N Y C in Las Cruces

Ahhhhhhh, Nuevo Mexico, land of green chiles, pintos, pistachios, pecans, and enchantment. And now, N Y style pizza slices!!!!!!!!!! Near the downtown mall is a pizzeria cum artisan bread shop, Zeffiro's/Popular Artisan Bread. It serves excellent brick oven pizza. Across town, by the university, the same people have been teasing us with a banner announcing the opening soon of a New York style pizza place. For those of us from "the east" there is nothing like a N Y slice---thin crust, delicious sauce, good toppings---fold it in half , place it in your mouth, and allow your taste buds to experience ecstasy. And now we can experience this wonder in Las Cruces.

I had gone to the bicycle shop to check the status of the tune-up on my mountain bike but it wasn't ready. So Leny and I went to lunch at Zeffiro's N Y style pizza on University. She stayed in the truck, I ordered a plain slice to go, took it to the truck, and shared it with her in the parking lot.

It was as good a slice as I've had since leaving the east coast!!! So I decided that dinner would be a N Y pizza, to be eaten during the Big East showdown between Villanova (YAY) and Syracuse (BOO). I called in the order. The wife and I went to pick it up. Now there is one negative---the very friendly young woman who cheerily took my money said it would be a minute for them to box the order, then never gave us the pizza. Giving the place the benefit of the doubt, it being new with new staff and still needing to work out the kinks, let alone considering their proximity to the university and how many people might not pick up orders, I patiently waited about 25 minutes for her to call my name to pick up my order. The wife of course picked up on my growing impatience and went out onto the patio. I approached the counter and the young person acted as if I had just entered the establishment---total air head. There was no-one home behind that sweet smile!!!! After we established I'd called in an order and had already paid for it, the owner/manager came over. He apologized and refunded my money. The pizza and calzone were under the counter, getting cold. The cashier still did not give them to me---it took another employee to hand them over!!!! Hopefully they get over their birthing pains soon because I will say the product is absolutely outstanding!!!!! The acid test of a pizza is whether it tastes good cold and this pizza certainly did!!! I bet it would be even better hot!!!! Hopefully I'll experience it that way next week. Now if they'd only add anchovies to their list of toppings it would be perfection...............

Re-Visit

I can always tell when I've returned from visiting my old stomping grounds.

First is the needed infusion of green chile. This week I twice had green chile cheeseburgers for lunch and one dinner was chile rellenos (made from a weight-watchers recipe--baked not deep-fried). If you haven't lived in green chile country you probably won't understand the import of this, but trust me on it!!

Next is the craving for GOOD Italian food. I'm contemplating sending $20.00 to one of my cousins so she'll get me a stick of that excellent hot sopressata salami from the L&G Deli. And I've framed my receipt for the White Castle I visited in Astoria, Queens, NYC. (I know -White Castle isn't Italian but ain't no beating them sliders.) As I write this entry, the grill is heating up so I can do a hot Italian sausage sub for lunch.

It's not always pleasant going back to CT. Flying is a hassle, everything's wicked expensive. But the food is to die for. Now if I could just get me an anchovy pizza from John the Baker.......