A Roman delicacy known as "placenta"...That loses a LOT in translation!!!
I think I've heard of this "pizza". Something about a tower leaning ... ?
http://www.sliceny.com/archives/2006/04/a_slice_of_heaven_pizza_and_organized_crime.php
From above link:
It was once say by someone I can't rightly remember who, but he said
"Never eat anything bigger than your head.
He must of said this before he ate pizza.
Pizza and organized crime share a long and storied history. In the 1930s AI Capone decided he wanted his piece of the burgeoning pizza-industry pie. He forced neighborhood pizza parlors to purchase only his mozzarella cheese, which was made in a mob-controlled plant in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin.
More than fifty years later Rudy Giuliani made a name for himself as a federal prosecutor with the famed Pizza Connection case. Giuliani prosecuted organized-crime figure Salvatore Catalano and 22 other defendants of Sicilian descent, who from 1979 through 1984 imported 1.6 billion dollars worth of heroin into the United States and then laundered the proceeds through pizza parlors throughout the country. In the course of an 18-month trial one defendant died, and another was murdered. After six days of deliberation all but one of the defendants were convicted. Who was Giuliani's star witness? None other than Joe Pistone, otherwise known as Donnie Brasco.
Wait, I take that back. I did eat pizza once in some famous restaurant near the campus of Yale. It was white clam and garlic, or something--and that was pretty amazing.
But even the charms of NYC and Boston pizza leave me cold.
We had "hamburger pie" in my small-town Midwest grade school cafeteria in 1959 - it was that Bisquick type recipe with a thick biscuit crust on the bottom, then browned ground beef with some Italian spices and something tomatoey in it, then cheddar cheese on top.
The bread on the bottom soaked up all the red grease from the meat and cheese both. I absolutely loved "hamburger pie"! I've tried to duplicate it as an adult, but have never achieved the same level of greasiness that made that "pie" so good.
Eventually, they started calling it "pizza." My parents told me they already knew about "pizza" from living in California when Daddy was in grad school in the mid-1940s and it was nothing like that burger pie. Putting all this together, I just naturally assumed pizza started in the US in CA. I knew that Chicago's Uno claimed to be first, but didn't know that was true until this article.
Our small town had a Pizza Hut by that time and teens congregated there. I honestly don't recall if they had home delivery or not--I know we never had it at home.
It was really in college that I ate the most pizza -- and a couple of my more workaholic jobs where we ordered in a lot while working - for everyone. We used to get heart-shaped pizzas from our sweethearts - or sent to them.
I still don't order it at home much, but do make my own very often and will never pass up a stray piece offered. I love it cold for breakfast, too. I even like anchovies on mine, but prefer it without them.
The worst pizza to me is one with pineapple on it, even with Canadian bacon or ham or something else. I like my own "white" ham artisan pizzas with Dijon mustard and horseradish sauce instead of tomato sauce, and Swiss instead of mozzarella - but only occasionally.
Other than that, the moon hits my eye like a big-a pizza pie and I love it.
I've been working in pizza places or other places that make pizza for the last 20 something years. Still love it! People get the weirdest combinations but hey, if they like it, so be it! I'm a big fan of taco pizza and ones with everything on them except the anchovies. Hate anchovies and shrimp too. They stink to high heaven when put in the oven!
God, that pizza was lousy as hell. My parents loved it.
I remember sitting in front of our black and white TV eating awful square thin pizza slices watching the Patty Hearst drama unfold.
ping
The author left out a few other places in Chicago, which weren't located on East Ohio Street:
Uno's
Due's
Gino's
Gino's East
Dino's Grotto
Lou Malanati
So she dropped in a short history of Chicago deep-dish pizza. Maybe for her next article she can do an in-depth study the Italian Beef. That might take her two paragraphs, based on this.
(Denny Crane: "Every one should carry a gun strapped to their waist. We need more - not less guns.")
I never thought my father had anything in common with Sofia Loren but he always said when he came home from WWII he could not believe Americans were eating pizza. He said in Italy is was food of the poorest people.
I've had pizza from more numerous locations than I can count and I hate to admit that my favorite pizza still remains the deep-dish varieties from Pizza Hut. Something about the way they bake their crust is like no other.
Great article. I love reading stuff like this!