# American pizza **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 19, 2003, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-pizza/219970 "2003-12-19T14:42:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![yoyodyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/a9a28c/32.png) [@yoyodyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yoyodyne)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2003, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-pizza/219970/61 "2003-12-22T01:32:58Z")
I once had a pizza at the Pizza Hut in Bahrain. Ordered it with sausage, it came with little balls of lamb meat. Not the greatest meat for a pizza topping. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2003, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-pizza/219970/62 "2003-12-22T02:00:13Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by ruadh \* > \*\*Germany has fantastic pizza. Go figure. \*\* Used to be, if you ordered a pepperoni pizza in Germany, you got a pizza with those long banana peppers on it. My favorite local pizza is something called a “Rosemary Rustica”, which has chicken, potatoes, rosemary, cheese in a white garlic sauce. Yummm. ---
**Author:** ![smsaks2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bbe5ce/32.png) [@smsaks2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smsaks2000)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2003, 6:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-pizza/219970/63 "2003-12-22T06:58:17Z")
I’d realy have to agree about Famous Ray’s Pizza…It’s by far the best!! Though there are quite a few different Ray’s pizzas scattered around the city, my personal favorite is the one on 6th Ave and 11th street. A nice big slice of pizza…and they dont do “extra Cheese”…you cant fit more cheese on it. Just amazing!!! There’s also a Gino’s pizza near Kennedy airport that is great. You go in and order a slice with sausageand they pull out a sausage and start slicing… All this I miss now that I’m away from New York. Not a day goes by that I dont shed a tear for my beloved pizza!!! (My choice… Sausage and pepperoni… But… the pepperoni must be placed on the pizza AFTER the pizza comes out of the oven!! When the pepperoni is cooked it gets all hard and crusty. Raw pepperoni is the way to go…they dont call it a cold-cut for nothing!!!) Steve ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Death](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ecccb3/32.png) [@Evil\_Death](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Death)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2003, 10:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-pizza/219970/64 "2003-12-22T10:37:24Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by smsaks2000 \* > \*\*(My choice… Sausage and pepperoni… But… the pepperoni must be placed on the pizza AFTER the pizza comes out of the oven!! When the pepperoni is cooked it gets all hard and crusty. Raw pepperoni is the way to go…they dont call it a cold-cut for nothing!!!) \*\* You, sir, are a sick sexual deviant - that, or you’ve had too many overcooked pepperoni pizzas. Raw pepperoni is yicky. Properly cooked pepperoni - so it’s red, not black - is manna from heaven. (Which is how Jesus fed the five thousand, of course - he ordered in mackerel pizza.) ---
**Author:** ![tracer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tracer/32/20578_2.png) [@tracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tracer)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2003, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-pizza/219970/65 "2003-12-22T16:50:47Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Evil Death \* > **By which do you mean [a 12-inch pizza with 5 toppings in America] would cost $10.95, or that it would cost the USD equivalent of £10.95?** The former – except that nearly every pizza chain over here issues volume-discount coupons, so if you use one of their coupons and get, say, **two** medium (12") pizzas, the price per pizza might even be less than the latter. ---
**Author:** ![mrklutz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ebca7d/32.png) [@mrklutz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mrklutz)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2003, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-pizza/219970/66 "2003-12-22T21:03:26Z")
Someone mentioned California Pizza Kitchen. I lived in Berkeley for a year and a half, and I don’t know about southern California, but the folks in Northern California _do not_ know how to make good pizza. New Yorkers know pizza. Chicagoans know pizza. Berkeleyites know sprouts. (Don’t get me started on the sprouts.) After a long and fruitless hunt for decent pizza in Berkeley, I wouldn’t touch anything that has California in the name. My favorite pizza joints in places I have lived are: Ames, Iowa: Great Plains Sauce and Dough – This place makes truly _massive_ pizzas. A large will easily feed 4 hungry college guys. Unparalleled amounts of cheese make it an impressively heavy pie. It’s served with honey for putting on the crust, which is about an inch and a half thick at the outer edge. 2 slices is like alternating meal/dessert/meal/dessert. Minneapolis: Leaning Tower of Pizza – Nice zesty sauce, with generous, good-quality toppings and cheese. Chunks-o-garlic are a must. ---
**Author:** ![Mehitabel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8797f3/32.png) [@Mehitabel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mehitabel)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2003, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-pizza/219970/67 "2003-12-22T22:04:35Z")
Honey? And there used to be a CPK in Harvard Square, of all places (and an Uno’s, deep crust being the only dough in MA able to properly hold the right amount of cheese). I think the name came from the association CA has out here of freshness, innovative cuisine, a casual lifestyle suitable for consuming pizza, and putting vegetables on everything 😉 There are a few competing chains of pizzeria’s here in NY calling themselves Ray’s, and it’s become a cliche. There’s Famous Ray’s Original, Ray’s Famous Original, Original NY Ray’s Pizza, etc. When you call something Famous Ray’s whatever, it means either totally authentic or something that’s trading on a famous name it didn’t quite earn. The thread for the plain old ‘Law and Order’ show over at Television Without Pity is named “Law & Order: Famous Ray’s Original” to distinguish it from the four or so spinoffs. ---
**Author:** ![SenorBeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senorbeef/32/2220_2.png) [@SenorBeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SenorBeef)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2003, 6:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-pizza/219970/68 "2003-12-23T06:04:05Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Chefguy \* > \*\*Used to be, if you ordered a pepperoni pizza in Germany, you got a pizza with those long banana peppers on it. > > \*\* You sure it wasn’t peppercini pizza? I think that’s what those things are called. ---
**Author:** ![Vaz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/ccd318/32.png) [@Vaz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Vaz)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2003, 8:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-pizza/219970/69 "2003-12-23T08:32:57Z")
We have “Mexicana” or “Tex Mex” pizza. It a form of chillied minced meat! (ground beef). Actually it’s good! and other toppings that rival those Japanese. Chicken liver pizza anyone? 😃 [Pizza Perfect](http://www.pizzaperfect.co.za/Menu.htm) [Debonairs](http://www.debonairs.co.za/menu/default.htm) [St Elmo’s](http://www.stelmos.co.za/RestaurantPizzas.html) We can also specifiy toppings if we want. We had Pizza Hut but they have closed down. Ditto for Domino’s. ---
**Author:** ![Ms2001](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ms2001/32/18463_2.png) [@Ms2001](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ms2001)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2003, 11:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-pizza/219970/70 "2003-12-23T11:48:49Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Eve \* > \*\*By the way, does _anyone_ eat frozen pizza just as it comes? Well, not still frozen; I mean, does anyone just take a frozen pizza out of the box and pop it in the oven? I always have to add sauce, spices, maybe extra toppings . . . Can’t imagine just eating a frozen pizza as-is. \*\* Yup. I usually go with stuffed-crust pepperoni Tombstone when I have frozen pizza. ---
**Author:** ![tracer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tracer/32/20578_2.png) [@tracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tracer)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2003, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-pizza/219970/71 "2003-12-23T20:52:56Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by RobuSensei \* > \*\*And an “extra-large” 35 cm pizza ranges from $20 to $30. \*\* Hmph! The Japanese miniaturized radios in the 1960s, and now they’re miniaturizing pizza. As any red-blooded American will tell you, a LARGE (not extra-large) pizza is supposed to be 14" (35.6 cm), **minimum**. An EXTRA-large pizza is either 16" (40.6 cm) or 18" (45.7 cm), depending on which pizza chain you go to. Mountain Mike’s “Mountain Sized” pizza is 20" (50.8 cm), and I remember a pizza restaurant on the old Santa Monica Promenade that used to make 26" (66 cm) pizzas! In fact, our pizzas are so big that we had to invent **new** names for pizzas smaller than a “Small” (10" or 25.4 cm), such as “Personal” or “Individual”. ---
**Author:** ![blowero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/41988e/32.png) [@blowero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blowero)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2003, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-pizza/219970/72 "2003-12-23T21:16:23Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by pulykamell \* > \*\*Well, except for New York Pizzas, and a couple of thin-crust joints in Chicago, I’d say Italian pizza is far tastier. I can’t stand Domino’s, Pizza Hut or Papa John’s. As for differences, American pizza tends to be thicker than Italian pizza. Also, the tomato sauce is usually much more flavored and much more generously applied than its Italian counterpart. I suspect this is why you like it better. \*\* You’re just not going to the right places. Round Table makes excellent pizza, just to name one. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-pizza/219970.md?page=3)