Pizza and Yogurt in New York

Besides my book readings, I am also in New York City to research the best pizza for an article I am writing. The pizza here reminds me of my time in Italy; it is pretty close to Neapolitana style. I met with Scott of Scott’s Pizza Tours. This guy loves pizza so much, he quit his job to dedicate more time to researching where the good stuff is. He knows what makes quality pie and he can talk your arm off about pizza and pizzeria history. He now takes tourists around in an old school bus to visit the best in various neighborhoods. $55 gets you the tour and a sample slice at 4 places on the route. It’s an excellent angle on seeing New York, not to mention a delicious one. I used some of his recommendations for my list. Above you can see Dom from DiFara Pizza, using a scissors to cut some fresh basil over a slice. He’s been doing that for over 40 years!

But my primary mission was to promote The Yogurt Man Cometh. Around 50 people attended my slide presentation at Mid-Manhattan Public Library on Wednesday, but I sold a paltry two copies. But the Turks came through for me as they always do. Ural and Ali are my new marketing geniuses. They set up Friday’s reading and a similarly sized crowd came, primarily Turkish Americans. I sold about 40 books. But the real triumph was the media blitz that followed. This is me on CNN Turk! The Turkish television channel TRT interviewed me and taped the event and I expect to see the finished product in a few weeks. I hope to link it to my website. By Saturday morning a couple dozen Turkish news sources were running my pictures and a report of my reading and my book. This will certainly get the word out more than ever. In August I will be in Monterey California to sell at a Turkish Festival. Watch my website for dates and times.

So from the mad rush of traffic and tangle of subway routes, I will now head to the peaceful Laurel Highlands of Pennsylvania…