Thursday, September 25, 2008

Crispity, Crunchitty...

I bet you thought I was going to say Chocolatey as in the Cocoa Puffs ad. Sorry to disappoint you, but this post is about pizza. We'll talk about Sonny later. I like pizza. There was a time when I loved pizza and couldn't get enough of it. I didn't discriminate either. As I entered my 20s, I became a little more discerning (not to the point of snobbery). I just happened to attain a certain awareness of what constituted a good slice for me. While I used to love the buttery (I know greasy) richness of Pizza Hut's pan pizza, it took away from the sauce which had a good tomato flavor and wasn't too sweet. Domino's had a great crust for their hand tossed pizzas. Their toppings were fresh. The sauce was just so-so. Back in the day in Richmond, we loved the 2 fer deals at Little Caesars. Yeah, I said it. LC had great toppings. If we could have melded the three chains together, we'd have had perfect pizza.

Fifteen years later, my tastes have changed considerably. I don't want a dough so thick that I should have ordered a pretzel. And that's what you get at a lot of places. I think good pizza is about balance. The crust shouldn't be so thick that I need an extra set of dentures to chew threw it nor so thin that is drowns beneath the sauce. My preference is a cracker thin crust that shatters upon that first bite with a spicy, garlicky tomato sauce and a thin layer of cheese. Other toppings are fine, but those three elements are are the benchmark of a good pizza. So far Papa John's has the crust down. They just need to tweak the sauce a little.

What's your pizza prefrence? Have your tastes changed over the years? Or are you surprise of suprises one of those people who doesn't care for pizza at all? Inquiring minds want to know.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

In my late teens I used to work at Pizza Hut. I ate a LOT of pizza back then (nothing like taking leftover pizza home for breakfast the next day). Now, I still love the greasy thin crust pepperoni pizza that comes from Round Table. That's when I just want junk food. If I want some REAL pizza there is a wonderful Italian place nearby.

Angry Asian said...

i don't like pepperoni. i think it's overrated. and i like my pizza crust thin, especially now that i have a metal grill.

Dorhora said...

My favorite pizza is a thin crust with grilled chicken, mushrooms and olives...also, I like pesto sauce better than tomato sauce. I just learned that recently after a trip to Wegmans...lol!

And I've been moving away from categorizing pizza as junk food; I've found that it can be quite healthy with the right ingredients (and quite delicious with a complimentary bottle of wine).

I truly fell in love with pizza in Belgium...they have some wonderful pizzerias that concentrate more on cheese and sauce rather than the toppings.

Try an all vegetable mozzarella pizza with a pesto sauce...very delish...