"Fake-Out" Commercials rot your brain

[Ironwood]

   You've had some damn strange hamburgers or donuts, Chimpy.

"Luther Burger", aka "Would you like a heart attack to go with that stroke?"

--Dave

]

Oh God, that looks foul.

[Trippy]

I don't think Chicago style has made it to the UK. While I've heard of it it looks more like a bastardised quiche than a pizza.

It's a meat pie not a quiche since it doesn't have the eggs/custard in the filling.

[Sky]

Pizza Hut, Domino's, and all that shit can lick my ass. I'll eat the $5 pizza from Little Caesars if I want it NOW and CHEAP. If I want to spend just a couple bucks more and wait a few minutes while it's being made, there's a little privately-owned hole in the wall around here that puts everything else to shame.

That's the part that makes me get fucking pissed. In our little italian town there are about a dozen pizza joints. There used to be about 25 or so. The fact that you have this amazing variety of pizza, all freshly made (we have a mozz shop in town and also a garlic grower)...and people buy fucking chain garbage. I hate fucking moronic mainstream stupid fucking tools.

Same goes for all the cool little restaurants struggling to make it, selling great food for ridiculously cheap prices (usually a dinner for two is $20-30 with a beer), but every night the one chain we have (fucking Applebys) is packed full plus takeaways. We have eaten there a couple times for variety and we can't eat there for business lunch because the service is shitty and slow, we don't eat there for dinner because the cooks are retards and can't cook a vegetable and a dinner for two with a beer is around $45. For shitty food and atmosphere.

If you couldn't tell from my comment about pizza folders, I favor chicago style. I like a good thick chewy crust.

[Cyrrex]

Chicago pizza isn't for everyone though, that is for sure.  Come to think of it, neither is NY/NJ pizza.

[Nebu]

Bourdain's new episode is in Chicago and I think he summed up my feelings on Chicago style pizza perfectly.  It's just a different eating experience. 

[Trippy]

Just for the heck of it I made a clip of the Throwdown With Bobby Flay Deep Dish Pizza episode showing Mark Malnati of Lou Malnati's explaining how to make Chicago-style deep dish pizza. I cut around all the interspered parts with Bobby in the kitchen making his pizza which is why it's a bit "choppy" in  places. Also not stated in this clip but you can see it is that the tomato sauce is chunky in Chicago-style pizza.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cH_ymnmarRU

[schild]

A half pound of cheese? How is Malnati not the fattest guy ever? Shouldn't he be partaking in the food he takes such pride in making?

I don't trust skinny people making food for fat people. Let's have some honesty in the culinary industry, eh.

[Nebu]

I know many fit people that cook wonderful and decadent things.  The key is portion control.  You can eat about anything you want as long as the calorie count works out in the end.  Of course, high quality foods are always best.

[Trippy]

Bourdain's new episode is in Chicago and I think he summed up my feelings on Chicago style pizza perfectly.  It's just a different eating experience. 

That Three Little Pigs sandwich was out of control

[Sky]

Also not stated in this clip but you can see it is that the tomato sauce is chunky in Chicago-style pizza.

I don't actually use tomato sauce at all. For a pie with tomato, I use petite diced canned tomatoes, which need to be drained extensively.

At the risk of intersecting VL's thread, one of my favorite pies is just dough brushed with evoo and sprinkled with herbs, a light smattering of diced tomato, fresh basil and a light coating of mozz. I've worked at a ton of places, several of them served pizza. I was taught to always go light on toppings for a better cooked pie, especially cheese and sauce.

[Trippy]

At the risk of intersecting VL's thread, one of my favorite pies is just dough brushed with evoo and sprinkled with herbs, a light smattering of diced tomato, fresh basil and a light coating of mozz. I've worked at a ton of places, several of them served pizza. I was taught to always go light on toppings for a better cooked pie, especially cheese and sauce.

That's the Neapolitan way of making pizza, aka the Pizza Margherita.

[LK]

I am proud of where this thread derail is going.

[Merusk]

Pizza Hut, Domino's, and all that shit can lick my ass. I'll eat the $5 pizza from Little Caesars if I want it NOW and CHEAP. If I want to spend just a couple bucks more and wait a few minutes while it's being made, there's a little privately-owned hole in the wall around here that puts everything else to shame.

That's the part that makes me get fucking pissed. In our little italian town there are about a dozen pizza joints. There used to be about 25 or so. The fact that you have this amazing variety of pizza, all freshly made (we have a mozz shop in town and also a garlic grower)...and people buy fucking chain garbage. I hate fucking moronic mainstream stupid fucking tools.

Same goes for all the cool little restaurants struggling to make it, selling great food for ridiculously cheap prices (usually a dinner for two is $20-30 with a beer), but every night the one chain we have (fucking Applebys) is packed full plus takeaways. We have eaten there a couple times for variety and we can't eat there for business lunch because the service is shitty and slow, we don't eat there for dinner because the cooks are retards and can't cook a vegetable and a dinner for two with a beer is around $45. For shitty food and atmosphere.

If you couldn't tell from my comment about pizza folders, I favor chicago style. I like a good thick chewy crust.

It's all about advertising, which is fucking expensive.  My parents always saw an uptick in sales when we blew a large wad on advertising, but we couldn't compete with Pappa John's/ Pizza Hut and their ads being blasted in prime time on every concievable channel.  Folks here claim to not watch ads, but that's ok because plenty of others do and are very influenced by it.  If they weren't ads wouldn't exsist. 

[Lantyssa]

At the risk of intersecting VL's thread, one of my favorite pies is just dough brushed with evoo and sprinkled with herbs, a light smattering of diced tomato, fresh basil and a light coating of mozz. I've worked at a ton of places, several of them served pizza. I was taught to always go light on toppings for a better cooked pie, especially cheese and sauce.

That was my biggest complaint about pizza when I could eat it.  People thought loading it with cheese and sauce meant it must be better.  That's why I loved the little place in the mall.  The sauce was just enough for flavor, the cheese just enough to form a crisp layer.  The dough was thin, but cooked to perfection.  No grease at all.  Damn.  It's been twenty-five years but I miss that place.

[Polysorbate80]

Tomato sauce?  Bah.  This is the best pizza in existence.  Although their "Shabam" is also good.

[Sky]

I've recently converted my fiancee away from ordering extra cheese. A few light (neapolitan, I knew there was a word, heh) pizzas was all it took.

Merusk, sorry about the family biz. I hate that kind of thing (if you couldn't tell by my minirant).

Poly, pies with tomatoes is only one major segment of mine. The other is a 'sauceless' (technically all mine are) based on evoo and garlic. Mustard...eh, I don't get into the fringe pizza market. To each their own, I've had some great odd pies, but I don't care to make them. Like I tell VL, I like to keep it simple. And I guess mostly traditional, I don't really see the need to move into experimental food :) Anyway, the only "rule" is highest quality ingredients possible, that's where I expend my energy, trying to find good ingredients.

[Polysorbate80]

I know the mustard sauce sounds awful, but it's fabulous.  The only problem with the place is that if you don't get in early, you're outta luck--it's *always* packed.  Well, that and they won't deliver 35 miles away :P

[Merusk]

Merusk, sorry about the family biz. I hate that kind of thing (if you couldn't tell by my minirant).

Don't be.  It paid the bills long enough but it was the lack of healthcare that drove them to sell it more than any, 'omg we're hemorrhaging money and can't pay the bills,' as far as I know.

[apocrypha]

It's all about advertising, which is fucking expensive.  My parents always saw an uptick in sales when we blew a large wad on advertising, but we couldn't compete with Pappa John's/ Pizza Hut and their ads being blasted in prime time on every concievable channel.  Folks here claim to not watch ads, but that's ok because plenty of others do and are very influenced by it.  If they weren't ads wouldn't exsist. 

Oh absolutely. I've never claimed ads don't work. I'm even not naive enough to claim that they don't work on me - despite my best efforts to avoid them I still recognise a vast number of brands, logos, labels etc etc etc.

The effort, skill, art, psychology, tactics, planning etc that go into advertising is astounding. It's just such a stupid fucking waste of human effort that's made necessary by the ridiculous system we live in where everything becomes a commodity 

Anyway, the derail is kinda more interesting tbh... I'd like to have a go at making the Chicago-style pizza, I presume there's no way other than having the right kind of deep pizza dish?

[Yegolev]

Weirdly, good NJ/NY style pizza can be found in Atlanta, but not Chicago style. (Oz Pizza, nice guys, crap locations)

I got my authentic NY at Anthony's 360, just east of the Big Chicken.  Too bad it's closed down.  Have not found a Chicago pizza place at all, not even an attempt.

Dunkin "Donuts" are just cake with a missing center.  Ever wonder why they pimp the coffee so hard?  Someone might call them on their donut bullshit.

[schild]

Weirdly, good NJ/NY style pizza can be found in Atlanta, but not Chicago style. (Oz Pizza, nice guys, crap locations)

I got my authentic NY at Anthony's 360, just east of the Big Chicken.  Too bad it's closed down.  Have not found a Chicago pizza place at all, not even an attempt.

Dunkin "Donuts" are just cake with a missing center.  Ever wonder why they pimp the coffee so hard?  Someone might call them on their donut bullshit.

Dunkin Donuts are in fact not donuts. Also, Pizzeria Uno is seriously as close to Chicago Deep Dish as you need to get. It's the one chain that really got the local brand/type correct the first time out. That shit will kill you though. I've always personally assumed that Chicago is the fattest place in America. I came to this realization the day after having Uno for the first time. God, it really is just... an amazing piece of foodery.

[Yegolev]

You need to be a fucking walrus to survive winter in Chicago, so I believe it.

[MahrinSkel]

I just gave up and started making my own pizza.  Breadmaker with a "Dough Only" cycle.  2 cups of flour, 2 tablespoons of brown sugar, 1.5 tablespoons of fast-acting yeast, 1/4 cup of olive oil, 1.5 cups of water, then 2 more cups of flour and 1 teaspoon of "italian seasoning".  Raise it once in the breadmaker, then transfer to a cake-pan sized plastic storage container and let it rise again (make sure to coat the container bottom and the top of the dough with flour).  Flatten the dough and even out the flour coating, cut in half, each half will be enough for a 12-14 inch pizza.  Bake on the bottom rack of your oven at 400 for 18 minutes (may need longer if you go nuts with the cheese).

The downside is that you have to start working on your pizza 2-3 hours before you get to eat it, which makes it a weekend thing usually.  The upside is pizza that actually tastes good, has exactly what you want on it in the amounts you want, and doesn't make you puke it all back up if you eat too much because it's so full of grease.  If you want something different for the sauce (my wife likes KC Masterpiece barbecue sauce), you just use it.  Currently I'm experimenting with trying to make my own sauce because the brand I like (Pastorelli) is inconsistently available.

--Dave

[Grimwell]

You need to be a fucking walrus to survive winter in Chicago, so I believe it.

Chicago winters are for pussy's.

Their pizza > NY/NJ pizza. It's the truth.

A Chicago Italian Beef >>>>> All.

I miss that sandwich.

[LK]

You need to be a fucking walrus to survive winter in Chicago, so I believe it.

No wonder I come equipped with a layer of blubber. (Born near Chicago, spent infancy there, spend a winter in my early 20's).

[FatuousTwat]

My favourite pizza place disappeared a while back. Had really shitty location, plus I think the person who owned it died. We stumbled upon it during my sister's birthday, she was acting like a bitch so Mom said we are going to the next restaurant we see, and Antonio's was it. There was a waitress there that looked almost exactly like Marilin Monroe (wasn't a theme restaurant or anything, and she didn't dress up like her).

Man it was fucking good.

[Paelos]

I tried making my own pizza tonight for the first time using a Mario Batali recipe for the dough. It was ok, but not right. If anybody has found a perfect dough recipe to replace these fast food idiots I'm game. I figure the best stuff comes from home and not from the ads.

[Triforcer]

Oddly, the best pizza I've ever eaten in my entire life is in Japan, a chain called Salvatore Cuomo.  I'm not sure it exists in any county other than Japan and Italy, but damn- living a block from that place is slowly killing me.

[apocrypha]

The downside is that you have to start working on your pizza 2-3 hours before you get to eat it, which makes it a weekend thing usually. 

We've discovered that pizza dough freezes pretty well before rising. Just make sure you either oil or flour the ball of dough REALLY well before wrapping it in clingfilm and freezing it. Bugger to get the wrap off otherwise!

Take it out in the morning before you go to work, unwrap it when you get home and give it 30 mins in a warmish place, tada, ready to top & cook 

[Sky]

Check out the link in the VL thread to learn more about dough. I was interested to hear he likes to fridge the dough for up to six days for optimal dough! I have a ball of dough that's been in the fridge since Saturday, going to pull it out tonight or tomorrow and put that to the test. It does look better already, I was eyeing it this morning before I left.

I definitely agree with him in that few americans seem to have a properly calibrated scale of pizza. Thus all the retards in my city eating pizza hut and dominos and little caesers while these amazing little pizza shops all go under.

[Murgos]

Oddly, the best pizza I've ever eaten in my entire life is in Japan, a chain called Salvatore Cuomo.  I'm not sure it exists in any county other than Japan and Italy, but damn- living a block from that place is slowly killing me.

Did you get one with fish eyes on it yet?

[Hawkbit]

If for some really strange reason you find yourself in Columbus Ohio, try Rotolo's Pizza.  (Not that any of you should find yourselves here if you can help it, by any means.)  It's one of the best non-NY/Chicago pizzas I've ever had; no pizza bone (crust on a ny pizza) but the dough is rolled thicker (3/4") than your average pie.  Super quality ingredients, too.  You might think Donato's Pizza when thinking of Columbus, but Rotolo's is nothing like it. 

http://www.rotolospizza.com/index.php

It's all preference, but I'm a NY pizza guy.  There's pretty much nothing better than grabbing a few slices from a deli in NYC, folding them up and walking around the city.  There's a great place near the museum of natural history that we hit every time we go. 

Also, I get a cold everytime I eat at Pizzeria Uno.  Literally, not the flu, but a cold.  All three times I've eaten there in my life. 

[LK]

I wonder if anyone has made vacation plans to travel across the country and go Anthony Bourdain on America, trying different and local flavors of foods based on local reputation. That is, most popular thing in the area, go there, eat it, move on.

It'd give me a good excuse to go around the country.

[MahrinSkel]

These days there's not that much "regional" flavor left, that hasn't already been shoved through the maw of the food industry, rendered tasteless and textureless, and franchised throughout Generica.  The "most popular thing in the area" is going to be McDonald's or Subway, everywhere.

--Dave

[LK]

I guess there's always Europe.