Is New York Water Really The Secret To The Best Bagels and Pizza?

Food & Wine ^ | 3/14/23 | Matt Blitz

[DallasBiff]

There are few questions that have plagued human existence for centuries: What is the meaning of life? What happens to us after we die? How come baby animals are so darn cute? Then, there is maybe the most hotly debated question of them all: Does New York City tap water really make the city's bagels and pizza taste better?

At times, emotion and bias have co-opted the question. But according to science, the answer is a definitive... yeah, kind of. While the city's water is certainly unique and has defining qualities, the impact it has on the actual taste and texture of bagel and pizza dough may be more minimal. In fact, the production techniques are likely what makes these signature New York items taste better.

[rlmorel]

I got both pizza and Chinese food up in Nova Scotia one time on a trip up there, and they could neither make pizza nor Chinese food.

I did find out there was some weird license people have to buy from the government to serve Chinese food!

I have a wide range of both Pizza and Chinese food that I can manage to eat with a degree of enjoyment, but I could neither finish the Pizza OR the Chinese food...it was THAT bad.

And the Chinese food was REALLY expensive.

[Fuzz]

That’s a fact. Modern was my favorite back when I lived there.

[Farmerbob]

[But you can’t get a good tortilla in New York.]

Or picante sauce, so I’ve heard.

[Rockingham]

New York's superb water system is the result of many decades of hard experience, good engineering, and lots of money. It took time, but eventually New Yorkers learned that a great city requires a reliable and abundant supply of good water.

[FatherofFive]

I worked in NYC during the 80's. (79th floor of the WTC) The tap water in NYC was delicious. (I grew up in Buffalo and drank the stuff from Lake Erie)

NYC pizza was great, but the best bagles were from a shop on Rt 17 in Fairlawn, NJ.

I was always amazed people paid so much for bottled water. Then I saw a bottle of Evian in a mirror and figured it out.

[who_would_fardels_bear]

I can see where there can be a perfect bagel with the optimum texture and chewiness.

However, there are so many ingredients even in the simplest pizza that saying that NY pizza is the best is just chauvinism.

I've had delicious thin, medium and thick crust pizzas. I've had delicious pizzas with just mozzarella or with a combination of cheeses. I've had delicious pizzas with just a bit of sauce or dripping with sauce. And I've had pizzas with a wide variety of toppings and not just plain slices favored by the Barstool Sports guys.

[cyberstoic]

Obviously they have never visited Chicago. UNO’s, Lou Malnatti’s,Giordano’s,Aurelio’s. Chicago deep dish. New York water can’t make up the difference

[Williams]

Interesting.

[tflabo]

Ex Long Islander here. Entenmann’s had produced wonderful baked products from their NY based operations. When they moved it to Florida the quality went down in large part due to the water. Entenmann’s products are now additionally worse since they sold out operations to an inferior company so it’s not just only the water. Sux that most of the time we often here stories of products getting produced worse than their earlier years.

[Labyrinthos]

The water quality is also why the NYC watershed areas provide some of the best trout fishing in the world.

[Political Junkie Too]

bagel and pizza dough may be more minimal

Can something actually be "more minimal?" It's either "more" or it's "minimal," but it can't be "more minimal."

-PJ

[stanne]

“ But you can’t get a good tortilla in New York.]

Or picante sauce, so I’ve heard.”

Not easily

Clint’s salsa out of San Antonio is available. I think it’s got. Mild. Medium. Hot.

[voicereason]

Total nonsense! Everyone knows that Old Forge in Pennsylvania is the pizza capital of the world: USA Today.

[bk1000]

I have a friend who has had water shipped to her from NYC just to make bread and pasta with. I can’t say I’ve experienced a difference. The bagels up there are something else indeed.

[Bigg Red]

mark

[Dr. Sivana]

There’s a pizza place in Tampa that brings NYC water

There's a mini-chain in Phoenix that does the same. I tried it. Meh.

[FamiliarFace]

My husband’s uncle used to work for Entenmann’s back in the day. His favorite favorite thing from there is the crumb cake. Now that they sold the business to Hostess, it’s no where near the quality it used to be. I still enjoy the big chocolate covered white donuts. We only get those for special occasions when there will be enough mouths to eat them all in a day or two, namely when our kids come to visit.

[T.B. Yoits]

The sauce makes the taste; not the water, not the dough, not the cheese.

One key to that is the variety of tomatoes used, as well as the seasonings, including oregano.

You could put the sauce on toasted rolls (they do, with pizza sandwiches) and they taste good.

[GaryCrow]

Granted it’s not New York City (or even the state), but the last time I was in Hoboken I could distinctly smell the odor of filtered sewage in the tap water. Maybe that’s what makes the bagel and pizza dough better.

[TalBlack]

It ain’t the water. It’s the ingredients and how you treat them. For the record the bagels of today and the bagels of say 1965 are barely related beyond both being round.