Pizza!

hobbsyoyo

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So let's compare notes on our favorite pizzas.

What is your favorite pizza style?

What is your favorite pizza restaurant?

What are your favorite toppings?

What is your favorite frozen pizza?

How do you like to prepare pizza when you make it homemade?

How much are you willing to spend on a good pie?

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I'm very partial to Chicago-style pizza. I had *real* Chicago-style deep dish once when I was in Chicago and I loved it. That said, it's very hard to get *real* Chicago-style pizza outside of Chicago. I had a Papa Murphy's take on it once and it was ok, but pretty un-authentic to be honest. I also really like St. Louis-style pizza (Imo's - I'm not sure of any other restaurant that sells St. Louis-style though many frozen pizzas are pretty close though not labeled as St. Louis-style). Since I live close to St. Louis, I can get Imo's anytime, so I probably appreciate it less than if I lived else where. Oh and that cheese lovers pizza from Pizza Hut (with the little cups of cheese) is amazing!

My favorite restaurant is hard to judge because I like so many. Pizza Hut, Dominos (since they reworked their pizzas), Papa John's and Imo's are all up there and I can't say I truly favor one over the others.

For toppings, I always go with Pepperoni and Bacon. If I am ordering from a place with lots of cheese options (like Pappa John's) I usually end up putting on like 5 different kinds of cheese as well.

For frozen pizza, I love Tombstone and Tostino's. I can eat any of the other brands but I almost always go for those two when given a choice.

When I make a pizza homemade, I usually make a breakfast pizza or a chicken alfredo pizza. For the breakfast pizza I buy biscuit dough and use sausage gravy as sauce. Then I layer on bacon, scrambled eggs and mozzarella. My chicken alfredo pizza has a layer of olive oil over a standard crust. Then I add alfredo, chicken, bacon and diced tomatoes.

I'm willing to spend $40 max on a single pizza but usually spend around $20 - because I tend to get cheese crust pizzas that cost more. Oh and those money figures are for restaurants and I'd only spend $40 for a really special pizza. When I buy frozen I get pretty cheap Tombstone and Tostino's pizza's, so just $5-10.
 
I'm not too fussy about pizza, but I have strong feelings on two issues: no pineapple and deep-dish pizza is just cloyingly extravagant.
 
Here are my #hot #pizza #takes

1) I know its sacrilege for somebody like me to admit this, but I'm not crazy about Chicago-style deep dish. I typically only buy it when i'm entertaining an out of town friend who insists on buying it, and most of my friends in the city rarely eat it themselves. It's more expensive, and it doesn't keep as well for critical breakfast leftover pizza as a more pan or thin style crust.

2) There are a lot of neighborhoody local pizza joints that I'll typically visit before any major chain. If cost is a major issue (or if I need a TON of pizza), I like Little Caesars just fine. Pizza Hut is okay, but I can't see a reason to ever visit Dominos or Papa Johns. There are too many other local options that are better.

3) If I can get away with it, I prefer Pepperoni, Sausage and Green Pepper, occasionally splurging for Onions as well. BBQ Chicken pizza is also pretty underrated. Only absolute dealbreaker is olives. Can't stand 'em.

4) My wife loves making homemade pizza. The favorite in our house is her homemade crust, with mozzarella cheese, kale, and red grapes. We've also experimented with shrimp pizza, white pizza, and "all the cheeses we have in the fridge" pizza. I'm willing to try just about anything.

I hate spending more than 20 bucks on a single pizza, but if it's really damn good, I'll drop 25ish. Any more than that and I'd rather just make it myself and buy premium ingredients, or just buy more smaller pizzas, for extra variety.
 
What is your favorite pizza style?
Homemade by me.

What is your favorite pizza restaurant?
This place is reasonably close to me and pretty good.

What are your favorite toppings?
Spinach, olives.

What is your favorite frozen pizza?
None.

How do you like to prepare pizza when you make it homemade?
My go-to is to use whole wheat single-serve pizza shells, with tomato sauce, Frank's Red Hot, olives, pineapple tidbits, spinach, gouda, parmesan.

How much are you willing to spend on a good pie?
I dunno, I've never really thought about it. If I went to a high-end restaurant and ordered a gourmet pizza I'd be fine spending on par with other stuff they're serving.

Only absolute dealbreaker is olives. Can't stand 'em.

I used to hate olives, but I realized how many good dishes they're used in, so I forced myself to eat them. After several months of it, I grew to like them, and a couple years later, I love them.
 
What is your favorite pizza style?
New York. I can't stand thick crusts.

What is your favorite pizza restaurant?
Best I've ever been to is a place called Anthony's in Central Florida.
Favorite around my home (Pittsburgh) is a place called Aviva's.
Favorite chain is California Pizza Kitchen.

What are your favorite toppings?
olives, mushrooms, pineapple, sausage. I'll eat anything that doesn't have onions or peppers though (I hate onions, and I like peppers but not on pizza)

What is your favorite frozen pizza?
If I had to pick one, then DiGiorno's or however it's spelled. Frozen pizza is disgusting though.

How do you like to prepare pizza when you make it homemade?
Never made it at home.

How much are you willing to spend on a good pie?
$25? $30? Then again, I'm 16, and I've never dated, so I wouldn't know :p
 
What is your favorite pizza style?

Thin crust, freshly minced garlic on the sauce, well done

What is your favorite pizza restaurant?

Chains kind of suck generally speaking. I used to like Soprano's - they used to make a mean thin crust chicken/tomato/onion pizza.. But it seems that their recipies have changed.

There used to be a gourmet pizza place by me, but they've since shut down and have been replaced by a Muslim pizza place that advertises bacon as a topping but only gives you fake bacon :( I am actively boycotting this place for their anti-bacon practices.

My roommate gets pizza pizza sometimes, and it's alright.

What are your favorite toppings?

Pepperoni and bacon. Chicken goes well with tomato and onion too. Spicy italian sausage works well too. Mushrooms, onions, and green pepper bits are my favourite veggie toppings.

What is your favorite frozen pizza?

Dr. Oetker Ristorante Funghi

Very bare, but very good.

How do you like to prepare pizza when you make it homemade?

Me and my roommate actually started making our own pizzas, but for now we buy a kit that comes with a thing you mix with water to get the dough. It also comes with sauce but that's it.

We do thin crust, spread the sauce, put thiny minced garlic on it, some parmesan, then start putting shredded mozza on it. Put some toppings (no meat) on, add more cheese. Continue until you have a decent amount of cheese, and then put pepperoni and bacon on top. Add a bit of cheese on top of that and throw it in the oven.

Comes out awesome. Next up we are going to try making our own dough.

How much are you willing to spend on a good pie?

The gourmet place close to me that's gone now used to be pricy. A large meat pizza was $25 I think. It was incredibly good though. I think one time we paid $32 after taxes and delivery for 1 large pizza with pepperoni, bacon, and sausage.

It was heavenly. Definitely worth the price.
 
1) I know its sacrilege for somebody like me to admit this, but I'm not crazy about Chicago-style deep dish. I typically only buy it when i'm entertaining an out of town friend who insists on buying it, and most of my friends in the city rarely eat it themselves. It's more expensive, and it doesn't keep as well for critical breakfast leftover pizza as a more pan or thin style crust.
My favorite tidbit in the thread so far, because I know exactly what you're talking about.

@Warpus, I would advise against making your own dough. In my opinion you're going to spend more time making an inferior product than if you had just bought it. Unless of course you have mad baking skills. I wouldn't put it past you.

Hey VR (you're bound to show up):
How is Casey's General Store's pizza? They started an ad campaign stating how awesome it is and I'm skeptical. I'm not even that fond of their breakfast pizza, but it's the only kind I can find that I don't have to make from scratch or microwave.
 
@Warpus, I would advise against making your own dough. In my opinion you're going to spend more time making an inferior product than if you had just bought it. Unless of course you have mad baking skills. I wouldn't put it past you.

I don't have much experience baking at all, but my sister doesn't either and she's been dishing out amazing pizza - all homemade, including the dough, which is even gluten free. If she can do it, so can I! Plus it will taste fresher and have less preservatives. Just gotta get the recipe right I guess
 
Good luck and more power to you!

I made home-made ravioli once and it was awful. You really need a pasta press to pull it off, though pizza dough should be much simpler.
 
A few disjointed, unsupported points of view coming. I was actually about to go to sleep and saw this thread and as I'm passionate about pizza I'm just going to rave/rant.

1. Alleged "gourmet" pizza is a crime. Snow peas, sweet Thai chilli sauce, aubergine, lamb, sweet potato etc will never contaminate my pizza. I like that stuff, but unless some busty Italian woman would make one with it or I've seen the ingredient in American TV and movies, it's banned. In regards anchovies, I like them but in a shared pizza, non anchovy eaters have right of veto.

2. There are no sauce variants. Tomato, that's it. That sickly sweet BBQ....banned.

3. Chicken....banned. I struggled with banning it cause it's inoffensive. But pizza needs a "wow factor" and chicken ain't got that.

4. Crust....I prefer a thin crust but considering pizza is often a joint decision, it's good manners not to be a crust Nazi. Just suck it up, you'll be fine. (Note, the 3 points above and the banning are totally legit and can't be construed as topping Nazism)

5. Frozen pizza....you guessed it, banned.

6. Home made pizza....banned unless my sole contribution consists of eating it.

7. Garlic bread.....if sharing, don't even think about passing the two end pieces off as being equal to middle pieces. You don't think I've tried that move a thousand times and am not wise to your head games?

8. "We don't need to order Coke, we've got juice and water!"....then you drink juice and water, I'll have two liters of the good stuff.

9. Tabasco sauce, always.

10. Do tip the driver and do offer the last slice. If your pizza buddy declines, no matter how much you want it insist you are full, suck it up and wait patiently until the inevitable "Are you sure you don't want it?" arrives. Once it's gone you'll forget about it and your actions will ensure plenty of mutually enjoyable pizzas in the future.
 
I only like regular slice you can get anywhere here in ny (preferably freshly made and not the one that's been on display and warmed up) or any supreme style pizzas. Kinda funny cause one is very minimalistic while the other style tries to bombard you with every topping they got.
 
I recently started making my own pizzas from scratch. I use a ceramic pizza stone to get the crust brown enough and a bread maker to prepare the dough.

If that is too much effort, I strongly recommend California Pizza Kitchen frozen pizzas. They are far superior to any others I have tried.
 
What is your favorite pizza style?
Pan

What is your favorite pizza restaurant?
Probably Papa John's.

What are your favorite toppings?
Green peppers, onion, spinach.

What is your favorite frozen pizza?
Red Baron but I don't eat frozen pizza anymore.

How do you like to prepare pizza when you make it homemade?
Pan.

How much are you willing to spend on a good pie?
$10-15.
 
I recently started making my own pizzas from scratch. I use a ceramic pizza stone to get the crust brown enough and a bread maker to prepare the dough.

If that is too much effort, I strongly recommend California Pizza Kitchen frozen pizzas. They are far superior to any others I have tried.

Got the dough recipe handy?
 
What is your favorite pizza style? Chicago style deep dish

What is your favorite pizza restaurant? Lou Malnati's, local chain, and by far the best pizza and crust, close second place is Piero's, another small north shore chain

What are your favorite toppings? Olives, spinach, green peppers, tomato, those are usually the pretty general ones I'll get on most thin crust pizzas, I tend to stay away from meat

What is your favorite frozen pizza? They're all pretty nasty

How do you like to prepare pizza when you make it homemade? Generally don't, since it will be inferior to all the stuff made in restaurants around here

How much are you willing to spend on a good pie? No idea, I tend not to pay for it :lol:
 
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