I don’t object to green chile on any kind of principle and in fact enjoy it in certain dishes but the effort to infuse it into every possible dish is evidence of some kind of psychopathy. I will say that, aside from the paucity of choices, Las Cruces is the only place where somoene actually tried to carjack me, and also where law enforcement just kind of shrugged their shoulders like this is just an everyday thing that happens. I am quite happy that I no longer have to go there routinely, and not just because it means flying in through El Paso which is its own special hell.
I am in total agreement with this senitment, and one of my objections to barbeque as it progresses northward is that it becomes more catsup-like in the process. I once had barbeque in Indiana that I swear was actually smothered in Heinz Ketchup and sitting on top of a pile of dill pickles that was perhaps the most grotesque cuisine I’ve seen outside of Cincinatti ‘chili’.
I would not presume to critique ever pizzaria in Chicagoland but every time someone has boasted about their favorite “Chicago-style pizza” it has turned out to be some kind of casserole in which the pizza is buried under a layer of marinara, cooked to the consistency of an apple pie. “I want to know that when I get drunk and pass out on my pizza, that I’m not gonna drown.” I’m sure there is real pizza to be had somewhere in Chicago, but it isn’t the style recognized as “Chicago-style pizza”.
It’s still not as bad as Godfather’s “Pizza”, though.
For most people who aren’t from Chicago, when they hear “Chicago style pizza,” they picture only a deep dish and/or stuffed pizza, as that’s the style which gets press, and to which tourists tend to get steered. But, there’s a completely different Chicago style, which, IME, is what locals actually eat more often – it has a very thin crust (usually a crisp “cracker crust”), and gets cut into smallish squares (“tavern cut”), like so:
(sigh…) All I know is, the last time I went to Jocko’s, I was staying with a friend who loves it and lives just around the corner from the place. The steak is divine – but the total meal is way too much food to finish. I boxed that sucker up, intending to put it into my car cooler to enjoy for lunch as I traveled south the next day.
I let my friend coax me into putting my next-day feast in her fridge instead. Next morning, I was 30 miles out of town before I remembered I’d left my steak behind. She called me awhile later and cackled.
I’m still not entirely over it.
Call it a steakhouse or call it a barbecue joint, I don’t care. I look forward to another one of those steaks!
What the…they cut the pizza into squares? Like Showbiz Pizza for little children that can’t handle a whole slice? What is the point of that? Pizza is a trigonometric expression of analytical cuisinometry, hence the name. It is supposed to come in slices measuring in fractions of 𝞹, not rectangles and weird little leftover off-angle segments like some kind of failed origami experiment. If anything, that is worse than deep dish pizza, which is at least half-honest in its description. How do you even eat that? With chopsticks? Everything about this is so wrong in a Lovecraftian cosmic horror sort of way.
That’d be my suspicion, as well. Here in Chicago, it looks like there are a fair number of Korean BBQ restaurants in the northern part of the city itself, but not too many in the suburbs (I don’t think I’m aware of any Korean restaurants in my area of the western suburbs).
Wikipedia says that, as of the 2000 Census, there were only about 45,000 people who had immigrated from South Korea in the metro area, and that most of them are in certain neighborhoods in the northern part of city, and some northern suburbs.
Yes. We had pizza at work today, four pies, and it was thin (not cracker, though) square cut like always. Deep/stuffed is for special occasions and, even then, I’d rather have a few squares of the sausage, onion, green pepper like I had today. Since they’re small squares, you can eat several kinds of pizza, like barbecue which I disagree with on principle but eat a square every chance I get. A whole slice would be way too much.
My understanding is that the “tavern cut” came about in taverns (of course), where they would serve pizzas that people would snack on while drinking, and thus, the smaller pieces facilitated sharing.
Also called “party cut”. The advantage is the crust lovers get what they want, people who like gooey get that. And it’s damn easier to eat than big slices, especially floppy monstrosities (I’m squinting stink-eye at NYC).
My mother was born not far from Naples, where pizza was born. She made pizza al taglio, and I make it, too: rectangular pans, square or rectangular slices. It’s very common in Italy. So is the disc shape.
While they’re not my favorite, Sicialian and pan pizzas when done well, are scrumptious. Shortly after arriving in the U.S., Mom made a friend from Sicily. They were friends for 80 years, until Mom passed away. I had her friend’s Sicilian pizza, and it was fantastic. Sicilian pizza isn’t quite pan pizza, when it’s made right (NOT Pizza Hut, Domino’s, etc.), it’s delicious.
Sorry you went to some sucky pizzeria when you were in Chicago, especially when there are so many great pizzerias there. Maybe on your next visit, you’ll get to sample some delizioso pizza.
The last time I ate something served in a “tavern” I spent the next day projectile vomiting. Admittedly, it could have been the Blatz beer that accompanied it, but I’m never eating a “dime sandwich” at the Uptowner ever again.
Are these the same people who came up with “Fun Size” candybars? The point of pizza is the dedication, the style in which one manages its consumption, how it is skillfully folded into a managable topology, perfectly guiding the contents to the destination without spilling the grease collecting atop the cheese into ones lap. Slicing it into rectangles both eliminates any aptitude and ensures that no degree of dexterity will prevent catastrophe as sauce and oil slithers its way to the edge and through ones fingers. If Admiral Tarkin had learned how to eat a pizza properly, he would have understood Leia’s parable about how tightening the grip results in systems slipping through his fingers. Instead, like the prime rib-eating bourgeoisie crypto-fasicist, he assumed that he could cut through the Rebellion using the Death Star like a dull steak knife, and the rest is history, at least until J.J. Abrams got ahold of it.
I had a point when I began this but it has sense escaped like “loose meat” from a soggy sandwich bun, truly the nadir of “American cuisine”.
I do a fair amount of smoking and I’ve thought it would be fun to create Boston style BBQ. The food would be smoked over maple lump and the sauce would have maple syrup. Baked beans would be one of the sides.
Well then, I guess I’m gonna have to invent Pacific Northwest style BBQ, which is going to be difficult since most of the year is too cold and damp to cook outdoors.
Clam chowder is probably going to be involved somehow. And some sort of mustard+tartar based sauce.
ROFL. The original book discussing Santa Maria interviewed the chef at Jocko’s.
I was trying to think of everything that improves as you go south. It’s not a complete list. I’m up to beaches, beef, behaviour (superficial politeness), banquets and bronzing.
I see no one is touching this with a ten foot pole.
The book gives a basic history and definitions of barbecue before arguing that it is hard to define, and pointless to limit things where the goal of the book is not to hew to tradition but to discuss its fusion and even fine dining potential. It argues definitions have been used pedantically to elevate ones preferred style of barbecue.
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