Bloggin' Umholtz

Let�s Talk Pizza and French Fries

         Today’s Blog (and tomorrow’s) is brought to us courtesy of Nada and Katya the Poet . Both have kindled thoughts of two of my favorite foods lately.

         Pizza, I truly believe, is the universal food. Eons from now when some enterprising interplanetary archeologist excavates our civilization, he or maybe she, or maybe it, will discover that pizza is what fueled our economy. I mean think of it. First, it’s a main meal, as evidenced by the fact that my wife and I went out for pizza for dinner last night. We dined, no kidding, at the “No Name Pizzeria” on Derry Street in Harrisburg, PA. I highly recommend it. Excellent pizza and Linda says the Chocolate Mouse Pie/cake (she couldn’t make up her mind which it was) is to die for.

         It’s a breakfast food, as evidenced by the fact that I had two slices of leftover pizza for breakfast this morning. I ate it cold, which is my preferred way to eat pizza for breakfast. For dinner I prefer it piping hot and that is exactly the way “No Name” delivered it to the table.

         It is, of course, a snack and lunch food as well, as evidenced by the fact that the last two slices of leftover pizza will soon be in my belly for lunch. These I will warm, not in the microwave, no sir-ee, in the oven so as to retain as much of the original crispness of the crust as possible. It’s also an appetizer. Surely you’ve had those little pizza squares at some fancy soiree you’ve been to?

         Universal food. I rest my case.

         I’m a traditionalist when it comes to pizza. I like mine round, thin crust, real cheese, and with pepperoni. I’m not above trying variations and am also particularly fond of garlic chicken white pizza. But when it comes right down to it, cheese and pepperoni is what I go for.

         The first pizza I ever ate (that I can remember) was from Fallbrook bakery, in Carbondale, PA. It was square, with a thick Sicilian crust and since I had nothing at the time to compare it to, was in my estimation, quite good. It was, in fact, the only pizza available in Carbondale at the time. I don’t remember round pizza hitting the town until the early seventies, and in my limited palette the round pizza quickly replaced the square as my favorite.

          It wasn’t long after my initiation to round pizza that I was also introduced to the Lagouda Squeeze, invented by Sammy Lagouda of Scranton, PA. To accomplish the “squeeze” you take a full slice of round pizza, which through no fault of its own is actually triangular in shape, and roll it up, until it resembles one of those Pillsbury crescent roll thingies. You then fold that in half and squeeze the whole thing into your mouth at one time. A novel way to eat pizza to be sure, but I soon tired of it and went back to the traditional bite at a time method. As a side note Sammy Lagouda went on to later fame as the inventor of the calzone when he accidentally folded an entire pizza in half.

         Around the same time as the Lagouda Squeeze I discovered a small pizzeria in Forty Fort, PA called “Victory Pig” For those of you familiar with Seinfeld, Victory Pig was the forerunner of “The Soup Nazi”. You got pizza their way, period. Their way was (and is) actually quite good. It was a cross between French bread pizza and Sicilian and didn’t use sauce but used chunks of tomatoes, onions and spices. Tasty.

         After that they all started to blend together, one pizzeria became quite like the next; one pizza, the same as the next. The reader will note that I have not referenced the big pizza chains. You know who they are. I make it a point to stay away from such places. The same goes for the frozen box pizzas. Why would you use either when there are so many other choices out there? I like my pizzas made in small local shops by people who can barely speak English. This is as it should be.

         Now the second part of this deals with French fries, but it will have to wait until tomorrow. You see my stomach is growling and there’s two slices of pizza in the fridg with my name on them.