“It’s flatter than a pancake, it’s square, and there’s not a hint of mozzarella about it. What’s something described like that doing on a pizza blog?

It’s a piece of Imo’s Pizza, the epitome of St. Louis–style pie. This idiosyncratic rendition is characterized by an extremely thin crust with no raised edge, the pie itself roughly cut into 3-inch squares—or as closely as you can get when starting with something round—and the use of Provel* cheese. Detractors, who include most non-native St. Louisans, describe it as Cheez Whiz on a cracker.”

* Provel, like American processed cheese, is not legally labeled as simply cheese because it does not meet the moisture content requirements that the FDA holds for a food to be considered cheese.[citation needed] Provel is instead a Pasteurized process cheese.

*sigh*

I was inspired by this article to attempt making my own tonight (albeit with a storebought crust). The results were.. interesting. I don’t think it would pass the judgement of all you pizza connoseurs, but it was filling anyway. :p

It’s the sauce and to a lesser extent the quality of the mozzarella (pronounced: moot’sa’rel). Even transplants from this area seem to find themselves adding too much sugar to the tomatoes. I haven’t determined why this is, but it’s possible that tomatoes are more bitter in other parts of the country(?). This would then explain why Chicago pizza has such a bitter sauce im(not-so)ho.

But that contradicts the fact that I can order delectable pasta in many places and still not get a decent pizza. I haven’t tried pizza in Toronto but I did sample a few in Quebec. With all of their french-inspired culinary magics they were unable to make a decent (expletive redacted) pizza.

Perhaps my tongue is a bigot? However, my tastes are normally xenomanic, if I haven’t eaten something before I’ll try it just for the sake of trying it (this is how I found myself eating a brain taco in Chicago). Why then the inability to enjoy “foreign” pizza? My experiments will continue until I have an answer.

There’s a great legend about Cora’s and Papa Ceo’s (sp?), which was right next door. Apparently they were brothers who got into a fight and so split into two stores. I’ve always wondered if that was true.

Also, out west in the Junction, where I lived in Toronto last, Vesuvio’s is pretty good.

http://flickr.com/search/?w=all&q=spaccanapoli+chicago+pizza&m=text
http://www.lthforum.com/bb/viewtopic.php?t=8838
http://spaccanapolipizzeria.com/story.html

Now that we have moved out of CT, both my sister and myself have gotten our SO’s hooked on NH pizza. When either one of them is with us visiting my mom, we can’t leave without at least one pizza meal. Bobby’s, Zuppardis, Modern… they are all good.

I live in VT now and have searched far and wide for a decent hole in the wall joint like you find around New Haven… but nothing.. If I liked to cook I swear I could make a mint selling decent pizza up here.

Pour a packet of yeast into 1 1/3 cups of warm water. Let it dissolve. Add about 3.5 cups of flour, 2 Tbsp. olive oil, 1 Tbsp. honey, 1 tsp. salt, and maybe some dried oregano or red pepper flakes. Mix with a wooden spoon, then knead by hand for ten minutes until it’s elastic. If it’s too sticky, add up to half a cup more flour whlie you’re kneading.

Divide it in half — this recipe makes two pizzas. Let the dough balls rise in a warm place for about an hour and a half, covered with plastic or a damp towel, then punch them down and let them sit for ten minutes before pressing them into rounds. Brush with olive oil and top however you like. (I discovered this summer that leftover black bean burrito filling makes a really good pizza, with grated cheddar and fresh cilantro.)

Bake at 475° for twelve minutes. For best results, preheat a baking stone while the dough is rising, then slide the topped pizza onto the hot stone — that seals the bottom of the crust for you. You’ll want to dust whatever you’re sliding it off of with corn meal, lest it get stuck.

HoundDog’s (as I mentioned already) Smokin’ Joe’s crust is a thick, garlic-buttered crust. N High St and Dodridge, just past campus. Their Spicy or Howlin’ Hot sauces are not sweet. Howlin’ Hot is more hot than flavorful.

Rotolo’s, thick crust, nice thick tomato sauce. 3rd ave in Grandview, I think?

Adriatico’s has a good New York style deep dish. Very busy because they’re basically on campus. W 11th ave.

I could go on. There are few amazing pizza shops, dozens of good places and over a hundred marginal-to-lousy ones.

Neapolitan style is best

Wood fire is better than coal

It’s impossible to make anything resembling pizza at home unless you have some kind of oven that gets to 800 plus degrees

Deep-dish pizza is an oxymoron

Pizza can’t be purchased by the slice. That’s something other than pizza you are eating. Sure, it can be pleasant.

I use 3 kinds of cheese, a simple base sauce over a real simple dough and then several spices, depending on my mood.

i HATE it when i hear pizza described as ‘pie’, it’s only pie in the weakest technically correct manner.. (like a tart or a quiche)

now don’t get me worng, i’m not telling anyone how to talk, or coming down on regional colloquialisms, it just grates so much to hear the phrase ‘pizza pie’.

silly huh?

1. Sally’s: They’ll treat you like dirt, but they tend their oven like a master potter doing a raku firing. The ingredients are simple and excellent. There is no better sauce, no better crust. You can actually order a red pie (yes, pie) here without cheese and it is still fabulous, it is that good.

2. bar: This is where I take out of towners, this is where I hang out. Word has it they learned their craft at Sally’s. The pizza is wonderful. The beer, which they brew on site, is even better. A word to the wise: skip the mashed potato topping. You see it on the menu and think, How weird, it must be excellent? Right? Wrong.

3. Modern: A decent pizza, but I’ve had better in NYC. It has kind a cult following of yale grad students and their ilk. And we all know grad students don’t get out much.

4. Pepe’s: They’ve got the rep, but the pizza is only okay. Well, anywhere else but New Haven where we have more pizza places than gas stations, it would be terrific. You want to get grossed out? Order bacon as a topping. They do not precook it. You have tip each piece on its side and drain the bacon fat. Glurt! And you’d better do this while it is still piping hot. Really seriously overrated.

Cracker-crisp thin crust, stretchy mozzarella, and sauce to die for. They don’t deliver, but out-sell the places that do. It’s hard to get in and sit down with the constant stream of people picking up to-go orders.

Italy invented pizza, and Naples still has the best in the world, hands down.

To suggest that the best pizza comes from Toronto is hilarious. Stick to DRM fighting Cory

I’d say original Italian pizza is close enough to modern U.S. pizza to cancel out any claims of invention in NY. Maybe a decline in quality……

Good to see that we all have our priorities in order!

“God made Pizza because he loves us and wants us to be happy,” to paraphrase Ben Franklin

At first I wanted to post in order to defend my fellow Italians/Ex-pats who posted above, but then I re-read the title.

So, ok. I agree that the only pizza is in Italy, and when I go to the States, the stuff grosses me out. But when I consider that Chinese food here is made with spaghetti instead of noodles, I think, ‘well how authentic could it really be?’ All immigrant cultures in a new home must ‘domesticate’ their cuisine in order to sell it to people there. So in the end I guess that pizza types in America should just be accepted, like language differences between old countries and new ones.

An funny thing though- one thing you hear all the time here spoken by American tourists: “Peppers? I asked for a pepperoni pizza!” Be advised- in Italian, pepperoni literally means big peppers. And that’s exactly what you’ll get- even if they know perfectly well what you’re intending.