Thursday, July 19, 2007

Um . . . Pizza

My favorite food is pizza. In fact, I'm kinda just all about pizza. And I'm okay with that.

So, I'm just gonna blog about pizza for awhile.

Pizza is my comfort food of choice. Aside from M&Ms, that is.

I've had a lot of pizza and pizza-related foods lately.

Here is a list of the pizza items I have enjoyed lately, or at other times, as well as my personal review of each product. I do know a thing or two about pizza, so really, it would be a disservice to my readers if I didn't offer my guidance through the world of pizza.

1. Campisis
I've tried a lot of pizza from a lot of places. Campisis may not literally be the best pizza in the world, but it might be my favorite. It's just real good, y'all. Making a Campisis lunch possible for me will make me happy, anytime, any day. And I have no problem if each of you want to suggest lunch at Campisis . . . everyday. Take turns.

= 3 thumbs up (out of 2 thumbs - so good, it gets more thumbs than I have thumbs to give)

2. Pizza Hot Pockets
I'm not usually a fan of Hot Pockets, but lately I've decided to give them another try. I've found three varieties of Hot Pockets in the pizza genre, and after trying all of them, I can give them all a thumbs up. I can't say I'd eat these every day (like I would eat Campisis everyday). But they are decent if you need a quick pizza fix.

These items are: the regular crispy Hot Pocket with pizza in it, the Hot Pocket sub with pizza in it, and the Hot Pocket Calzone . . . with pizza in it.

= 1.5 thumbs

3. The Pizza Sandwich - Potbelly's
Now, if you ask my opinion on what we should do for lunch, or for supper, and sometimes for brunch (but never for breakfast - I am very strict about no pizza for breakfast, especially not cold pizza - cold pizza is pretty much offensive to pizza, and to me) likely I am going to enthusiastically vote for pizza, probably until it gets so annoying for you that you give in to my pizza desires.

But, during one team lunch at work not too long ago, the group overruled my pizza pushing and they forced a sandwich on me from a little joint known as Potbelly's. However, I still managed to overcome this obstacle in my quest for pizza that day. I ordered . . . the Pizza Sandwich. Don't tell me I can't have pizza. I will get pizza one way or another.

Yes, it's pizza . . . on a sandwich. And really, this is pretty genius. It combines two of my loves into one food item. Because if I can't have pizza for lunch, my second choice would be a good sandwich . . . because I love sandwiches. But not as much as pizza.

And what is a better sandwich than pizza on a sandwich?? COMBINING the pizza with the sandwich is just an amazing culinary delight.

I recommend.

= 2 thumbs

Also good in a pizza emergency when you can't get to a full-size, real live pizza.

4. The Pizza Cheesesteak - Texadelphia
I haven't had this in quite awhile, but it is similar to the Pizza Sandwich. It's literally pizza . . . on a cheesesteak.

I'll give this one-and-a-half thumbs up. It's not a full two thumbs because quite frankly, all that pizza on a giant cheesesteak sandwich is almost overkill. But, I'm not going to go so far as to say that they shouldn't have put the pizza on the cheesesteak, because honestly, it was good. I just can't eat that very often. In fact, I've only had it a couple of times.

= 1.5 thumbs

5. Combos Pizza Snacks
I tried these for the first time this week. They aren't great, but they do pack a pizza-flavored punch. I don't know how they do it, but it's pretty much some sort of pizza-flavored goo stuffed inside a hollow cylindrical pretzel. After a few of them, the pretzel part gets too salty. But the pizza goo really tastes like pizza.

I don't necessarily recommend these, but I'm certainly not going to not finish the ones I bought this week.

= .5 thumbs

6. Pizza Hut Pizza Mia
I ordered this two weekends ago while puppy-sitting the pups. I don't really know what makes this pizza any different than a regular pizza, but here's what Pizza Hut says:

NEW Pizza Mia pizza is made with whole milk mozzarella cheese, Old World Pizza Sauce made with vine-ripened California tomatoes and dough from fine white Great Plains flour.

Basically that means fat-full ingredients.

And let me just say, it was so good that I ordered it again this past weekend, while still puppy-sitting the pups. I mean, it's no Campisis. But for a Pizza Hut pizza, it's good pizza.

Apparently this is just a test pizza in a few markets (I love that I can read about pizza on the internet), but I recommend the Pizza Mia if you can find it.

= 1.75 thumbs

7. Sbarro
Apparently, Sbarro is a fancy pizza restaurant found only in Times Square in New York City. I hope to go there someday and try this amazing pizza that I've heard about from the television.

= ?? thumbs

So, there you have it. That's not the sum total of all of my pizza knowledge. And there are still plenty of pizzas, pizza-related products, and pizza places that I need to try. But as you can see, I am somewhat of a pizza enthusiast.

There is no shame in admitting that.

Especially since you just spent the last seven minutes reading about pizza.

C.T.

6 comments:

meghant said...

I'm personally a fan of Gatti's right now - simply because they have a "mom's eat free" day - so that's nice. I also like Papa John's cause you can order online up to 7 days in advance and they'll get it right. Oh - and spinach alfredo would be my current fav.

The Cynical Tyrant said...

Um, yeah. the genius of being able to order pizza online now is just . . . um . . . genius.

Anonymous said...

Should you ever decide to go on a pizza-themed road trip similar to your European cities in Texas road trip, I recommend Shakespeare's Pizza in Columbia, Missouri, as well as the Mellow Mushroom (particularly their Kosmic Karma pizza) in various cities throughout the South. I could probably live on pizza from those two places alone, just switching back and forth every day to mix things up.

Roberta S said...

I really enjoyed reading your pizza critiques. But my tribe are all in agreement. It doesn't matter what exotic things are on a pizza, the crust is what seals the decision about whether or not it is a GOOD pizza.

Unknown said...

there's a mellow mushroom in funky town - go there!

BW said...

You're kidding about Sbarro, right? In the East, at least, it's in every mall food court.

At the Times Square location, I once saw a frat boy yelling at a customer, "You're in New York city and you're eating AIRPORT PIZZA?"

He was an obnoxious frat boy, but he had a point.