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Friday Food and Drink Post: Pizza Fixin’ Edition
Thank heavens for Bill de Blasio. In just a few short years as New York’s Mayor, he has turned its underwater finances around, eliminated racism, sexism, religious intolerance, and violent crime, and he has spearheaded a jobs-and-revenue initiative, the crown jewel of which was bringing Amazon’s second corporate HQ “home” to the city. Along the way, he’s divested the city pension funds from fossil fuels (I suspect this is code for “taxpayer bailout coming soon”), banned single-use plastic items in the food-service industry (are condoms next–what a complicated and ‘intersexional’ discussion that would be), and pledged to “divert” 90% of waste from landfills (“to where,” I ask myself–in years’ past the answer to a question like that has too often been: to my neighboring state of West Virginia) by 2030.
Best of all, he’s even met Greta Thunberg. (I remember this specifically, because it happened on my birthday, the day that de Blasio’s Department of Education allowed hundreds of thousands of city school children to skip school and “throw a wobbly” in the streets. As we all know, “climate change” was fixed as a result of this brave action, and we are all. Much. Better. Off. as a result.)
So, now all the easy and less important stuff is under control, and now he’s got all this spare time because even the 31% or so of the population that self-identifies with a (D) after their name (no word on their pronouns) wasn’t dumb enough to support his presidential effort, de Blasio can turn his laser-like sights to a more pressing and difficult issue: New Year’s Eve pizza scalping.
You see, it seems that Domino’s in Times Square brought out whole pizzas to people who ordered them and charged them–wait for it–thirty dollars for the privilege! Normally, these pizzas cost about $15 at the store, plus whatever tip a person is willing to cough up for the hard-working staff, or to the driver if they’re delivered.
Would I ever spend $30 for a Domino’s pizza? Prolly not. But then I wouldn’t be in Times Square on New Year’s Eve, either. (Full disclosure: I have been in Times Square during the Christmas season. But not on one of “The Days.” Spending my holidays in unfamiliar places with millions of strangers, many of whom are drunk, isn’t my bag.)
But, would I expect to pay more for something like a pizza, at a festive celebration, for the convenience and the fun of it? I totally would. And, in any case, I routinely buy a slice of pizza as a treat, from one of my favorite places, when I’m in the vicinity around lunchtime. It’s $4 a slice. There are 8 slices in a pizza. So, they’re getting, what, $32 each time they sell out the whole pie, right? And that’s not even at an airport, notorious for their sky-high prices. But no-one says a peep about any of that.
Just don’t try to sell pizza at slightly under that price, in New York, on New Year’s Eve, in Times Square, otherwise, you’ll have Hizzoner on your case!
All this got me to thinking about food (doesn’t take much), and pizza, which is one of my favorite things (you know, along with “raindrops on roses, warm woolen mittens” and my current well-behaved and continent set of whiskered kittys [it was not always thus]).
When you need a “pizza fix” (and not in the pricing sense), where do you go? Do you have a favorite chain? A delightful local pizzeria? Do you make your own? What are your favorite toppings? Thin crust? Thick crust? Deep dish? Square or round? Any particular regional style?
Recipes, suggestions, or unusual recommendations (just about pizza, I mean) are welcome.
Have at it, please.
PS: Don’t tell me if I made a teensy-weensy mistake in any of my statements in this post. I’m pretty sure everything I said is accurate, but you never know. Anyway, it’s “my truth.” Show it the respect it’s due, please.
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I think whole-milk mozzarella is a requirement. None of this low-fat-cheesy low-fat stuff. It’s just not the same.
I think the best restaurant pizza Mr. She and I ever ate was from a little place on Rt. 51 South of Pittsburgh. It’s been closed for decades. It was a nice Italian family restaurant with quite a good menu, and never too crowded.
The pizza was thin crust, perfectly browned and crispy, but not overdone, so it didn’t splinter into a thousand tiny pieces in your mouth. The sauce was homemade, and it was delicious.
That was where I developed my taste for my “go-to” pizza which has mushrooms (fresh, not canned or out of a jar) and anchovies. They’re still my preferred toppings when I make my own, but I’ve never found anywhere that makes it like this little place did.
Funny, I just did a search on the name to see if anyone else had similar fond memories, and found this page, which consists of recipes and requests from readers of the Post-Gazette. Almost at the end is this letter to the editors:
It doesn’t say whether the person who wrote the letter was successful in their quest.
Yes, just honey and finely chopped habaneros. I also use burrata on this pizza instead of mozzarella.
Not familiar with burrata, but just looked it up. Sounds scrumptious.
And, just like that, here I go on the “word” trail. Scrumptious. Why is the age-old behavior of children stealing apples from the neighborhood farmer’s orchard referred to as “scrumping,” in the UK? And then, of course, there’s the cider called “scrumpy,” made from fallen apples, and mixed varieties. Obviously there’s a connection there, but what is it?
What’s with “scrump?” A quick look around on the Internet doesn’t help much. Points to scrump/scrimp as, perhaps, nineteenth-century words for a miserly person, but no information as to how the word came to its current meaning. So, get out the big guns: Dad’s copy of the Compact OED.
Surprisingly little joy there either. “Scrump” (no origin given) means “anything wrinkled,” (fallen apples, maybe?) and scrumptious is defined as mean or miserly, with a few half-hearted attempts to indicate that it meant “handsome” in some American writings of the nineteenth century.
So, really no idea, still.
Anyway, burrata looks scrumptious. And not mean or wrinkled at all.
@arahant?
Are you calling me mean and wrinkled and miserly, Al? 😉
From your self description, I think of you more round and plump rather than wrinkled.
You don’t have more on the derivation of “scrumptious”?
I worked at a great Italian restaurant in New Orleans, one of John Besh’s, Domenica.
I didn’t make any pies, but they had one interesting pizza that I’d recommend people try. It was a mushroom pizza, with bacon and an egg right in the center that was cooked with the rest in a fire brick oven.
Typically though, I just do an American cheese pizza when I order one myself. I like my crust thin and crispy, and always well done.
Now I’m hungry.
One dictionary I have says it came into the language around 1820-1830, and may be an alteration of “sumptuous.” The others all basically say the same.
And people complain about spinach? American cheese? Oy!
I have to distinguish American-style because sometimes people think it means I want icky basil leaves on my pizza — I do not ever want icky basil on my pizza!
Hopefully, your palate will improve and be refined with age.
How are you on pesto sauce?
I don’t recall ever trying it. But I’d guess that I wouldn’t like it.
In 2016 my very worldly second son, then a resident of Brooklyn (later, of the upper East Side, then of Washington Heights, now of Astoria) wrote us to say he had found the best pizza in America. Independent Ale House in Rapid City, South Dakota.
Having grown up near New Haven, eating Sally’s, Pepe’s and sometimes Modern Pizza, I scoffed.
A year later, in South Dakota for the first time to see the eclipse, we checked the place out.
Outstanding. Not to be missed. Better than pizzas I ate in New Haven, or Rome, or Orvieto, or Milano.
We spent five nights in Rapid City. We ate at the Independent Ale House three of those nights. I dunno if it is the best pizza in America, but it’s the best pizza I’ve ever had. Three nights running!
Good things can be in unexpected places.
The most expensive pizza I’ve ever eaten was in Venice. It wasn’t very good. But I like to be able to say I’ve eaten pizza in Venice. (Italy, I mean, not CA or FL, or IL, or LA, or NY, or UT. Just want to make that clear.)
Hmm, maybe we ought to have the Chicago Meetup at a pizzeria. Giordano’s, perhaps?
Rapid City, you say? Where we are having a big weekend Ricochet Meetup next fall? No kidding.
If only I got paid for promotion of Ricochet meetups, I’d find a way to drop them into nearly every thread.
There are quite a few choices. Giordano’s is good, but not sure if it is the best.
Ok. In terms of the rhetorical technique known as “begging the question,” in the way it’s come to be (mis)used today . . . .
Please don’t leave us hanging. ???
Also, on a similar, but different subject, Qassem Soleimani didn’t kill himself.
I naturally defer to your local expertise.
And I defer, too. I erroneously wrote that our preference extended from the 70s on. In fact, we have no experience of Chicago-made pizza since that long-ago decade.
The original Uno’s or Due’s.