the Pizza Wars

I WAS HAVING a DVD marathon of Gossip Girl Season 2 last night when I suddenly craved for hand-cut fries and lechon. I was imagining the crunchy, golden brown skin sinking into my teeth as fat dripped down deliciously then marbled at dipping a spud on garlic mayo. I shook my head at the thought. Grease. I cringed slightly. How it made food so appetizingly good. A parade of food rushed to mind and people kept coming up to me to ask what's my ultimate favorite food. My love affair for pizza started as far as I can remember and as a foodie, no matter how far you go with experimenting food, pizza just hit home. I love the smell of freshly-baked bread, sauteed onions and peppers. Here's a list of restaurants outside the country, (across the US in particular) that made pizza a universal comfort food.

Ray's (Queens, NY) - A New York Pizza is known for its paper thin crust, so put-together ingredients such as tomato and mozarella. A typical New Yorker like their pizzas folded like a sandwich and Ray's is one of the city's favorite pizzas and where most people prefer to eat. Using a wood burner burning on cherry and applewood chips as a customer would suspect, the pizza has the right balance of sweet and salty dough.

Frank Pepe's, Sally's (New Haven, CT) also known as "Little Italy", both pizzerias have their own loyal following, as with any New York Pizza, their pizzas vary through flavors of Sausages, Margherita and plain mozarella. They have the same wood brick oven, however, the shape of their pizzas are not the usual circle form, customers would describe this as "amoeba-like" shape,when you enter the store, don't expect them to serve you a knife and fork, the trays come straight from the oven to your tables.

Pizzeria Uno (Chicago, IL) - "Welcome to Uno's, here's a copy of our menu, it takes 45 minutes to an hour for your pizza to be served, so I suggest to take your orders while I get you a table" a redhead smiled warmly as she handed out the yellow cardboard. The Chicago style pizza is normally thick and deep dish. They usually start with a black, round tin pan, dough is brushed with extra virgin olive oil then covered with generous slices of Wisconsin mozarella, topped with mushrooms, and bell peppers, then smothered with tomato sauce.


Malnadi's (Chicago, IL) - Same Chicago deep-dish but the top is layered doubly with dough to ensure nothing slips out of the pie. Locals love their pizzas because they call it the real deal, the flavors are all locked in into a thick pie. Malnadi's boasts of their Chocolate-chip pie dessert. They bake a cookie dough in a pan, and as it warmly bakes, it is topped with vanilla ice cream, whipped cream then topped with a cherry.

Caioiti's (Los Angeles, CA) - A California pizza is well distinguished from the rest of the pizza family. Angelinos like their pizzas gourmet-style. Anything goes! From fresh oysters, goat cheese and pesto, it's called a California Pizza. The owner wanted to make something apart from the ten classic toppings and when he served it, Wolfgang Puck liked it so much, he asked the owner to work for him at Puck's restaurant in Chicago which is Spago. The owner was the one who came up with the single, most duplicated gourmet pizza called Original Barbecue Chicken Pizza from California Pizza Kitchen. They start out with the dough, smothered with barbecue sauce, chicken fillet, cilantro and mozarella cheese.

Nino's Bellissimo (Manhattan, NY) This high upper west end pizzeria sells the most expensive pizza in the world. With $1000 a pie, Manhattan's elite frequents the place to eat the most luscious and rich pizza. It starts off with semolina flour brushed with extra virgin olive oil,smothered with creme fresh, strips of dill and four kinds of the most sophisticated caviar namely: Beluga, Osetra, Caspian Sea and Sevruga then topped with the most fresh thinly-sliced lobster flown in from Maine paired with Crystalle white.

The one that tops my list is any garlic pizza downed with an ice-cold rootbeer. Rootbeer just brings out the flavor of the spices in the pie. You should try it some time :)