Siduri, what I'm actually asking is if there really is some thing called pizza.
I know it's origins, and the way it was made in Naples. And I know what was meant by pizza when I was growing up. Pizza (or pizza pie, as it was called): which, i guess, would mean "pie pie"
1. Was purchased in an Italian restaurant that mostly specialized in it, although other dishes were available. If you grew up in New York (as I did) you could also buy it as locations that specialized in selling it by the slice. There were no chains in those days.
2. Was built on a yeasted flat bread which was formed by stretching, not rolling. This produced a thin, slightly chewy crust, usually with a thicker bread-line ring around the edge.
3. Had a limited number of toppings. These always included tomato sauce and mozzarella cheese. Other common ones were pepperoni, mushrooms, and assorted veggies. And, of course, anchovies.
In short, it was one variation or another of Neopolitan pizza. No problems.
When I lived in Boston, a similar condition prevailed. Naturally, being a New Yorker I wasn't allowed to admit it, but some of the best pizza I've ever eaten was in the North End.Why didn't I know you lived in Boston. My mother grew up in the north end.
So, I thought I knew what pizza was.
Then I moved to the Chicago area. First time we had pizza it was unusual. The crust was thin, crispy, and had no bread edge. It was cut in little squares instead of wedges as it's supposed to be. Well, what they call "pizza a taglio" here, (cut-type pizza) is cut in squares, i believe piantadosi's had that in the NE in boston back then - but it's baked on a large rectangular baking pan, and sold in small shops without seats, wrapped with half the piece sticking out so you can eat it on the street, or wrapped to take home. But here, that pizza is pretty thick and sturdier than the round pizza. And the less said about the toppings the better. And we discovered that thing called deep dish pizza. Deep dish, as I've said before, can be very tasty. But to me it's a casserole, not a pizza. Others, obviously, disagree.Well, here, you're talking about american pizza. right? The thing is that names are what we use them for, and words change meaning over the centuries - "awful" meant full of awe - and "silly" meant holy - and "buxom" meant pliable. Now they mean something very different. Crossing cultures is even more radical and fast a change - in italian "basket" means basketball and "night" means night club and "golf" means pullover. Like "pepperoni" - in italian "peperone" means pepper (bell pepper to be precise). What americans call "pepperone" is called "salame piccante" here - hot salami. So let them call Chicago deep dish pizza "pizza" if they want.
And then I visited southern California, and was exposed to things like pizza topped with Canadian bacon and pineapple, and a host of other weird toppings. And the crust was usually rolled, rather than stretched, giving it a totally different consistency. Aha, in Rome the crust is usually paper thin, somewhat crispy, and rolled. I thought that was a sign of inauthentic pizza when i first came here, but it's just roman pizza. In all the rest of italy, as far as i know it's stretched. Certainly in Naples it is, where it is much thicker.
Now, on this thread, we have a number of opinions that are so diverse as to make the word "pizza" meaningless as a specific culinary term. I wouldn't say so, since the variations in the Land of Pizza are also so diverse as to be unrecognizable too sometimes, except that they all have a bread dough base and some savory toppings (though white pizza with nutella has become popular lately over here).
When you were in Turkey did you get to enjoy lamejun? Seems to me, most of the participants on this thread would consider that to be a pizza. Yeah, that's why i didn't get it, since it looked too much like pizza and i wanted to eat stuff i don't usually find. I did get a form of white pizza with my meal once and another time a form of freshly-cooked puffy, hollow-inside pita (I believe that's what they called pida, but i'm not sure).