September 2011
2 posts
April 2010
1 post
March 2010
1 post
What happened?
My posts from the last 44 weeks haven’t shown up?
July 2009
1 post
June 2009
1 post
lacking cheese
If any of the two followers want to revive Pizza Friday/ contribute posts let me know.
Otherwise, I may let it die.
April 2009
16 posts
1 tag
Uno Chicago Grill →
rating: 4 out of 5 slices
1 tag
da pizza
A few years back, in more innocent times for all of us, anyone with an open heart, a working television, and the ability to stay up past 11:30 on a Saturday night could get their kicks watching Norm from Cheers, a Canadian, Triumph the Insult Comic Dog’s handler, and Chris Farley pretending to be from Chicago. As each sketch progressed and each man’s accent slid further and further...
1 tag
Pizzaectomy
Deep dish pizza is not a monster I am very familiar with. I always expect the pizza to be 25/75 crust/toppings which would make for a very soggy, very heavy pizza. While Pizzeria Uno’s pizza did sit heavy in my stomach, causing me to remark I needed a pizzaectomy, it was a 75/25 rather fluffy pie. The crust reminded me of an actual pie crust. It was flakey but dense. Two slices did me...
1 tag
Papa John's →
rating: 3.5 out of 5 slices
1 tag
say yes to the cheese
In my mind, a pound of cheese on an extra large pizza is not as impressive as a pound of cheese on a small pizza but it is more sensible. It is as sensible as a pound of cheese on anything can be. I am anything but sensible when it comes to cheese.
Papa John’s specializes in the stay-put cheese rather than the oily-gooey-all-over-you-and-your-dog cheese, lending itself to large...
1 tag
a pound of cheese, sauce, and metal alloy...
I did not expect this to be the first pizzeria I would visit twice for Pizza Friday purposes; but when someone promises an extra-large pizza topped with nearly a full pound of cheese and ties it, no matter how tenuously, to the new X-Men movie, I cannot be expected to say no.
And so we have the XL X-treme Cheese Pizza. First, a few notes about the service. Unlike last time, I was forced to...
1 tag
Digiorno →
rating: 3.5 out of 5 slices
1 tag
cheese pizza with extra integrity
Digiorno really does deliver on imitating a freshly made pizza. The crust remains soft and doughy after cooked while the gooey cheese and extra sauce may well have been made fresh that morning.
I’m usually not a fan of a lot of sauce on a pizza. It tends to weaken the integrity of the pizza, overpowering the cheese and making the crust soggy. When the pizza was cut, the sauce bled...
1 tag
I do not carry more than $20 in change
The weather forecast for the New England area this evening was for a light drizzle progressing into steady rain. Rather than trudge out to a local pizzeria in the lousy weather, we decided to take it slow this week and have a pizza delivered. I made the call, and….
Wait, I’m being told that tonight’s pizza was not delivery; it was Digiorno. I can’t believe the thick...
1 tag
The Upper Crust Pizza →
rating: 4 out of 5 slices
1 tag
pizzadilla
We maintained our trend of cheese pizzas tonight, comparing apples to pizzas or something like that.
The Upper Crust I am most familiar with has one location and is on the other side of the country. It is also gooey, messy, and delicious. This local chain leaves the gooey and messy behind while resembling other cheesey southwestern specialties I am very familiar with. Thin crispy crust and...
1 tag
is that pepperoni or a monocle on my slice?
Imagine, if you will, a dandy of a gentleman criss-crossing the streets of Cambridge on a gearless cycle complete with penny farthing front wheel. Then imagine if this particular gentleman, an unlikely combination of Uncle Pennybags, Eustace Tilley, and a circus bear, decided to operate a pizzeria. What kind of pizza would this sartorially splendid blueblood decide to serve the fine people of...
March 2009
16 posts
1 tag
Olive Café →
rating: 4 out of 5 slices
1 tag
shaken, not stirred
The Olive Cafe is conveniently located just steps away from bustling Lechmere Station in Cambridge. Despite the conclusion one might draw from the name, it is not, in fact, a martini bar: it is a Greek restaurant with a focus on pizza, subs, and wrap sandwiches. I think you know which of those we got.
Before I get to that, the quality of the service is itself worth noting. Those taking and...
1 tag
two cheese
We’ve passed Olive Café many times walking from Lechmere in between buses and meals. Due to the T running late today, I would have walked past it again had it not been our destination.
The menu options range from specialty salads and wraps to pizza and calzones. The barbecue and five cheese pizzas were tempting, but we went with the classic cheese. I managed to turn it into a two cheese...
1 tag
La Hacienda →
rating: 4.5 out of 5 slices
1 tag
Mozz-tastic
My favorite parts of visiting La Hacienda are the soft, fresh slices of Italian bread and the tasty side salads that are a prelude to any of my meals. They are a hard act to follow, but the pizza is up to the challenge.
I have spoken before of my lack of pizza control. I should also mention (or maybe shouldn’t) that I tend to eat with a speed that should be reserved for a last meal that...
1 tag
La Hacienda just smiled
When discussed among those unfamiliar with the wonders of La Hacienda, the immediate assumption is bound to be that it is a Mexican restaurant. For some reason, it is frequently assumed to be a “dive.” It is neither. La Hacienda is actually a hidden gem near the Somerville/Cambridge line that features the finest in Italian fare, not the least of which is their excellent pizza.
...
1 tag
Papa Gino's →
rating: 4 out of 5 slices
1 tag
XXXL
This review may suffer because I am in a pizza coma. I ate too much. The Rustic Pizza only comes in one undefined size that, for purposes of illustrating how full I am, we will call XXXL. I have no pizza control.
Personal issues aside, the Rustic cheese pizza is fantastic. Its key features are a thin crust and an ingredient that takes away any additional prep work I would put into a slice...
1 tag
pies, we made pies
Other than my own mother herself, there may be no person who has prepared more meals for me than Papa Gino. Usually, though, I’m a Papa Pasta kind of guy (Papa Penne to be precise), so it was nice to have an excuse to stick with his pizza and even nicer to go with the Rustic. The Rustic is a floppily thin pizza cut into irregularly shaped slices (four triangle corners; the rest in...
1 tag
Pillsbury Thin Crust →
rating: 3.5 out of 5 slices
1 tag
pizza perfection
Just three weeks into Pizza Friday, we have a pie that will be hard to beat. What does love taste like? It tastes like Ragu sauce spooned delicately onto a Pillsbury thin crust and topped with hand-shredded cheese. What’s that? You taste something more, something mysterious yet just right? That might be the vaguely titled but acutely delicious “pizza seasoning” straight from...
1 tag
Making Sandra Lee Proud
I can clue you in to exactly what went into this pizza: Pillsbury thin crust pizza dough, Ragu Traditional sauce, Tropical Queso de Papa Longhorn cheese, and some mysterious “pizza seasoning.” You could call it semi-homemade or fully-home-assembled.
Pillsbury thin crust is our go to dough when making pizza. It has a slight biscuity taste but would never be mistaken for a roll of any...
February 2009
8 posts
1 tag
Papa John's →
rating: 2.5 out of 5
1 tag
pizzaness
The problem of universals is an ancient metaphysical issue regarding how general abstract qualities can be shared among so many individuals of a single group. The point of contention, essentially, is whether or not these abstract forms exist in and of themselves or are simply ways to discuss the similarities among a group of individuals. Plato offered as his solution the Theory of Forms, which...
1 tag
butter
I may have previously had a bad Papa John’s experience that kept me away so long that I can’t remember what it was. Perhaps poor service was involved. I was not present for the ordering process this time, but I hear it was more of an ordeal than it should have been.
I can’t imagine any past experience involving a delicious garlic dipping sauce. I would have remembered the...
1 tag
Emma's Pizza →
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 slices
1 tag
tons-o-toppings
Emma’s gets high marks for offerring something that chain pizerria’s prefer not to advertise: half and half specialty pizzas. My half was #17. The menu urges you to order by number presumably for speed sake but also allows a build-your-own approach. I don’t think I would have built the chicken, scallion, feta, sun-dried tomato #17 given the huge selection of toppings, but it...
1 tag
kendallicious
Emma’s is a small pizzeria in the Kendall Square area of Cambridge. The dining room is no larger than your average living room, so the waiting time can get awfully long awfully fast. We arrived to find a 20-25 minute wait with only three groups of diners ahead of us. There is, however, a counter with stools at the storefront window, and they offered to begin serving us immediately if we...