It’s pizza season. I know what you are thinking. What season is not pizza season? I tend to agree.
I like pizza. Thin. Thick. It doesn’t matter. I prefer it mostly with meat and cheese, but you can throw in some veggies if you really want to. I can’t eat pizza like I used to, but that goes for a lot of foods these days. Meanwhile, I find it quite challenging to resist a slice of hot, gooey pizza.
My dad didn’t like pizza. Seriously. I mean, who doesn’t like pizza? I think this stems from those awful, cheap, cardboard-like frozen pizzas that Mom used to buy. Dad was more of a meat and potatoes guy, but he would take me out for pizza from time to time, as he knew it was this teenager’s meal of choice.
I remember when the Personal Pan pizzas were introduced at Pizza Hut in 1986. We had about a half-mile walk from our high school to get there for lunch, and it was a frequent trip. Promised to be on the table in 5 minutes, we would scarf those mini-pizzas down and run back to class — after a quick game of Pac Man, of course.
It’s not that we didn’t have hot lunch pizza at school. We did. Kind of. It was wet and sloppy and on a barely cooked crust cut in rectangles, but it was still one of the most requested lunches. Why rectangles, you ask? Well, there weren’t triangles on the hot lunch trays. Duh.
College days brought about Domino’s pizza — and an incredible challenge. The trick was to see if you could eat an entire small pizza by yourself. I would look at that pizza and wonder how small I could make it if I mounded it into a ball. Then I envisioned that ball of pizza in my stomach. Regardless, challenge accepted… and achieved.
While living in an apartment fresh out of college with a bunch of friends, we were mesmerized by the introduction of stuffed crust pizza. This was probably made for those who wouldn’t eat the crust, but the rest of us pizza gobblers enjoyed it, too, especially on Sundays watching football.
Much of my wife’s family is from Texas. On one of their visits here a few years back, we decided to go to the drive-in theater in Newton. Jolene thought we should pick up a pizza, so she pulled into a Casey’s convenience store along the way. The Texas crowd wanted to know why we stopped, jokingly asking if she was getting pizza at a gas station. Yes, actually, and they agreed it was quite good.
Dessert pizza was ingenious. Why not? Sugar and dough are meant to go together. Even so, breakfast pizza was an even better invention. Meat, eggs and cheese on dough? Now you’re talking.
My favorite pizza, though, has to be Hawaiian. Canadian bacon and pineapple make for a combination so good it will make your taste buds bugle reveille. No one else in my family likes Hawaiian pizza, which means more for me.
How about you? What’s your most favorite and least favorite pizza? Shoot me a note and let me know.
Have a terrific Tuesday, and thanks for reading.
Shane Goodman
Editor and Publisher
Times Vedette digital editions
shane@gctimesnews.com
641-332-2707