Summary

In this April Cools post, Hillel Wayne argues that the classic 'Chicago vs New York pizza' debate is fundamentally flawed because deep dish and New York pizza serve completely different culinary roles. Deep dish is a special occasion food that Chicagoans rarely eat, while New York pizza is everyday lunch fare. The proper comparison, he argues, is New York pizza versus the Chicago hot dog, which serves the same everyday-lunch role. After comparing the two, he reluctantly gives the edge to New York pizza for home-cooking convenience, but uses the post mainly as an excuse to celebrate underappreciated Chicago foods like Italian beef and flaming saganaki.

Key Insight

Comparing Chicago deep dish to New York pizza is a category error — they serve entirely different culinary roles, and the real comparison should be between everyday iconic foods from each city.

Spicy Quotes (click to share)

• 6

  The two pizzas fulfill such totally different roles that comparing them is silly, and the more interesting comparison is New York Pizza versus Chicago style hot dogs.

• 5

  For actual everyday eating, we unfortunately have 'tavern style' pizza.

• 6

  Chicagoans are fanatically opposed to putting ketchup on it, but you only got one life, do what you want.

• 7

  I don't know a single person who actually likes NYC hot dogs for their taste, as opposed to nostalgia or city pride.

• 6

  NYC dogs don't even get their own Wikipedia page, making them less culturally important than the Coney Island dog or the completo.

• 5

  There are lots of delicious kinds of pizza out there but most hot dogs I've tried are 'fine' at best. But the Chicago dog? That's a sausage America can be proud of.

• 2

  Roast beef, peppers, french bread dipped in the meat drippings.

Tone

humorous, opinionated, affectionate