also like to think I"m not scraping the china when I twirl so I kind of like the spoon idea overall.

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