I’m with orangcakes–just crust and cheese (sausage and pepperoni are OK). The one thing that I can’t stand is mushrooms! Eeewww!
“If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster, and treat those two impostors just the same.”
Kipling
Lou Malnati’s Pan with Sausage and Pepperoni.
Anyone from Chicago should recognize the name (it’s a small chain in the Chicago area).
For all the Californians here, don’t take this personally, but I don’t think anyone on the west coast has any idea how to make pizza. I was in the bay area for a while a month ago, and tried the pizza at 4 or 5 different places – all local joints, I hate the big chains – and all were terrible. They’d be run out of business in 2 weeks if they were in Chicago.
Anchovies? You gotta be kidding me. YUCK! If anyone wants them on thier pizza I make them order it in a little dish and then they can put it on the pizza after I have taken my slices. Anchovies…::shudder::
I have two places I like to get pizza from: Lenny and Vinny’s, and 5-Star. Lenny and Vinny’s is more like a regular place to eat, 5-Star is a typical delivery type place like Domino’s.
I love almost all toppings: pepperoni, bacon, onion, green pepper, banana pepper, sun dried tomatos, jalpenos, broccoli, chicken, ground beef, gyro meat. I don’t get all of that on my pizza at once. Usually I just have to settle for pepperoni because that’s the one thing most everyone likes. If I can get it my way, I will get one type of meat and then one or two kinds of veggies on it. I prefer thin crust. Thick crust is too greasy. I also enjoy those “white pizzas” but don’t order them very often.
Damn. Now I am hungry.
I crave an art that passionately transcends the mundane instead of being a device for self-deception.–Griffin, from The Griffin and Sabine trilogy.
I’m not going to argue the relative merits of chain store pizza, except to say they usually suck. I almost always stick with the little independent shops even if it means getting take-out.
There’s a place in town that still makes the dough with lard; it come out almost like a pie crust, just a bit thicker and crispier. One size only and absolutely delicious.
My favorite topping combination: pepperoni, bacon and black olives. Then add a bit of grated romano cheese and a few crushed red pepper flakes on just before eating for the perfect pie.
“There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences.”
~P.J. O’Rourke~
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Anchovies? Not on your life.
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Lou Malnati’s is excellent. Other good ones are Giordano’s and Garibaldi’s. Hand-tossed and deepdish/stuffed are the best for crust. As for toppings, one or more of the following: sausage, mushrooms, green pepper, onion, tomato, ham. No pineapple allowed. Pepperoni is acceptable, but only in combination with other toppings. Pepperoni-only pizza gets too greasy.
Your Official Cat Goddess since 10/20/99.
“I get along well with everybody.” --I.M.F.
Pizza Hut’s NY style is not bad, and with as many different kinds of meat topping as possible. I also like CPK (California Pizza Kitchen’s) white pizza (four diff kinds of white cheese- I fear that one of them may be goat cheese so I try not to think about it cuz it’s tasty). I also need garlic… lots of garlic, lots & lots of garlic. And when you’re done putting the garlic on top, put some more on.
NO onions, green peppers, artichokes, mushrooms, broccoli, capers, cauliflower, eggplant, olives, squash, zucchini or nuts of any kind please… if I want a salad, I’ll order it separately.
There used to be a mom & pop shop called Vesuvio’s on DuPont Circle in DC, they made the greasiest slimiest wonderfully delicious garlic pizza- but they closed a few years ago. Was this the only one of has anybody ever seen another Vesuvio’s elsewhere?
Oh, and to answer the OP, no fishies on my pizza please. My breath is bad enough with all that garlic.
Fish on pizza is just plain wrong.
I understood that instinctively the very first time I saw an anchovie. Years later, while living in Germany, I started eating regularly at a little pizza place around the corner from my partment. I soon settled upon a steady diet of pizza capricosa (red pepper, onions, spices, yum). But, German beer and young men being what they are, one day I decided to try something else. Pointing randomly at the menu, I ordered another liter. Some time (and about half a liter) later, my pizza arrived – covered in tuna fish and feta. By now, the beer munchies were upon me, so I ate it. Thus, was one of the cardinal rules of teh universe reinforced in my personal experience.
Fish on pizza is just plain wrong.
Mmm… that reminds me of another favorite:
Pizza Frutti de Mare
Clams (in the shell), calimari, shrimp, and octopus with a little cheese and parsley and a simple tomato sauce. The clams are a little tough to work with, I admit, but: damn, is it good!
Anchovies and capers, mmmm. In Europe at places where you can got your own little small pizza I get that, but noone else can stand it, so I’ve taken to buying the little tins of them and personally applying them (like Arnold). I was amused when Fry on Futurama did the same-- I felt vindicated.
Otherwise pesto with feta, artichoke hearts.
The Best pizza I have encountered (American style, that is) is from a place called Pizza Schmeetza in Forest Grove, Oregon, believe it or not. Gigantic, huge thick crust…mmmm. Any of you Portland types-- next time you head for the coast take a detour and try this place (near Pacific U.).
Anchovies do have their use. I used to run a coffee club for an engineering department ($ 0.10 a cup) and we had enough leftover money every few months to buy everybody in the club pizza for lunch at the local pizza restaurant. I always got stuck doing something at work and was late for the pizza lunch so I started ordering an extra large with DOUBLE anchovies. Guess what ? I always got my pizza after that because nobody ate anchovies. I developed a taste. They’re not bad, better than not eating. I made pizza for a living once and the anchovies used to sit open in the cooler for months. That’s why they taste like crap at most places because they don’t sell enough of them and they sit around and spoil. Fresh anchovies are good !
“Hope is not a method”
Red onions and bacon. Mmm-mmm.
I like anchovies in moderation, but usually if you order them on a pizza they put on way too many. Maybe they figure as long as someone ordered them they might as well use them up.
One surprisingly good local pizza place is Wegman’s, an area supermarket chain. Most of their stores have pizza counters inside and they make excellent pizza. They also have the exotic flavors I love like Greek (chicken, spinach, and feta cheese), cheeseburger, seafood (shrimp and imitation crab in a cheese sauce), taco, and buffalo chicken (chicken and blue cheese).
At work when they order pizzia, about half are the garbage pizzias withe everything. One is a plain sausage or pepperoni, and the rest are every meat except anchovies.
I go for the all meat no fish category, and leave those damn pineapples off the candian bacon pizzias.
Like Little Nemo, I like anchovies but most pizza joints don’t know how to use them.
Being a purist, my default pizza is extra cheese, onion and black olive. Okay, so bobbit on some pepperoni, too.
JMO, but “Chicago style” pizza is only dependably great in Chicago or a proven venue. As far as pineapple, etc.–yucko. The farthest I’ll go is kickass olive oil infused with enough garlic to level Toledo and say, artichoke hearts.
I rue the day yuppie foodies discovered the perfect food: pizza.
Veb
I usually get either a Papa John’s regular crust with extra cheese or a thin crust with extra cheese, or a pizza hut thin crust with extra cheese. If I’m feeling wild, I’ll get mushrooms on it.
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Teeming Millions: http://fathom.org/teemingmillions
“Meat flaps, yellow!” - DrainBead, naked co-ed Twister chat
O p a l C a t
www.opalcat.com
On the anchovies issue… ICK!
On a related note, has anyone ever heard that goofy song “No Anchovies, Please”? It’s about a guy whose wife orders an everything pizza and she forgets to say “No anchovies, please.” Apparently NOT saying “No anchovies, please” is a secret password to some bad guys who work at the pizza place. So when the pizza is delivered, they kidnap the wife. Later, the husband is sitting in a bar, depressed as hell because his wife has been kidnapped. The TV is on in the bar, tuned to some bowling tournament. He looks up just in time to see a guy pick up a ball and fling it down the lane. Turns out the bad guys performed weird medical/scientific experiments on the wife, and the husband now understands what happened to her, because he recognizes that “That’s not a bowling ball! That’s my WIFE!” And the moral of the story/song is: “The next time you order a pizza, DON’T forget to say ‘No anchovies, please.’”
Or maybe I dreamed it.
StoryTyler
Even if you’re on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.
C’mon up and see me sometime.
Nope. You’re not dreaming. Here’s the lyrics.
ARTIST: J. Geils Band
TITLE: No Anchovies
This is the story of a young couple in Portland, Maine.
While waiting for her husband Don to return home from work, she reaches for a can of anchovies. As she spreads the tiny fish across a piece of lettuce, she notices a small note at the bottom of the can. Written on it is a telephone number. Curious, she dials, and is told, “Don’t move, lady, we’ll be right over.” Placing the phone back on the hook, she turns to see three smartly dressed men standing in her kitchen doorway. Before she realizes what is happening to her, she is rolled tightly in long sheets of cellophane, transported to an international airport, and placed on a waiting jet-liner. All this being too much for her to comprehend, she passes out.
Upon awakening, she finds herself in a strange, foreign speaking nation (“Dalas nekcihc dna tihs nekcihc neewteb ecnereffid eht wonk ot suineg a ekat t’nseod ti.”). Alone, fearing her escape impossible, she seeks comfort in the arms of a confidential agent. With the trace of her kiss still warm upon his lips, he betrays her to the hands of three scientists who are engaged in diabolical, avant-garde experiments previously performed only on insects and other small, meaningless creatures. Using her as their subject, they are delighted with the results. For the first time, a human being is transformed into a (“shhh… it’s secret”).
Meanwhile, back in Portland, Maine…
Her husband Don, now chain-smoking 40 packs of cigarettes a day, sits at a local bar and has a few beers with the regulars. Bored, everyone’s attention turns to the television set that just hangs from the wall. (“Welcome to Bowling for Dollars”). Suddenly, crazy Al says, “S-say, Don, there sure is something familiar about that bowling ball.” To which a terrified Don replies, “Oh my God! That bowling ball! It’s my wife!”
And the lesson we learn from this story is, next time you place your order, don’t forget to say, “No anchovies please.”
“There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences.”
~P.J. O’Rourke~
anchovies-they are sooo gross! To me, they are fuzzy. I remember when pizza places used to ask if you wanted anchovies.
As far as toppings, I love Hawaiian pizza but no one else seems to so I usually get Canadian Bacon, (or ham), mushrooms, and sliced tomatoes.
Gotta go call Dominos-
Thanks Unc, for verifying that I still have a grip on reality (tenuous though it may be)! I only ever heard the song once (about a million years ago - yes, I AM old), and always wondered if I’d just imagined the whole thing. No one else ever seemed to know what I was talking about (yeah yeah, don’t say it, I know)!
StoryTyler
Even if you’re on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.
C’mon up and see me sometime.