Pizza

[Harbinger]

Well, I ordered another Papa John's today just like the one last week. It was dead. But that's OK because I like them better reheated. However, the order was incorrect (they left out the cheese sauce), the drinks were tepid, and the placement of the anchovies was improper. Hey, it was ten dollars. I'm happy, but it wasn't half as satisfying as its predecessor. In all my travels, Domino's remains the champ in consistency.

[DukkhaWaynhim]

I would say that putting anchovies on pizza constitutes improper placement.
The idea of taking the wonderful flavors of pizza and corrupting them with the toilet-warming aroma of (thermally) hot canned fishy-fish disturbs me.

dw

[Orlion]

Ah, but put onions on with the anchovies....*drool*

[Menolly]

I like getting half anchovies on a pepperoni, fresh garlic, fresh mushroom (please, definitely neither canned nor bottled mushrooms) and banana pepper ring pizza. I then alternate salty fish/non-fish slices.

...yumm...

[Orlion]

fresh mushroom (please, definitely neither canned nor bottled mushrooms)

Agreed. With most things, I don't care if it's fresh or canned, but non-fresh mushrooms are one of the nastiest ingredients ever.... sometimes, their bad taste haunts my dreams *shudder*

[Harbinger]

I always thought anchovies were gross too. Then in November 2004, I split a Papa John's with a buddy and we were having a little difficulty agreeing on the toppings. We were ordering a "works". I hate green peppers and black olives. He had already nixed the green peppers, but he loved black olives. I said no way to the black olives and pretended to want green peppers. Long story short, he chose banana peppers and I was pissed and chose anchovies. I don't know why I was being pissy, I got both the toppings that I disliked removed. Anyway, we both loved it. And when we see each other now, (he lives in St. Louis) we usually order one that way. It's actually the same pizza I've ordered from the Papa recently except that the store here (Hell Paso, TX) does not offer banana peppers, so I got the jalapenos.

[Cameraman Jenn]

I miss my favorite pizza in the WORLD which can only be bought from one place in existence. A place called "Papa Pete's" in Falmouth Massachussett's. I used to work there and it was a bit of heaven. Taco Pizza. We made the ground beef in house and spiced to Pete's recipe (the old greek guy who owned the place) and it included about 3/4 ground beef, the taco spice mix and 1/4 chorizo. we used the usual thin crust with a thin layer of the pizza sauce, a cheese blend of 1/5 cheddar, 1/5 monterrey jack and 3/5 mozzarella, layered it in that order, crushed tortilla chips on top with black olives, then baked it in the stone ovens and then topped it with cold shredded lettuce and fresh tomato slices and packed the boxes with in house salsa and sour cream. In fact that pizza is why I worked there in the first place. I was going to college and my friends and I were there so much and I was unhappy with my job and Pete overheard and offered me a new job so I took it. Part time to fill the bill void. My first and only waitressing job and truth to tell I loved that place. I was a struggling student and Pete and his brother George knew it and knew that I lived with other struggling students and almost every night that I worked they would "overcook" a pizza just before I was about to leave or "Need to make fresh" a batch of salad or pasta that really didn't need to be refreshed and force me to take home the lot of "overcooked/old" stuff. And now that I think back on it, not only were Pete and George amazingly generous, I remember Bill and Evan and Steve, the usual old guys who would come in for coffee and sit at the "bar" and buy an eighty cent cup and flirt with me and leave me five dollar tips. I suddenly feel renewed about human nature. And all that from a description of pizza. I guess my tarot reading was right, it's a year for me to process the old and use it to become something new.

[stonemaybe]

www.pizzaexpress.com/create-your-pizza/

win £5000 by thinking about food. Can't be bad!

[Menolly]

www.pizzaexpress.com/create-your-pizza/

win £5000 by thinking about food. Can't be bad!

I have an idea for an entry, but the contest is only open to UK residents.
Anyone in the UK game to review my idea privately, and if it sounds good, enter it for me?

[Vraith]

I miss my favorite pizza in the WORLD which can only be bought from one place in existence. A place called "Papa Pete's" in Falmouth Massachussett's.

Ok, small world time. Think I've been there. Lived in Falmouth for @ 4 years [well...technically, I lived in Wood's Hole for three of them...but still].

[stonemaybe]

Don't forget you need catchy names, Menolly!

[Menolly]

Working on it Stone.
Luckily, deadline isn't until the 13th of September...

Thanks for working on this with me.

My only fear is the final competition, where you would have to bake the selected pie along with four other finalists, if any of my ideas get selected...

I wonder if you would be allowed to bring in an assistant chef...

[Cameraman Jenn]

When my friend Jeff lived up in Hyannis we would literally drive to Papa Pete's to get the taco pizza for breakfast to cure our hangovers. It's like medicinal crack. You would know if you were there, it was on the end of the main drag for Falmouth, across from a white hen pantry and it was a dive that also served several pasta dishes, sub sandwiches and a limited beer and wine menu and there were always 3-5 old guys sitting at the bar nursing coffee and the old greek guys who owned it were Pete and his younger brother George and they had a head waitress/manager named Wanda whom I believe is still there today. They were kinda known for the ir egg and chorizo subs.

For Chicago style in SF, Irving Street Pizza is hard to beat. They have what they call the Igor special and it has mushrooms, pepperoni, salami, sausage, onion, black olive, artichoke hearts, sundried tomatos, garlic, green peppers, red sauce and feta sprinkles on top of the mozarella cheese. I usually order it without onion since onion does not like me very much unless cooked into total submission. It's seriously delicious.

[lorin]

Last night I made pizza the was probably one of the best things I've ever made. I made fresh whole wheat dough. Rolled it very thin on a double layered baking sheet. brushed it with a layer of pesto I made last week. Put on a thin layer of feta and mozzarella.

In a bowl I cut thin thin thin slices of red onion, garlic, red and yellow peppers, and sun dried tomatoes. I added a tiny bit of olive oil, salt and garlic powder. Mixed it with the veggies and spread a thick layer over the pizza. I pushed it down a bit into the cheese and dough and put it in the oven at 350 for about 25 so the crust got crisp. The last 5 minutes under the broiler.

OMG - fantastic!

[Menolly]

both pies sound fantastic, jenn and lorin!
From hog heaven to veggie.
yum.

[Menolly]

So, I've inundated poor Stone with entry after entry for this pizza contest. I think I've sent him 19 entries, and I have six more I'm working on. None of my entries are all that creative, so I'm hoping my descriptive write-ups will help sell them to the judges.

I feel for poor Stone, if he has to explain the inspiration for the descriptions or actually prepare any of these as a finalist.

[Vader]

So, I've inundated poor Stone with entry after entry for this pizza contest. I think I've sent him 19 entries, and I have six more I'm working on. None of my entries are all that creative, so I'm hoping my descriptive write-ups will help sell them to the judges.

I feel for poor Stone, if he has to explain the inspiration for the descriptions or actually prepare any of these as a finalist.

... and that was the reason Menolly became a "persona non grata" in Naples because people there didn't like her experimenting with PIZZA.

[Menolly]

Actually, I don't think we went to Naples when I was in Italy...

Rome...si.
Florence...si.
Pompeii...si.

Venice, Sicily, and Naples...no.

But when you are 13 and have only a week in Italy, you're pretty much at the mercy of where your tour group says you go.

...I have got to get back to Europe one day.

[Savor Dam]

You will.

Patience, padawan...

[Vader]

The town Limone at the lago di garda is not Napoli, but this is pizza how it's supposed to be.