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12 July 2006
Let's talk about pizza.→[More:]What do you put on/order on yours? Do you make your own? Including crust? Thick or thin? Are you frugal with your sauce usage, or do you slather it on? Best pizza you've ever had? Weird toppings? Surprising regional favorites/unfavorites?
It needs to be foldy and have red grease soaking dangerously through the bottom of the cardboard box. Virtually all toppings are good. JJ's pizza & wings - yes, if I've had an active day I can still put away a 16" + 30 - is one of the only redeeming virtues of a trip back to visit my hometown, too. I'd link to them but they apparently haven't paid their web hosting bill recently.
Lots of oregano. Oregano makes or breaks a pizza for me. Usually plain, but sometimes I like roasted pepper and ricotta.
When the tomatoes are ripe, we'll be eating a lot of homemade pizza. Whole wheat crust, fresh mozzarella, basil and oregano from the herb garden, just-picked tomatoes and a drizzle of good olive oil. Can't beat it.
Funny you should ask, just wiped my greasy fingers on my socks before turning to the computer.
This time it was a frozen pizza that I scraped all of the toppings off of, then replaced them with fresh garlic, tomato paste, anchovies, red pepper, mozzarella, fresh thyme, white pepper, and baked it until its all sizzley.
Notwithstanding my above statement, I love NYC style pizza. Foldable and a little greasy. Sausage, onions and green peppers. Usually with plenty of red flakes and parmesan from the shakers. I don't think I could pick a favorite in NYC, but I've loved John's Pizzeria on Bleeker, Joe's Pizza, Ben's Pizza and (oddly) Tribeca Pizza right near my office.
I haven't been to Grimaldi's in Brooklyn yet, but a place with same name in Scottsdale has the best pizza I've had in AZ. Apparently it's related to the Grimaldi's in NYC.
Sometimes I like the Dominos/Pizza Hut/Papa John's style of pizza. But I would describe what they serve, not as pizza, but more like cake with pizza toppings.
California, Colorado, Texas, Virginia, Washington: Extreme Pizza: Indy (8") pie, spinach, red onions, black olives, easy on the sauce.
general 'Za info: Light sauce, heavy cheese, ALWAYS topped with red onions, black olives and spinach. I never make my own. Thin crust usually, but ewwww, I still crave pizza smut pan pizza every once in awhile. Best 'za ever? Tony's New York Family Italian Style Pizzaria in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania, sadly no longer in business. No odd toppings for me. Oh, and Escape from New York Pizza in SF is pretty good too, but NOT nearly as good as Nizario's though.
(NYC'ers -- I had a fair amount of pizza there but the best was on 8th Ave. between 20th and 21st on the west side. . just a little hole in the wall, green awning. . .don't remember the name but they pizza and calzone were great and the guy was grouchy and sweaty. although there are probably hundreds of places like that and as good.)
Best pizza I ever had was in a pizzeria in the town square in Arras in France, cooked in a huge woodburner. Very plain, just tomato, mozarella, olives and oregano. Fabulous.
Ohhh, CALZONE!!! How I miss you. You can only imagine some of the (explicative deleted) people in California put in their calzones. May be it is a regional thing? Where I come from (The Poconos, an hour or two outside of NYC) we ONLY EVER put ham, cheese, and ricotta in it. The sauce is ALWAYS served on the side. I don't think I have heard the word: STROMBOLI in about 10 years now.
I like thick crust, light sauce, black olives and mushrooms at a non-fancypants place, exotic cheeses and pesto and vegetables at a fancypants place, heavy on the garlic in any case. But, hey, pizza, it's like sex, blah blah blah.
That said: if you, Metachat reader, ever find yourself in Little Rock, the only two pizza choices are Damgoode Pies and US Pizza. Take my word for it.
What are the best nationwide, or near-nationwide, pizza chains? Or are none of 'em even minimally acceptable? Domino's, Little Caesar's, Papa John's, Pizza Hut, you know the places I mean.
Unless accompanied by jalapenos. . .I am serious. . .the two are perfect together. . .I got it once as a joke in order for no one to take a piece, but I soon found I stumbled into synergistic bliss. . .
Nat's Pizzeria (Denman and Kits stores)... nice and thin and not a lot of toppings, but just enough that they don't overpower each other. The thick pizzas with tons of cheese on them are pretty ugh, and I can usually only eat one slice before the lactose pills don't work any more.
Oh, and I have fond memories of Beau Jo's Pizza, in Idaho Springs, CO. We would make the drive from Denver up into the mountains just for the pizza. There appear to be locations in Denver itself now, but those weren't around when we lived there. I see that they've also adulterated the menu with dastardly non-pizza items, so I'm not sure if they've still got the goods. It used to be pizza only, with a handful of toppings to choose from to pile onto the delicious crust. The dough was rolled up around the edges to form a crust as thick as your fist, and after you ate the topping-covered portions, you would drizzle honey over the remaining crust. Oh, and you can earn free t-shirts and $100 by putting down a 12 - 14 pound Sicilian monster between two eaters.
Pepperoni, Sausage and Pepperoni, Sausage and Peppers, BBQ Chicken, Buffalo Chicken, Pineapple (though I'm not a big fan of ham)... I'll try most anything on a pizza. One of my favorites was the little pizza shop right outside the Christopher St. 1/9 station, where they had a mexican pizza with jalapenos, taco meat, thin, crispy crust... it was really good if pricey. Best pizza for the buck, though, was always the La Mia Pizzeria near NYU. Cheapest slice on the island, and among the best tasting. I like thinner pizzas, not the thick doughy Pizza Hut/Papa Johns (both ugh) ones.
Whatever it is, it better be OMG SMOTHERED IN GARLIC! I've never been attacked by a vampire, and now you know why.
In Dover, Ohio, where my dad grew up, they called green peppers "mangoes" when they were on pizza. The whole town, not just his family. Nobody was sure why. And of course, once all the chains invaded, this little micro-regional quirk faded.
Coming as I do from the land of deep dish, I do in fact like plenty of sauce, but it has to be really good. I get mine with sausage.
On the other hand, a Neapolitan pizzeria opened up here and makes some killer thin crust. Their smoked salmon and arugula "white" pizza is incredible.
Round Table's (yes, it's a chain - shush!) Italian Garlic Supreme is to die for. I get it without tomatoes (tomatoes are to be fresh or cooked into nothingness in a sauce - not cold tomatoes tossed onto a hot pizza). It's made with a garlic sauce instead of tomato sauce and no vampire dare venture near after one has consumed this pizza.
It's probably a good thing that the nearest Round Table is in Bellingham (half an hour away not counting the border crossing).
La Nova'a in Buffalo... there's a reason they make more money than any other independent pizzeria in the country.
We had some last night.
Sausage (they make their own from scratch), mushrooms (fresh, not canned), and garlic crust.
Also had a slice for breakfast.
And then another for lunch.
mmmmm...
Buffalo style is not like NYC style pizza. I personally prefer it here, but it may because that's what I grew up on. The crust's thicker here, not as crisp. More like what other cities call "Sicilian" style pizza.
Matthew's Pizza in Bawlmer, hon, right on Eastern Avenue near Patterson Park. Hasn't changed since the 1940s, all hand made, all Italian and you can brown bag your own beer. I have strong feelings about chicken, ham and pineapple (evil and wrong) and anchovies, feta cheese and garlic (delicious, good and right) but nobody shares these feelings, so my family compromises. We get black olives, mushrooms, onions, garlic and feta cheese. Sometimes ripe tomatoes. If it was just me, it would have those things AND anchovies AND artichoke hearts but the kids then demand chicken and pineapple or some such unnatural thing.
Most of the pizza here is meh. There's a new hippie place in my neighborhood, Digable Pizza, which is pretty good. All the pizza in Asheville is made by hippies, except for Marcos, and people think Marcos is so great, just because of the novel absence of hippies, but Marcos is overrated. Then there's Mellow Mushroom, which can be good, but predicting whether Mellow Mushroom is going to be fantastic or inedible is a complex science involving arcane knowledge of how much good dope is in the area and how the hippies in the kitchen are holding up, and I have not mastered it.
I learned to make grilled pizza last summer on the gas grill. It's killer, and easy. Just pick up the little ball of premade pizza dough at the supermarket (deli area, usually, and they have whole-wheat now, too), and whatever you want for toppings. You can do all kinds of creative things, but sauce is a minimal part of grilled pizza, so think in terms of grate-able cheeses and chunky little veggies and sausages and such.
Throw some cornmeal in a baking pan. Take little lumps of dough and stretch them out into odd shapes, and then let them rest on the cornmeal to wait. When you have 4 of those or so, however many people you're feeding, put a couple at a time on the grill. Grill them on the first side for a few minutes. When they're firm, turn them over. There are lovely grill marks on the bread! Now you can sprinkle on your topping stuff. Top them lightly -- you won't believe how much flavor is in them from just the grilling, so they don't need a lot of decorating. Close the grill lid so the heat will melt the cheeses. And they're done. Really, they're awesome and they take like 10 minutes. Word to the wise.
I learned to make grilled pizza last summer on the gas grill. It's killer, and easy.
Just pick up the little ball of premade pizza dough at the supermarket (deli area, usually, and they have whole-wheat now, too), and whatever you want for toppings. You can do all kinds of creative things, but sauce is a minimal part of grilled pizza, so think in terms of grate-able cheeses and chunky little veggies and sausages and such.
Throw some cornmeal in a baking pan. Take little lumps of dough and stretch them out into odd shapes, and then let them rest on the cornmeal to wait. When you have 4 of those or so, however many people you're feeding, put a couple at a time on the grill. Grill them on the first side for a few minutes. When they're firm, turn them over. There are lovely grill marks on the bread! Now you can sprinkle on your topping stuff. Top them lightly -- you won't believe how much flavor is in them from just the grilling, so they don't need a lot of decorating. Close the grill lid so the heat will melt the cheeses. And they're done. Really, they're awesome and they take like 10 minutes. Word to the wise.
Bah, now I have to get pizza for this evening. It's going to be pepperoni-mushroom-bacon-extra cheese. Thank you very much.
Speaking of curious toppings - I'm sure someone was - if you order "Mexican" pizza at the kiosks in Budapest you get a slice with whole-kernel corn on. I can't really recommend it.
In Portland i only ever eat Bellagios pizza. Awesome awesome awesome!!! I always order a garlic chicken pizza, (no red sauce, just creamy garlicky white cheesy goodness) topped with chunks of chicken boobies, fresh tomatoes and jalapenos.
Anchovies go 'off' when they sit around in an open can
Jeez, how would you know if anchovies went bad?
The pizza of my youth is from Vic Cassano & Mom Donisi's. The crust is very thin and chewy and is salted on the bottom. It has pepperoni and green olives. It is cut in squares.
The salt and grease set you right up for the heart attack, but I love it still and order it whenever I visit my mom.
There are a lot of really good NY-style slice shops in Toronto, where you go in and get a huuuge slice in a bag. You can eat it leaning against a railing, or get the fuck out. It's awesome.
For pizza, I say garlic, mushrooms, spinich, feta. White pizza is the greatest thing in the universe, if done right. Mostly, it's all about the crust.
Odd But Awesome Pizza: Occidental, CA. Forgot the name of the place, but it's gone now anyway.
Bustelo's Hot Sauce Pizza: Start with the holy trinity: Good crust, good marinara, good cheese. Add locally-produced hababero hot sauce. Top with onions, green pepper, and chorizo. Delivered to the table with a pot of honey to be drizzled to taste. Hot, sweet, peppery, heavenly.
Louisiana Pizza Kitchen at the French Market in New Orleans: pretty much anything there. The pizzas are baked in a wood-fired oven, and the place is beautiful, warm and lovely. We used to stagger in after going out the night before, and have one for brunch that was topped with an egg (it was called "Ovo Nueva" or something... can't remember...), which may sound yucky, but was unholy good. Always with their fabulous Caesar salad... oh, yeah.
The roasted garlic, sun dried tomatoes, spinach, and... I think feta and mozarella is to die for. We used to go there so much that the waiters and waitresses would just bring our drink orders to the table as soon as we walked in, and we always got a discount.
Never seen feta on a pizza in the UK - great idea though. Feta and anchovies... mmm.... Pizza Express is my favourite pizza place here, but probably because I live in a City of No Independent Pizza Restaurants.
Pizza Ré on Via di Ripetta in Rome did (& I think still does) the most delicious Neapolitan-style pizza. There was also this place in the suburb of Tor Sapienza near where I lived for a while that did a pizza with scamorza affumicate (a kind of smoked mozzarella) and mushrooms that was fantastic.
Swedish pizza, alas, is almost always vile, and is customarily served with so-called pizzasallad: shredded cabbage in a vinegary dressing…
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