Nasty *** Hudson River water? Negative, ghostrider. First of all the Hudson of today is not the Hudson of the 70's. I've been out on the water there plenty, as do kayakers, jet skis, even swim, you name it. It's way, way cleaned up.
But the NYC water system is wild. It's an incredible rabbit hole to go down if you're interested. Biggest system in the world. The water comes directly from massive reservoirs in protected watersheds upstate. It's pristine and delicious. I'd rather drink it than any bottled water, and that's the only place where I feel that way. It comes through two massive water tunnels, and they've been working on a $5B third tunnel for around 50 years so they can finally shut down the others one by one for repairs and upgrades.
Google if you're interested in infrastructure and the like. It's pretty cool. I dig that stuff. Remember the Die Hard where they have a chase through the under construction 3rd tunnel?
As for pizza (and French and Italian breads, bagels, and pretty much everything else), the water really is just perfect for baking. They say it's because the water is very soft as in low in certain minerals, if affect the gluten for real, but man, nothing compares.
You can mess with water and many bakeries and restaurants nationwide do, which is why, even though my favorite pizza places are in NYC, there are of course some really good restaurants and bakeries all over that work to get it right.
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 a...
www.foodandwine.com