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.

Totino's Pizza Rolls

Totino's pizza rolls are a popular snack for children. These treats consist of a "crust" pocket and are filled with cheese (both real and imitation), sauce, and bits of either pepperoni, sausage, supreme, or 3 cheese. When cooked in a microwave pizza rolls can be ready in minutes. Although pizza rolls are convenient and well loved by kids they are not all that good for you.

The Totino's company often gets criticized for making food products which contain high amount of trans fat, such as pizza rolls. This past November the company was hit by an E. coli scare and needed to recall millions of boxes of frozen pepperoni pizzas. I have tried pizza rolls a few times before and think they are ok, however after looking at the nutritional information and reading about the E. coli recall I do not think I will be eating them again anytime soon.

Side note about the founder of Totino's: Rose Totino

Using her car as collateral, Totino secured a $1,500 loan to launch a pizza take-out restaurant in Minnesota. Since pizza was so new, Totino also had to bring samples of her product to the loan committee to secure the initial financing. After the success of her take-out business, Totino launched a frozen pizza business in 1962 just as frozen foods were gaining national prominence. Totino's business grew rapidly, and she sold it to Pillsbury in 1975 for $22 million. Totino was named the first female vice president at Pillsbury, and she was the first woman inducted in the Frozen Food Hall of Fame. http://www.hbs.edu/leadership/database/leaders/898/

The Oldest Known Pizzeria's

Antica Pizzeria is the oldest known pizzeria in the world. If you are ever in Port’Alba in Naples, Italy you should definitely stop in for food. In 1738 this restaurant was originally established as a snack stall for merchants and 100 years later it become and still remains a pizzeria.

Another original pizzeria is Pizzeria Brandi which was opened in 1780 by Pietro Coliccio, aka Pietro il pizzaiuolo (Peter the Pizza maker). Later this pizzeria was bought by Maria Brandi and her husband Raffaele Esposito. It is here where Raffaele made Queen Margherita the famous margherita pizza in honor of the Italian flag: red tomatoes, green basil, and white mozzarella cheese.

http://www.pizzadelivery.com/funstuff/histPizzerias.aspx

History of Pizza

Pizza” – Definition: A baked pie of Italian origin consisting of a shallow bread-like crust covered with seasoned tomato sauce, cheese, and often other toppings, such as sausage or olives. The root word in Latin is “Picea” which describes the blackening of crust by fire.

Pizza can be traced back to about 1000 B.C. when the Etruscans first arrived into the northern part of Italy from Asia Minor. Pizza was originally known as “focaccia” and did not have tomatoes because they were thought to be poisonous. “Focaccia” was eaten by many people around the Mediterranean rim, such as Greeks, Egyptians etc. because flour, herbs, olive oil, cheese, and lard were readily available.

At first pizza was considered to be a peasant dish until the16th century when the Queen of Naples convinced her husband to let it be made in the royal oven. Since then its popularity has grown tremendously.

The first known pizzeria was Antica Pizzeria at Port’Alba in Naples, Italy which opened in 1738 and is still open for business today.

In 1889, King Umberto and Queen Margherita had the privilege of getting the first known pizza delivered by Raffaele Esposito, the most famous Pizzaaiolo (pizza chef) in Naples, Italy. In honor of the Queen, Raffaele made the pizza into the colors of the Italian flag: red tomatoes, green basil, and white mozzarella cheese. This later would become the basis for our American Neapolitan pizza.

The 1st pizzeria in the U.S. was opened by Gennaro Lombardi in 1895, and it was located at 53 1/2 Spring St., New York City. Pizza was brought by the Italian immigrants but didn’t become popular until the American GI’s got the taste for it while in Italy.

The first frozen pizza was invented by non other than Rose Totino, of Totinos pizza.

Even though pizza has been the rage since the early 1900s, pizza recipes didn’t make their debut into recipe books until the 1950s.

I retrieved this info from http://www.pizzadelivery.com/funstuff/history.aspx

Poll

What is your favorite pizza topping?
pepperoni
sausage
bacon
extra cheese
mushrooms
peppers
onions
buffalo chicken
anchovies
other


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Dunkin Donuts

I was at the Dunkin Donuts in east the other day trying to get an iced coffee when the lady asked if I would like a pizza with that. I was utterly confused by this question and wasn't aware that this was even an option at Dunkin Donuts. Clearly I picked up one of the brochures advertising the new special. Each pizza comes in a 5 inch serving and is "toasted to perfection". Customers even have a choice of what topping to get on their pizza. The available varieties are: Supreme (Italian sauage, pepperoni, green & red peppers), Pepperoni, and Cheese. I don't know how I feel about Dunkin Donuts serving pizza. Has anyone tried it?

St. Louis Style Pizza

The pizza in St. Louis, Missouri is very unique and unlike pizza found anywhere else. The crust is extremely thin due to the fact that it no yeast is used. This makes it very cracker like and hard to fold. Instead of using the typical mozzarella cheese as the majority of pizza places do, St. Louis pizza is topped with Provel process cheese. In order to create this unique cheese provolone, swiss, and white cheddar cheese must be fused together.
I was in St. Louis last week and was able to try this interesting pizza. Although the description sounds a bit crazy it was actually very delicious! It was definitely different than any pizza I've ever tried before. I felt as though it was less filling than other pizza which was awesome because I was able to eat even more yummy food.