Fun Facts

According to an American Dairy Association random sampling survey, pizza is America's fourth most craved food, behind cheese, chocolate and ice cream.

Approximately 3 billion pizzas are sold in the U.S. each year.

There are approximately 61,269 pizzerias in the United States

Americans eat approximately 100 acres of pizza each day, or 350 slices per second

Each man, woman and child in America eats an average of 46 slices (23 pounds) of pizza a year.

Pizza is a $30 billion per year industry

Domino's delivered 400 million pizzas last year that's a pizza (and a slice) for every man, woman and child in the United States.

The World's Fastest Pizza Maker makes 14 pizzas in 2 minutes and 35 seconds.

Domino's drivers cover 9 million miles each week in the U.S. alone. (That's 37.5 round trips to the moon every week!)

93% of Americans eat AT LEAST one pizza per month.

Pepperoni is by far America's favorite topping, (36% of all pizza orders). Approximately 251,770,000 pounds of pepperoni are consumed on pizzas annually. Other popular pizza toppings are mushrooms, extra cheese, sausage, green pepper and onions.

Gourmet toppings are gaining ground in some areas of the country such as chicken, oysters, crayfish, dandelions, sprouts, eggplant, Cajun shrimp, artichoke hearts and tuna. More recent trends include game meats such as venison, duck and Canadian bacon. (interesting….)

http://wwwstd.enmu.edu/cordovam/pizzafacts.htm

http://www.pizza.net/docs/funfacts.html

One Big Slice

I was looking through pictures on my computer when I came across this one. Believe it or not that is considered to be one slice of pizza. While visiting a friend at school we decided to grab a bite to eat. NY Pizza in downtown Boston, right near the Commons, was basically the only place open at the time. Not only was the slice of pizza HUGE, it was also very delicious. If you're ever in the area then hit it up. If that is the size of a slice...I wonder how big a WHOLE pizza is...hmm...

Greek Pizza

Greek pizza has a distinct style to it that is unlike other forms of pizza. Instead of being baked on bricks in the oven, Greek pizza is baked in a pan. The crust is thicker and chewier than that of other types of pizza. There is no set toppings that go along with Greek pizza, it is more so known for how it is baked. If someone were to order a Greek pizza it would most likely come topped with feta cheese, gyros, olives and spinach. This style of pizza is mainly found in the New England area and not in many other places in the US.

All of the pizza places near my house make the Greek style pizza. Even if my family wants to get pizza from a different place one time it is guaranteed to be Greek style unless we head to Papa Ginos. I like this style of pizza not only because it is what I grew up eating, but also that it is a lot less greasy than other kinds of pizza. (which might have a lot to do with the place we get it from). I think it would be very interesting to see what real Greek pizza tastes like, I bet it is much different.

Chessmen's

I don't know about you, but Chessmen's is by far my favorite pizza place near campus. It was not until this year that I really took a liking to it, and have found myself having to resist the temptation of ordering from there everyday.

What I love about this place is the crazy pizza toppings, the late night hours and the overall deliciousness. For instance, tonight at 12:45 am a few friends and I were starving so we called up Chessmen's and 20 minutes later we were inhaling the amazing pizza.

My favorite selection from there is definitely the Caesar pizza (for those who are not familiar is is chunks of white chicken with real bacon in a creamy Caesar sauce topped with extra cheese). I also LOVE going to Chessman's on Thursday nights because it is very entertaining to watch all the people coming out of the bars. Many of them flock to Chessmen's afterwards and you never know what to expect- it makes for some real comedy. Now my friends from home will only visit if we can go to Chessmen's.. kinda sad but true. If you haven't already been here, then I definitely recommend it, you won't be disappointed!

Combos

Earlier tonight some guy came into the room with a bag of Pizzeria Pretzel Combos and offered me some. Although I was kinda grossed out by the thought of it, I decided that for the sake of this blog I would try one. These "crunchy oven baked pretzels with a spicy cheese filling" were not at all what I was expecting. I thought that it was going to be much like the Pizza Pringle, with a pretzel taste. Since I didn't see the bag or ever try a combo before, I had no idea that there was an actual cheese filling inside. The cheese filling combined with pizza flavoring inside of a pretzel was a little too much for me. I did not particularly care for this snack nor do I think I will choose to eat some again.

Pizza-Licious

Have the best of both worlds with pizza flavored Pringles. They could be everything you ever wanted in a chip with the delicious taste of pizza. In my opinion these chips taste wild. I do not understand how a pringle can taste like pizza. The description on the pringles website states "Feeling saucy? Feed your appetite with a plate of Pringles Pizza. The irresistible flavors of tangy tomato sauce, gooey cheese, and crisp crust are enough to make your taste buds twirl. Mama Mia!". Sounds appetizing. But their motto states they're "pizza-licious". Here is a commercial from back in the day when these chips first came out.

The Art of Spinning Pizza Dough

Each time I go to a pizza place I can't help but be amazed by how the cooks are able to spin the pizza dough. I stand there wishing that I could be able to perform such an incredible trick. It takes a lot of talent, practice, and coordination to successfully toss the pizza dough. If you would like to take a shot at spinning dough then here is a recipe I found that tells how to first make the dough and then how to toss it.

The Dough

• 1 cup water
• 1 Tb. Sugar
• 1 Tb. olive oil
• 1 Tb. dry yeast
• A little over 2 cups flour
• Just mix these together

1) Knead the dough until a) it is glossy, and tacky but not sticky; and b) a small amount pinched off can be stretched (by pinching and pulling) thin enough to let light pass through.

2) Let rise up to 1 hr room temperature or 5 hrs in the refrigerator.

3) Place on a floured counter and flour the top of the dough. Cut the dough into two round balls and repeat the following steps for each piece.

4) Flatten one ball with your hand until about 1 or 1 1/2 inches thick

5) Pick up the disk of dough, and pinch the dough about 1/2 inch from the edge. Try and stretch as you pinch, repeat this all around the edge. When the disk of dough has been stretched enough to start to be floppy, make a fist and drape the dough over your fist.

6) Make a fist of the other hand and slip it under the dough next to your other fist. Carefully move your fists apart stretching the dough more. Shift your fists (left towards your face, right away) so the dough rotates while stretching.

7) When the dough has reached about 8 inches in diameter you can quickly move your left fist in an arc that goes backwards towards your face while twisting your right fist forward away from your face. If you give a a little push upwards with your right fist the dough will spin like a Frisbee.

8) Practice to balance the force of the fist twists equally. This will keep the pizza from spinning off into the corner (or worse). Be sure to catch the falling spinning pizza as gently as you can with your two fists to avoid tearing.

This sounds rather intense, but I think I'm going to try it this weekend. Even if you don't want to try it check out the youtube clip (that hopefully shows up). The pizza guy in it has some serious dough spinning skills.