Pizza, again.

[substitute]

Reading the excellent Wikipedia article on pizza while eating some made me wonder about more pizza variants. They mention the basics also, but I saw references in my poll responses to Old Forge Style, New Haven Style, the california gourmet pizzas, and Boston pizza.

Wikipedia also refers to a Scottish practice of serving fish & chips with a deep fried frozen pizza, but let’s just let that slide on by, okay?

The pizza industry has what looks like a pretty good site of their own.

Any other major pizza variants people know of?

Comments

[jodymeme.livejournal.com]

Major variants? Not sure if they're major, but there are some distinctive local styles I've encountered.

Here in Vancouver:

"99 cent style": In the mid-90s, dozens of 99-cent pizza slice places opened up all over the city. The crust is usually very thick, the sauce is often non-seasoned tomato paste spread very thinly, cheap oily processed cheese (most people here call it "fake cheese") is used. Most of these places now have "gourmet" ingredients like pesto and artichoke available. The food of our city's poor: beggars can be seen outside most of them trying to hustle coin for dinner.

Indian style: There are increasing numbers of pizza places in the Little India area that have pizzas featuring Indian ingredients such as pieces of butter chicken and spicy, curried-tinged sauces.

*

In La Paz, BCS, Mexico, the pizzas there were made with the mild white "Chihuahua cheese." Nopales and Baja-grown olives were used on vegetarian pizzas.

[jodymeme.livejournal.com]

oh, yeah: "Greek style." i'm not sure if it's the same everywhere else in North America, but in Western Canada most Greek restaurants are pretty much the same in terms of menu and decor. in small towns, they're "Greek/Italian" restaurants. usually on the last page of a four page menu, there are about 21 different pizzas you can order. what is common about all of them is that they are drowned in cheese, which is baked until it is brown, bubbly and somewhat rubbery. the crust is usually thick, and the sauce is a bland crushed tomato with oregano.

[verminefasciste.livejournal.com]

There is an indie pizza joint around the corner that sells "Rollos". They're a whole pizza put together, folded in half, pinched, and baked.

That doesn't count, because it isn't major, but I have one in the fridge waiting for my tummy and you don't.

Calzone

[leolo.livejournal.com]

How does that differ froma calzone?

Re: Calzone

[verminefasciste.livejournal.com]

I don't know. I've never had a calzone! D:

[mendel.livejournal.com]

One of the minor details that turned out to be a big deal to me (inasmuch as getting it "wrong" makes me think really hard about why a pizza isn't as good as it could be) is whether or not you put the toppings on top of the cheese, or the cheese on top of the vegetables. Montreal 99¢ pizza is unfailingly a congealed layer of cheese with all the vegetables and meat underneath that (with the exception of pepperoni, which goes both under and above the cheese, so you get soft bits and crunchy burnt bits), and I have had a lot of Montreal 99¢ pizza, so when the toppings go on top they seem so dry and wrong.

ARG!

[leolo.livejournal.com]

Thank you, you've caused me to start reading obsesively about pizza! And coveting pizza ovens on ebay!

At least I now know what I'm making for supper.