Saturday, January 07, 2006

CALIFORNIA PIZZA?, SLICE 2

My friend Sirena posted a comment to my California Pizza? article. I'm not quite sure what she's objecting to, but it got me thinking a bit more about the subject.

Though I do find pizza toppings like pineapple rather weird, I really don't care what people want on theirs. I like sausage, peppers, onion and mushrooms, preferably all fresh. My real problem with the idea of California-style pizza is what goes underneath the toppings. I like a chewy crust, flavorful cheese, and a noticeable amount of reasonably heavy, not too sweet tomato sauce. It's going to be a little greasy. California-style, at least as it comes out at the California Pizza Kitchen, is a thin, dry crust, tasteless cheese and a token amount of tomato sauce too small to be noticed. Grease-free, and almost taste-free. The real test of pizza is that it should be good without any toppings.

One of the things I forgot to put in my first post is that I have never found the pizza from any national chain to be very good. Domino's is abominable (I'm not sure what the fluffy yellowish stuff on top is, but it's not cheese). Pizza Hut isn't much better. Now I can add California Pizza Kitchen to my avoid list.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Just objecting slightly to the "California=weird and strange" meme, that because CPK puts different toppings, that means that Californians tend to be weird in their pizza toppings. That's all. :)

Sirena