http://joeposnanski.com/JoeBlog/2008/09/08/pizza-pizza/
Joe is one of my heroes; he has more wit in one of his sentences, then I could ever accomplish in a lifetime of writing. He is a wordsmith. His latest post is on pizza, and pizza has been on my mind for a while, here in Korea.
It's not that Korea doesn't have pizza, because they have thousands of pizza restaurants. It's just that they have really awful, over priced pizza. One of the most popular Korean pizza chains is called Mr. Pizza. Mr. Pizza offers overpriced small pizzas. Picture a small pizza at a Pizza Hut, then charge 25 dollars for it! I love pizza, and I don't mind paying a good amount of money for food I love, yet the issue is the principal of the matter. I can't pay 25 dollars for a pizza that is not as good as a five dollar "doughy crust" Little Cesar pizza. I can't enjoy it knowing that it is both awful and expensive.
I'm in the branching out phase now. Meg and I a couple of days ago went and tried another type of pizza from a different place. We had a supreme pizza, but I hesitate to call this a pizza because there was no sauce. It was cheese, toppings, and crust. It was horrible. Posnanski asked the question, "What makes a pizza, a pizza?" After another horrible pizza experience in Korea, I am in the unique position to confirm that a pizza starts with a good sauce. The sauce is what makes a pizza pie truly irresistible. Sure you need good toppings, good cheese, and a nice crust that is neither to doughy nor too crisp, but the sauce is the single most important ingredient.
I will find a good pizza in Korea, this is my mission. I have to disagree with Posnanski on Saint Louis style pizza. I love a good thin crust pizza from IMO's. It is my favorite pizza because... THE SAUCE! A thin crust also allows good toppings a chance to shine. They aren't swallowed up in sea of bread. I dislike most things that come out of St. Louis, (especially my girlfriend-zing) so that is a pretty good recommendation for STL pizza.*
*I don't like Saint Louis because I am very much a Kansas City guy. Kansas City is outnumbered on Mizzou's campus, and I found myself having to stick up for my city often. This only increased my passion for KC as well as intensifying my resentment for the bigger and arguably better city of Saint Louis. There is that history, which all probably boils down to a little bit of jealousy.
While we're on food topics, I may as well talk about the fried chicken over here. As I am typing this, my inquisitive mind is wondering whether you think the Fried Chicken is good or bad in Korea. It is amazing. Many of these HOF's (basically a Korean style pub) serve fried chicken. It is more or less the fish and chips of Korea. Many of these HOF's advertise chicken and beer, the two seem to go hand in hand no matter where you are in the world. After all, who doesn't like fried chicken?
14 years ago
3 comments:
So you hate most things that come from St. Louis, huh? I guess you like eating ice cream with out ICE CREAM CONES, you prefer your ravioli boiled rather than TOASTED, you like hot tea instead of ICED TEA, hot dogs instead of PORK STEAKS, sprite for your stomach ache instead of 7-UP, What would The Casanova's Big Night be without the Casanova, VINCENT PRICE?? You prefer the Doobie Brothers without MICHAEL MACDONALD? You can't "Rollover Beethoven" without CHUCK BERRY! What were you doing while the rest of us were letting HARRY CARAY bring our sports to us? I guess you don't know who LOU BROCK or YOGI BERRA are. Did you know MAYA ANGELOU is a product of STL?? What's the best part about staying in hotels?? How about those little chocolates you get on your pillow? Well guess where this tradition started??? SAINT LOUIS!!
Now that I got that out of my system, I'm going to sit back, enjoy my ice cream cone and toasted ravs while watching The Big Lebowski. Oh yeah, guess where "Walter" (John Goodman)from The Big Lebowski is from....SAINT LOUIS!!!
Wow, the comment section of this post was way better than the actually post.
Bold statement you made about pizza sauce, very bold indeed.
I wonder who had fried chicken first, Korea or the U.S? Maybe some of our fine, dark-skinned soldiers introduced them to it during the Korean War.
SO you had a world fair in 1904 and invented a few things 100 years ago.
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