American pizza

[take5_d_shorterer]

I must have tried Gino's at some point, but it doesn't register in my memory.

I did have deep dish pizza once, I think at Pizzeria Uno, and I found it to be a gimmick. Roger Ebert felt the same, and I cannot disagree.

The two pizzas that made any impression are the ones at 1) the goat cheese and sun-dried tomato pizza at Beat Kitchen and 2) the stuffed pizza at Cafe Luigi's. I think they are mostly known for a New York style pizza, but the only one I have tried is the stuffed.

http://www.cafeluigispizzanewyorkstyle.com/

[Limpin' Jez McKenzie]

Like other things, Chicago pizza is only good in Chicago.

It seems to me that this statement is not supported by the evidence in the rest of your post.

The two times you ate Chicago pizza in Chicago you either didn’t like it or became “uncomfortable” after eating it. The one time you unreservedly enjoyed it was when it was a day old and eaten in Texas (albeit made in Chicago).

Accordingly I suggest “Chicago pizza is only good if eaten the next day in Texas after being flown in.”

[BARON CORNY DOG]

Like other things, Chicago pizza is only good in Chicago.

It seems to me that this statement is not supported by the evidence in the rest of your post.

The two times you ate Chicago pizza in Chicago you either didn’t like it or became “uncomfortable” after eating it. The one time you unreservedly enjoyed it was when it was a day old and eaten in Texas (albeit made in Chicago).

Accordingly I suggest “Chicago pizza is only good if eaten the next day in Texas after being flown in.”

[trans-chigley express]

The best pizza I've had in quite some time was at a friend's place last week. She'd invited me round for some pizza she'd made to an Italian recipe and it was delicious. Thin crust with minimal toppings (compared to chain restaurant pizzas) but it really hit the spot and the crust was perfect.

I do love pizza, and it has to be pretty bad for me not enjoy it on some level (same with curry), but I don't enjoy stodgy thick crust ones and/or excessively gooey ones, possibly because I have a small appetite and feel too full very quickly.

[GoogaMooga]

How about cold pizza? Does it have to be piping hot?

[Six String]

quora.com:

The dough comes in a ball so it has to be rolled out. I didn’t say bake or cook.

Sorry, I found it funny that you put the word make in quotation marks. I got confused, so I looked it up and found the quote, which I thought was funny.

TBH, I was a little confused. In Danish, I believe you can say either make or bake.

What I meant was that I rolled out the dough, put toppings on and baked it. There is a chain in the US where you can buy the pizza already “made” and you bring it home and bake it in your oven. The other reason I used quotations on made was because I didn’t make the dough, merely rolled it out. Sorry for the confusion.

[Six String]

Like other things, Chicago pizza is only good in Chicago.

It seems to me that this statement is not supported by the evidence in the rest of your post.

The two times you ate Chicago pizza in Chicago you either didn’t like it or became “uncomfortable” after eating it. The one time you unreservedly enjoyed it was when it was a day old and eaten in Texas (albeit made in Chicago).

Accordingly I suggest “Chicago pizza is only good if eaten the next day in Texas after being flown in.”

[Six String]

How about cold pizza? Does it have to be piping hot?

Cold pizza is fine with a hangover but these days I usually put cold slices in the toaster oven and use the top brown setting.

[BARON CORNY DOG]

Cold pizza is better than no pizza. For the most part.

[BARON CORNY DOG]

Also, what about Detroit Pizza?
The idea doesn't exactly fill me with wonder, but it's a thing for some folk.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Detroit-style_pizza

[BARON CORNY DOG]

The old Pizza Huts were a certain style building with low, red roofs. Like old Kentucky Fried Chickens, they were purpose built for the restaurant.

I remember those. Think there were a few of them in London in the 80s, which is when I ate there. I like the iconography and design of fast food restaurants - the uniformity, the distinct signs and architecture. It would be good to compile a photo book of all that, the history of fast food restaurants. It's probably already been done, I'll have to check.

I’m into the idea of this Waffle House book.

https://bittersoutherner.com/waffle-house-vistas

No pizza though.

[GoogaMooga]

There must be an all-purpose word for creating a pizza from scratch.

So I have googled "making a pizza" and "baking a pizza":

"making a pizza" gave 1,170,000,000 hits.
"baking a pizza" gave 357,000,000 hits.

So I am still confused. But, I can only surmise that you "make" a pizza by baking it.

[BARON CORNY DOG]

You make the pizza by making the dough, gathering the topics, assembling them, and baking it.

[GoogaMooga]

You make the pizza by making the dough, gathering the topics, assembling them, and baking it.

Yes, I gathered as much.

[GoogaMooga]

We also make that distinction in Danish, only there you can say "bage" (baking) about the whole process, which is what threw me.

[Deebank]

so I “make” my own from time to time.

quora.com:

You do both- while you bake it, it cooks, and when you cook a pizza, it bakes. Kinda trippy, if you ask me.

The dough comes in a ball so it has to be rolled out. I didn’t say bake or cook.

Never roll out pizza dough!

(I do ) I supposedly squeezes out the air from the dough which makes it bubble-up desirably... or so I've read. However, when the only alternative is the highly skilled hand stretching process, rolling is really the only option.

My daughter bought an Ooni wood-fired* pizza oven a couple of years ago (she is the one with the disposable income these days ) and I quite enjoy making the dough and cooking the pizzas for everyone.

This really limits you to thin (the thinner the better) bases because the oven cooks the pizzas really quickly with naked flame above and very hot stone below. In the amount of time it would take to cook a thick base through the toppings would be incinerated.

I tried doing a calzone in the Ooni, it was a half raw, half burned disaster

(*it actually uses these wood fuel pellets fed from a hopper on top. IMHO the whole wood-fired thing is a bit of con because the pizzas aren't in the oven long enough to pick up any smoky flavour so you might as well use more controllable propane or whatever - anything as long as it is really hot)

I really can't eat your typical Dominos or Pizza Hut offering - too much bread (although I do like a nice salad bar)
Sadly these days pizza does tend to give me indigestion.

[Deebank]

Like other things, Chicago pizza is only good in Chicago.

It seems to me that this statement is not supported by the evidence in the rest of your post.

The two times you ate Chicago pizza in Chicago you either didn’t like it or became “uncomfortable” after eating it. The one time you unreservedly enjoyed it was when it was a day old and eaten in Texas (albeit made in Chicago).

Accordingly I suggest “Chicago pizza is only good if eaten the next day in Texas after being flown in.”

Following my olfactory 'observations' about Seoul airport smelling of kimchee (in another thread) I would mention that Chicago's O'Hare smelt strongly of burnt pizza.

[Andrews Sisters Conundrum]

[Minnie the Minx]

Pizza Hut was a magical destination when I was a teenager and still at school. Other kids in class got weekend jobs there, I’d see them with their round fringes and pixie boots doing the magical serve of the first slice. I badly wanted to have a job where I could be in close proximity to all that diced beetroot, but it was never to be.

[GoogaMooga]

For me it was Shakey's Pizza, usually on Saturday afternoons, when I would take in a film with my mates. All you could eat for 500 yen, and they had MTV on all the time! This would have been 81-82. Perfect for a teen-ager. Never saw a Shakey's in Denmark or the UK, though.