What is it about pizza that rings nostalgic? Last weekend, my husband had to bring 3 separate pizzas back with him to the Charleston area from Pizza Place in Parkersburg. What is it about the old time pizza joints with the floating grease, extra cheese (piled on AFTER its gets out of the oven if your carb of choice is DiCarlo's) and tiny pepperoni boats that gets our glands salivating? Making a truly worthwhile pizza seems unbelievably simple, so why is it that we will go out of our way to get the good stuff?
After reading a great review of Pittsburgh pizza joint Piccolo Forno written by my good friend and fellow food lover Katie Lane from PittsburghHotPlate.com, I relished in the realization that toppings, kitchiness, and trends don't make people come back for more. Its all goes back to basics - the tomato sauce, mozzarella and basil of course....but the most important of all is the crust. No matter how that pizza place that rhymes with Do my Ho's (of course this is what I call it) tries to "revamp" their crust by giving it a slight brushing of butter and garlic powder and some kind of green herb like item, it will NEVER match up to one that has home town flair.
On any given travel back to my hometown, about 2 hours south of the city, I start to CRAVE. Ribs from DeeJay's, Eat and Park Smiley cookies and grilled stickies, DiCarlo's pizza, Curly's Buffalo chicken pizza. I will even branch out and say Pizza Place pizza, not what I grew up on, but a loved classic all the same. We tend to look back on memories as times shared with friends, family, school, old boyfriends and girlfriends, sports, jobs...blah blah blah. But face it.....everytime I think about a GREAT memory, you will be sure to find some great food involved.
