It was fifteen years ago that I moved away from the western suburbs of Chicago to my present home. There were so many things that I missed, but one of the more shallow, selfish things that I found hard to live without was a good Chicago-style pizza. For any of you who may not be familiar with this tasty treat, it is a large, deep-dish, double crust pizza usually overwhelmingly stuffed with cheese, meat, sauce and any other filling that strikes your fancy.I searched our area, determined that there must be a pizza comparable to those I found in Chicago. Alas, this is the pizza desert of the world. The pizza around here consists of the thinnest crust imaginable topped with a runny sauce, a paltry amount of cheese and then cut into SQUARES! Yes, you read it right . . . squares. That's almost sacrilege for pizza connoisseurs who know a good pizza is always cut in pie-shaped triangles.
Short of shipping the good stuff in from Chicago packed in dry ice, I had resorted to making my own. A time-consuming and not always so predictable effort to say the least. Well, tonight, my world changed. We have just started frequenting a new pizza chain here in town, Papa Murphy's. At this particular establishment, you order your pizza, pick it up and bake it at home in your own oven. A few weeks ago, we tried a traditional pizza and found it to be very good. When we got our pizza, I noticed that it came with a menu of other pizzas that they could make. Lo and behold, they advertised a Chicago-style pizza . . . Right!!
Leaving my skepticism at the door, I broke down tonight and ordered one, hoping beyond hope that it would live up to my expectations. When I picked it up, it look pretty scrawny. I didn't have a good vibe about this. But after a few minutes in the oven, the whole pizza started to rise and look a little more promising. By the time the buzzer rang, I had a perfectly-cooked, golden-brown, double-crust, scallop-edged pizza. And the taste was even better. I'll concede that it still doesn't hold a candle to Gino's East, but it was definitely a respectable substitute. So if you ever stop through and have a hankering for some Chicago-style pizza while you visit us, just say the word and I'll order one up for you!
1 comment:
Yeehaw! Glad you found a good place to go! They used to have one of those where Pa and Ma lived. Not sure if it's still there. We'll have to order a few when we see you at Thanksgiving!
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