When a liberal midwestern boy like myself is agreeing with Scalia about pizza, surely the end of the world is nigh...
1, 3, 5 - No contest. The Chicago area has more Mexican-Americans than the states of New York and New Jersey combined. You can toss in Pennsylvania and Connecticut too. Hell, Chicago has more Mexican-Americans than Colorado and New Mexico combined. Before the decade is out, Chicagoland will have more Mexican-Americans than African-Americans. We're the snow branch of Mexico. 2, 4 - Sure, whatever. 6 - Now you're trolling.
McCarren's pool was a surprisingly good music venue. I don't know why they had to fill it with water. I'll always have a soft spot for Bowery and Mercury Lounge, even if I hate the crowds there.
I know, I showered with bleach afterwards. But the Jersey boy is right. That's pig feed in a pan, not pizza. At least we can argue about it. 90% of this country has such absolutely shitty pizza, they go to chains and actually LIKE IT. Ewww!
Deep dish is good if the crust is good, but I rarely see it ... seems to be mostly for the Michigan Avenue tourist crowd. Stuffed is more popular with Chicagoans than deep dish. Stuffed is malignant. A heart attack in training, do not touch after graduating college. Thin crust is most popular even in Chicago. Probably 80% of the pizzas brought into the office for working lunches, afternoon parties, etc. are thin crust.
Depending on where you live you could be spoiled or deprived...and most of the deprived don't know it. Like good Mexican in NY/NJ, we really don't have that much of it although it's improving. I liken pizza to beer. You certainly can drink Coors Light, but why? They put cheddar on the pizza in parts of New England
The sex theory, eh? Mostly true although if you go to Lithuania and get pizza with ketchup as the tomato base, you might modify your view a bit.
We have pretty good pizza here. I haven't had to resort to chain pizza in forever. (My dirty little secret is that I eat - and usually enjoy - frozen pizza. But I don't consider it pizza - it's its own thing, if that makes sense.)
I used to agree with bad pizza is still pizza, but when you get worse than the $1 slices you can get in Manhattan, I think that ceases to qualify. It actually does.
I got that in Edwardsville, IL once, about 20 years ago. Furthermore, 1) my wife was convinced the dough was Pop-n-Fresh biscuit dough and 2) the cheese was possibly American, or best-case scenario, colby. To this day, it's the only time we left pizza behind. Last two towns we've lived in = plenty of good pizza places.
Henry Hill "Can't even get decent food - right after I got here, I ordered some spaghetti with marinara sauce, and I got egg noodles and ketchup."
kibbutz merchavia was founded by poles back in 1905 and even though no one there when i was was even remotely polish, the pizza and the spaghetti bolognaise served in the cafeteria still had a distinctly polish taste to it. inedible. scalia's right about the chewy and crispy. the best pizza i have ever had, including in italy was at via roma. thta's no normal thick crust you're looking at. it's all air inside, light as a soufflé. a chewy, crispy soufflé. the bits that bubble up highest (no real big ones on this pizza but you can get an idea) get burned on the top and that's the best part. they used to be right in front of our factory in a place that had been a plumbing supply outfit and of the golden rules location, location, location they had all three wrong. the only reason i can think they set up shop there was dirt-cheap rent. in a few months they were so busy you had to reserve the day before for lunch, and they started opening up evenings in a part of town where NOTHING is open at night, and people would wait outside for a table in a dark lonely street 30 minutes for a table and feel damned lucky. after 2-3 years they moved to les gratte-ciel, the heart of villeurbanne*. the rest is history. they sold their lease to a couple of corsicans who made the worst pizza i ever tasted but they remained packed for over a year too, just from the residual habit of customers who kept going back to the same place, like laboratory rats who keep pushing the same button long after it stops giving treats. *villeurbanne is kind of like lyon's answer to brooklyn, but without the hipsters. our hipsters have special needs for restaurants: anything more banal than peruvian or afghan will not do. you also have to wait at least 15 minutes for a menu and another hour to be served, despite the place having no more than 30 covers to handle, and absolutely streng verboten to have a portion/cost ratio over 10 calories per euro. and last but not least, hipsters never ever cross the tracks. for the comments in the link, the one person who gave 3 stars did so because of the smoke, in the days before restaurants in france banned cigarettes. why did every one else give 4.5 and not 5? because for the french, 100% cannot exist. only god can get 5 stars.
my wife buys one brand of frozen pizza somewhere you would not believe. and it's no hoighty-toighty brand either. in fact i think it's a hard-discounter's house brand!
problem with frozen pizzas is the crust. I think that is the secret to a good pizza. obviously you need the other ingredients too, but in my mind it all starts with the crust. and it's next to impossible to get a good crust on a frozen pizza.
that's just the thing! i simply can't believe it! eppure... i think that's a marinara, but they have others with more cheese (that one has some, in fact)... and even a a couple with creme fraiche instead of tomato sauce that are very good too.
That's the best kind of pizza. Yes I know, Da Ghost of Da Mayor (any one of them) will strike me dead for writing such a thing.
I was just kidding, of course. Our favorite place in my wife's hometown has what they call a Pizza Rustica that looks like that, except it has some roasted fresh veggies and a just bit of cheese (mozzarella and feta), about as much cheese as you'd get on a big burger, spread out so you get just a bit with each bite. Of course, if you try to sell that with a mediocre sauce, you won't get many takers.
The margherita is supposed to evoke the Italian flag. In Chicago I think it emulates a wheel of cheese.