Your Pizza Order

[CleverNickName]

My favorite beer is White Claw. It’s a Zima-style beer…. From Belgium maybe?

CleverNickName, wounding me in three days, probably.

Okay first of all, how dare you.

But you are right about one thing, I am a beer snob. We all are...I'm pretty sure it's required for anyone with a Portland address. I have favorites all across the beer spectrum (yes, there is apparently a beer spectrum), and I'm pretty judgmental about them. I dare say I'm more judgmental about beer than you are about bards. "Oh you ordered a Budweiser, did you? Interesting. Would you say that ketchup is 'really spicy,' too?"

For pizza, I'd go for Moose Drool brown ale. Yes that's right, I'm risking the revocation of my Hipster Card to recommend a popular grocery store beer. But I stand by it. It's light and smooth, but it also has...you know...flavor. And it's agreeable to nearly any combination of pizza toppings.

Toppings, plural. As in more than one, the way that our Italian American forefathers intended.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

Pizza crust: By preference, thin crust. By requirements: gluten-free or sourdough (which is often tolerable to those with gluten sensitivities).

Beer, likewise, is limited to gluten-free options. A local brewery, Aurochs, specializes in gluten-free beer, and it's the closest to real beer I've had in years.

In the before-times, my preferences were for dark and/or Belgian-style beers. Give me a dark, strong beer that comes in a smaller glass and I was generally happy.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

Okay first of all, how dare you.

....how dare I? Because I knew that underneath that egalitarian pretense, there beat the heart of a fellow judgmental hipster. I can just smell it.

To use the old joke from the macro-brew days ...

What the similarity between American beer and sex in a canoe?

Spoiler

They're both effin' close to water.

I'm actually reporting a sad day. There was a pizza place near where I work. And it was amazing. The owner and his small staff went to Italy once a year to chill and get re-acquainted with the food & tastes. Anyway, the owner sold six months ago.

And the place has gone downhill. He gave the new owners the recipes he used, but they have been cutting corners ... hiring bad employees, no longer using fresh ingredients. Heck, I think I noticed pineapple as a topping recently. I just had one of their pizzas and it was terrible.

Anyway. really sad. Nothing worse than seeing a good pizza place go downhill. I'm guessing that they have another year or two of coasting on memories and goodwill before their new business model kills them.

 

[CleverNickName]

I'm actually reporting a sad day. There was a pizza place near where I work. And it was amazing. The owner and his small staff went to Italy once a year to chill and get re-acquainted with the food & tastes. Anyway, the owner sold six months ago.

And the place has gone downhill. He gave the new owners the recipes he used, but they have been cutting corners ... hiring bad employees, no longer using fresh ingredients. Heck, I think I noticed pineapple as a topping recently. I just had one of their pizzas and it was terrible.

Anyway. really sad. Nothing worse than seeing a good pizza place go downhill. I'm guessing that they have another year or two of coasting on memories and goodwill before their new business model kills them.

Man, I can empathize. A good neighborhood restaurant is a treasure.

I lost a really great deli across the street in the early days of the pandemic...they were a small, family-owned joint that was just too dependent on foot traffic to make it work with online delivery and such. They had the best tuna salad and the best Reuben, and their rotator tap had some really great local microbrews. But alas, Covid-19 put an end to their 20+ years of business.

The place sat empty for a little more than a year, and then recently reopened as a completely different restaurant. The young couple who opened it up are really nice, and I wish them the best, but it's just...not the same. The deli I know and love, the place where my wife and I had one of our first dates together as a couple, the place we rented out completely--kitchen and all--to host our wedding reception, is no more.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

Man, I can empathize. A good neighborhood restaurant is a treasure.

I lost a really great deli across the street in the early days of the pandemic...they were a small, family-owned joint that was just too dependent on foot traffic to make it work with online delivery and such. They had the best tuna salad and the best Reuben, and their rotator tap had some really great local microbrews. But alas, Covid-19 put an end to their 20+ years of business.

The place sat empty for a little more than a year, and then recently reopened as a completely different restaurant. The young couple who opened it up are really nice, and I wish them the best, but it's just...not the same. The deli I know and love, the place where my wife and I had one of our first dates together as a couple, the place we rented out completely--kitchen and all--to host our wedding reception, is no more.

I think the 'rona was the death knell for a lot of local places- either because of the economic shock, or because it sped up decisions (might as well get out now).

I can't complain too much; overall the arc of food and drink quality has not just been positive, but overwhelmingly so. I'm old enough to remember a time when sushi was some bizarre thing out in California, and not a dish you'd find made in supermarkets (?!) across the United States.* Or that I can reliably get good Korean food in many parts of the United States now.

The profusion and proliferation of good food, from around the world, has truly been something. And that it is now accessible in large parts of the United States, and not just NYC and LA? Excellent.


*Protip- life can be worse than supermarket sushi. Like, you know, gas station sushi.

 

[Zardnaar]

Similar things here.

Went to a USA style pizza place. They import the ingredients.

Luke most US style places I've tried it was bland. The cheesy garlic scrolls were hyped up but Domino's murders them on those.

NZ pizzas from one of the nicer places.

 

[Bohandas]

Onions or garlic on white pizza, sausage, pepperoni, or chicken on regular pizza

 

[Bedrockgames]

Fair enough, the concept of "hating" a pizza is ridiculous to begin with. We all know it's the perfect food: infinitely customizable, versatile, delicious, and widely available. We have our favorites, least-favorites, and dietary restrictions, sure, but hatred? I don't buy it.

I think mostly people like to bust chops over differences in taste around pizza (because there are so many kinds and so many toppings)

I used to deliver pizza for years. One thing I learned, just from the aroma of different orders, was the importance of aromatics. Some orders just smelled better than others, and they were often topping combinations I would need have thought to try. The other thing was if a style of pizza wasn't for me (for example I always preferred Italian thin crust to what we call Greek pizza in Boston). But then I worked in a bunch of greek places and saw the guys putting feta, red onion and fresh tomato on the pizza after it was cooked (and they were delicious that way when I tried it).

I will say though, the one order I got that I just couldn't fathom: cod pizza. Not only is it a topping I wouldn't really want to mix in on pizza (I like cod but cod and cheese feels off), but virtually every place I worked at, that used cod as a topping, always used the cod for pizza that was starting to get that ammonia smell (so the pizzas always smelled pretty terrible IMO). I would say go with anchovies, or shrimp. But avoid cod.

 

[Maxperson]

The best pizza is a thing of art.

I THINK you're somewhere in the Los Angeles area. You ever have Joe Peeps?

 

[Maxperson]

Have you tried ivermectin?

No. but if I ever order anchovies I might need it.