General

I pretty much like it all. Pizza is fantastic, just like burritos. You can eat it without utensils. The toppings can be switch up depending on your preference or mood. It's hearty enough to satisfy my hunger.

I agree mostly. I want my pizza hard so its not flopping but not a rock. I love sauce no matter the sauce. I dont like taking a bite and searching for sauce in each bite. I like hand tossed crust but dont mind deep dish, or pan or thin. As for toppings? My all time favorite will be buffalo chicken. But my age is catching up to me and cant handle it like i used to so i just do pepperoni to be basic.

Been digging Detroit-style pan pizza.

Thin or New York style, supreme or just veggies without pepperoni, white, green, brown and red sauce okay as long as not to sweet. I like my pizza crunchy as well.

Sun wrote:
What's that?

ued222 wrote:
Super crunchy like a cracker? Or is that too much crunch?

I can't really think of examples on how to measure crispyness/crunch.

Maybe 1 is a light crisp, almost like a very lightly toasted piece of bread, and 10 is a very bitey snappy crunch?

I'm not too picky with pizza and like most kinds, but if I'm getting to choose...

-Thin or regular crust (thin if I HAVE to choose a favorite)
-EXTRA sauce (most places put very little sauce. The amount they put on after I request extra is what should be the normal amount, IMO)
-not too big, I can't stand those huge pizzas where a slice is like a foot long and becomes all floppy and hard to handle
-not too greasy
-a light to normal amount of cheese, definitely not extra
-stuffed crust is yummy if it's an option

For toppings, I mostly prefer meats, any meat really. Not a big fan of veggies on my pizza, but I can eat mushrooms, onions, and jalapenos. Pineapple is out of the question.

Locally Godfather's Taco Pizza
image

Not Locally Giordano's Chicago Style
image

I like my pizzas thick. None of that St. Louis style topped cracker, but as many have said I'll eat just about any style. Meat is my go to with sausage usually being my favorite. Chicken-bacon is also a good combo. Oddly enough Pizza Hut's seasoned pork might be my all time favorite, but Pizza Hut's pizzas aren't great and our local one doesn't honor nationwide sales.

Thin crust supreme, with extra mushrooms and extra onion.

Sun wrote:
Thanks for the link. I've been watching videos in order to differentiate between Detroit style and deep dish. Gotta say, Detroit style looks delicious.

As much cheese as humanly possible. On the pizza, in the crust, with a cheese dipping sauce on the side.

Pizza Hut's Triple Decker Pizza from the late 1990s was the pinnacle of pizzadom.

Wood fire oven, cooked in like 4 minutes or less. Crust should be relatively thin with a crunch but still chewy. Sauce should be spicy. There should be a ratio of crust thickness to the meat and cheese and sauce. The thicker it is the more meat and cheese.

A pan style is my next favorite. That should have lots of meat and cheese and sauce,

KCPenguins wrote:


Just throwing it out there, if you haven't tried Lou Malnatis deep dish, you're doing yourself a huge disservice.

SublimeFan wrote:


I've only been to Chicago a few times and I haven't made it there. The first two times I went I had never heard of Lou's, and the third time I couldn't make it work as I was at the mercy of coworkers. It's on the list.

Thankfully there is a Giordano's only a couple hours away.

KCPenguins wrote:
That looks sooooo good. 🤤

@bill what is Greek pizza? It has olives and olive oil on it?

@Chad

Interesting that you mentioned the sauce being spicy. There was a store near me, not open anymore, that had a sauce that had a kick to it. It was very good.

I've found that more often than not, the sauce isn't spicy.

benstylus wrote:
Don't forget to ask for extra cheese on top of that slice before they heat it up.

nonamesleft wrote:


On the crust as well!

KCPenguins wrote:
😆

I can only think of a way to add even more cheese: after everything above is done, place cheese in a pan, place the slice on top of the cheese, then place cheese against all of the edges of the slice. Then stick the pan in an oven.

Deep dish pizza is delicious, but it isn't pizza. It's a casserole.

I used to like thick, fluffy crust (think DiGiorno's without the memory foam) but in my old age, I prefer either Neopolitan style with the charred chewy thin crust, or New York style.

Thin crust. Just enough to be a vehicle for the sauce and toppings. I don't like feeling as if I'm eating a loaf of bread. I hate if the crust is burnt/charred, however. Golden brown and crispy - not incinerated.

Oh, and the pizza needs sauce! And no gobs of greasy cheese - the kind that's a giant slab that slides off the crust with my first bite. Ugh.

So I’m a sucker for a classic slice. If I hit up like a chain pizzeria I mess with toppings and from a regular pizzeria occasionally I’ll do a pepperoni or a meatball, rarely a buffalo chicken. But there is something about the absolute perfection and simplicity of an essentially 3 ingredient pie.

Ideally eaten 5-7 mins after it comes out of the oven so it’s had some time to settle, and certainly not long enough for there to be a chill in the slice and I’m weirdly a single cook pizza person. That’s not to say I wouldn’t ever reheat a slice but I am of the opinion that no matter what your method is of reheating a slice of pizza once it’s chilled down from its original cook can never be reconstituted into the form of it’s former glory.

Now keep in mind I live in NY and have Lived on the Queens/Nassau border- mostly central Nassau County most of my life so there is an embarrassment of riches when it comes to having glorious, trustworthy pizzerias in absolute abundance but here are my go to’s:

Regular Slice
Frantoni’s (the Friday night pizza in my house growing up and still go out of my way to grab a fresh slice here)
image

Grandma Slice (thin crispy Sicilian style pizza. I don’t know what they do to these tomatoes here but the explosion of flavor from them is simply unmatched.
Da’Angelos
image

Sicilian(More of a traditional NY deep dish but not the preposterous casserole style of Chicago) Its crispy on the bottom, light and pillowy/airy in the middle and this particular slice from Gino’s in Williston Park has just a touch of cheese on top that’s mostly parmesan/pecorino Romano.

image

Still venture here to this day for this slice. Enjoyed many a slice after little league games here as a kid.


Now to be fair all 3 of these places are in the same general neighborhood Williston Park/Albertson and have been owned and operated by the same families since I was a little kid. So the idea that they have maintained their greatness over generations is both impressive and comforting to me.

There are at least 20/30 other pizzerias I can rely on if I’m over that way for a dependable, solid slice of pizza that are worthy of honorable mentions but since most of you aren’t local I’ll spare you the monotony of listing them here.

Nothing beats an amazing stuffed pizza. The only thing I've seen come close yet never had is a stuff pizza with a pizza on top of the stuffed pizza stuffed crust style. But i mean cook time and heat variance on that is super risky because your top is going to cook at a such higher rate that the actual stuffing.so naturally if you were to do or attempt it you don't want the stuffing to be overbalanced, but you also don't want the weight to cave in from making the adjustment on top. Plus you are already double doughing sao you have to deal with making sure your top dough level cooks enough to create a solid foundation for your next level. it's pretty tricky.

Pizza preference is usually meat lovers chicken hot or bbq. Pepperoni Bacon Sausage usually, white sauce *a good white pie is fantastic.* No mushrooms anchovies pineapple is disgusting on a pizza for all of you who think thats appropriate. Very picky vegetable eater. Prefer mine diced mostly onions and peppers. As i've gotten older I've taken more of a liking to spinach pies on white and just make a combination of that.

A good pie is how its made vs the skill level of its maker and the product involved. if you know what you are doing pizza is effortless, but their is a science to making it correctly whether you want to believe it or not.

Also a big fan of a solid tomato pie or grandma's pie depending on the location.

Looks close enough. the classic rectangular Little Caesars is considered Detroit style, I believe.

HEHEHATE wrote:
Spinach pizza is good. I don't usually see the stuffed slices around. I've had it before. Crust on bottom, crust on top, stuffed with toppings in the middle. The top is almost like a pie crust. Crispy and baked well.

Never had a tomato pie. I know I can look it up but since we're on topic here, what is it?

@Prime

Thanks for that thorough post and adding the pictures. Pictures go a long way describing pizza.

See now I like mushrooms on my pizza but almost exclusively from the chain pizza places. Because for some reason they get in fresh mushrooms and chop them thin and they cook the flavor in. And all these like thousands of “real” pizzerias tend to used canned mushrooms which are always sour and totally schkeeve me out.

I have had a Hawaiian pizza and a bbq chicken pizza both with pineapples. Neither were favorites of mine but wasn’t like hell on earth either. I’m a little bit of a pizza snob but also like American in the regard that I feel like you should be able to top your pizza with any topping you want, so if you want pineapples on your pizza and it makes you happy go for it, certainly doesn’t bother me.

I came up with this a while back. Idk what triggered the thought. I guess that I don’t enjoy broccoli on pizza in any capacity. I may have even posted it to Random Pic Thread way back but it seems appropriate to post here

image

Prime wrote:


I guess I have to go try broccoli pizza now.

When did artichoke hearts become a thing on pizza? They aren't every where, but they are no longer what I would consider a rare ingredient.

Chad wrote:
That's a thing? Haven't seen it anywhere. But I've had artichoke before, and I can see the subtle earthy taste pairing well with pizza.

Prime wrote:

If he were talking to me, I wouldn't survive the conversation. A white pizza with broccoli is amazing.

A white pizza with broccoli rabe is transcendent.

Renaissance2K wrote:
Interesting that you mention white pizza. Someone told me recently that they had an excellent white spinach slice. Does white pizza just mean no sauce, or is it a different kind of cheese?

A white slice is traditionally a plainish crust sometimes lightly spiced and flavored with olive oil salt and garlic almost focaccia like. Baked off about half way, then dollops of ricotta cheese are scattered about and the remaining surface area filled in with mozzarella cheese and baked off to finish. Usually with some finely chopped basil at the end. Can be a mess can also be kind of nice. It really boils down to your position on ricotta cheese.

@Renaissance2K I like to see people enjoy themselves. So if you love broccoli go for it. I like broccoli as a stand alone veggie with protein for dinner. I’m just of the opinion that once you introduce broccoli to a dish that is now all I can taste. Similarly to bacon. I love bacon as its own stand alone thing and occasionally I think it’s a good compliment in dishes but mostly I find it overwhelms whatever it’s introduced to and totally dominates.

Prime wrote:
Thanks for the explanation.

Ricotta is nice. Though, speaking of ricotta, I once made a lasagna for the family using ricotta, around 5-7 years ago I'd say. I thought the lasagna was merely okay. But one person still raves about it occasionally, saying it was one of the best lasagnas. Funny enough, I've tried lasagna made by that person, and it was WAY better than the one that I made. I'd rate that one an 8/10, and mine I'd rate a 6/10. The compliments I was given said otherwise, but I don't understand it. When it was being eaten and raved about, I even said it was wrong, that it didn't make sense, that their lasagna was so much better. You can't argue with taste. People like different things.

Prime wrote:
Maybe that's why he mentioned broccoli rabe. Maybe it's more mild. Is it? @Renaissance2k

nonamesleft wrote:

Broccoli rabe has a bitter, almost metallic flavor. The first few times I tried it, I thought it was disgusting, but then I strangely started to crave it. Now, it's my favorite vegetable.

It's an awesome contrast to a rich, creamy pizza, especially white pizza, but it's not for everyone. It doesn't have much in common with broccoli other than how it looks; it's technically part of the turnip family.