A Chicago Pizza Tour

BowlingWidow and I are just back from a 5-day vacation to Chicago, a place neither of us had ever been to.  We’ve heard so many good things about this metropolis and it certainly didn’t disappoint.  I’ll have a few topical blog posts coming up about the place but I thought I’d jump right in with a subject that will prove to be extremely popular:  pizza.

Prior to our trip we asked several experienced Chicago travelers and ex-residents what their favorite pizza place in the city is.  And we got several different answers (Gino’s, Pizzeria Uno, etc.); with each individual claiming that they were right.  Maybe they all are?  Maybe we just ought to turn our question over to the experts?  So that’s what we did.

In Chicago, there are local companies that will drive groups of people around town on an organized tour and sample a variety of some of the best pizza around.  We did this with Chicago Pizzatours.
 

Dough Force One:  Our Pizza Party Vehicle

The tour, which numbered around 17 of us,  originated at a restaurant in the downtown “Loop” area of Chicago called Pizano’s Pizza and Pasta.  There we sampled both deep dish and thin crust styles.  The deep dish featured fresh plum tomatoes with a bit of salt as the sauce (traditionally served on the top of the pizza) as well as fresh mozzarella slices. 

The topping I chose was sausage, which they’ve been obtaining from Anichini Brothers since 1925.  In fact, most reputable pizza joints get their sausage from there as well and mix their own unique blend of spices with it.  But don’t bother asking the Pizano’s people how they mix their sausage.  It’s a secret.  In fact, so is their dough recipe which only three people on the planet are privy to knowing.  I can tell you, though, that it’s cooked in the deep dish pan at a high temperature with a bit of corn oil, giving it a crispy bottom and a soft, tasty crust interior.  A hearty thumbs up from us.
 

Pizano's Deep Dish and Thin Crust Side by Side

Pizano’s thin crust pepperoni pizza didn’t get quite as high of a rating as the deep dish, as we didn’t think there was a whole lot that distinguished it from decent pizza we can get in the Seattle area.  But, as it was pointed out to us, it is Oprah Winfrey’s favorite.  Then again, I’m often puzzled over Oprah’s book-of-the-month choices as well.

Finished at Pizano’s it was time to board the van, also known as “Dough Force One”, with Jim at the wheel and Mike as our informative and entertaining tour guide.  We drove north.  Many miles north in fact, to a place called Spacca Napoli which churns out one style and one style only:  certified authentic Neapolitan style pizza.  Very few restaurants are allowed to call it this, as very few adhere to the simple but strict standards that are required.

Making Pizzas at Spacca Napoli

This includes using only salt, flour, water and yeast for the dough.  The sauce must consist of San Marzano tomatoes.  The mozzarella slices have to be produced using the milk of water buffalo (not native to Italy, but present there in large numbers).  The pizza is baked in a 900-degree oven for less than a minute.  Our pizza was topped only with fresh basil leaves and olive oil.  It was amazing as the simple flavors came together for an amazing pizza eating experience.

A Perfect Neapolitan Pizza at Spacca Napoli

Next it was time to head south to Pequod’s Pizza.  This is heavy duty deep dish pizza and is probably what most people think of when “pizza” and “Chicago” are in the same sentence.  In reality though, far more thin crust pizza is sold in the city than deep dish.  

At Pequod’s, in traditional deep dish fashion, the ingredients extend to the edge of the pie.  In fact, they make a point of laying a bit of cheese on the inside perimeter of the pan to give it a slightly burnt, caramelized crispy cheese edge.  We sampled a slice with pepperoni and a slice with fresh spinach.  The sauce was sweet and ample on top.  BowlingWidow thought it was a bit much and it was her least favorite, while I thought it was pretty darned good, albeit really filling.
 

A Small Slice of Saucy Deep Dish from Pequod's:  Note the Crispy Cheese Edge

Fans of the novel “Moby Dick” will also be glad to know that across the street from Pequod’s is…..yes…..a Starbucks Coffee house.

Our final stop was Coalfire.  And yes, the do in fact use a coal fired stove to cook their pizza at around 770-degrees for 2 ½ minutes.  At Coalfire we had a thin crust American-style Neapolitan pizza.  Much less strict than the ingredients we saw at Spacca Napoli, as the mozzarella was from Wisconsin, the flour from Vermont, and the tomatoes used were from California.

The simple toppings built what is called a Margherita pizza (Queen Margherita was apparently a fan of this back in the day) and consists of sauce, mozzarella cheese slices, and tomato being supported by a thin and crispy crust.  Coalfire’s version of the Margherita was in fact judged to be number one in its class by Chicago Magazine recently.

The Margherita from Coalfire Pizza

When it was all over, we were really satisfied with what we tried yet happy that there wasn’t a fifth restaurant on the tour.  We couldn’t possibly have eaten any more.  Our favorites?  BowlingWidow went with the deep dish at Pizano’s.  I liked it, too, but will give a slight edge to the high-quality, spare and simple ingredients of the authentic Neapolitan pizza of Spacca Napoli.  Everything else finished second by the narrowest of margins.

Now that we’re home, here’s the REAL problem though:  now that I’ve been exposed to the best pizza in the world, I’ve got to (a) increase my Friday night pizza budget and (b) actually find decent pizza within driving distance of our condo in Everett, WA.

Papa Murphy’s  pizza will somehow no longer taste as good after last week.

Crazy Little Thing Called LASIK

Since he was in the second grade, Muffinheadboy has needed glasses or contact lenses.  And not just a minor prescription.  When the genetic dice for eyesight was rolled the kid could have really used a mulligan.  But what are you gonna do other than to keep getting stronger lens prescriptions as the eyes get progressively worse into the teen years?

Well now the young man is closing in on being 25 years of age.  A quarter-century on this rock.  His brain has theoretically (and finally!) neared full development if some science journals are to be believed.  And along with this monumental occasion his eyes have reached terminal badness.

With LASIK eye surgery coming down in price and being more technologically advanced and effective than ever we decided it was time for another roll of the optical dice.  Besides, this will take care of his birthday AND Christmas gift for the year in the approximately 10 minute time that it takes to have the procedure done.  Who knew holiday shopping could be this easy?

Well...Here's a Generic LASIK Shot.  Hey, I Needed a Picture Here.

We chose to do this at King Lasik in Renton with the steady hands of Dr. Joseph King at the wheel.  He did my own Lasik procedure eight years ago with great results.  He’s done 80,000 or so of these things and is in fact the official LASIK guy for the Vancouver Canucks NHL hockey team.  Okay….sold!  You had me at 80,000, Doc.
 

We arrived at the office early enough to wait in the waiting area for a half-hour or so.  I’m not sure what they were piping in music-wise on their Muzak but recalled being REALLY glad that it wasn’t “Blinded by the Light” by Manfred Mann.  Or Thomas Dolby’s “She Blinded Me With Science”.  Or anything by Blind Melon or Third Eye Blind.  In the future they may, however, want to consider songs such as “I Can See Clearly Now” or “I Can See For Miles” by The Who.

They called us in to the office to explain the process to us, what it costs, what medications he’d need, follow-up appointments and so on.  Then the doctor met with us and after a short wait Muffinheadedboy was in what looked like a fancy La-Z-Boy chair and things were underway.

I waited outside the procedure room and was able to watch what was going on via a TV monitor.  Up close.  Really up close as in a 10-inch diameter eyeball staring at me.  It was like watching “A Clockwork Orange” on a Jumbotron screen.  The process was quite interesting but clearly not for the squeamish.  For that reason I won’t go into a detailed description or post any instructional photos or videos.  Let’s just say that Dr. King reshaped his cornea with a laser and we'll call it good.  And true to their word it was a less than 10 minute proposition.

Everything went very well.  The young man’s vision is now at 20/25.  Not 100% perfect but I’ll bet it seems like it is to him after a lifetime of blurry natural vision.  While there are many technological advances that I wish never happened, this is definitely NOT one of them.  LASIK is an effective and very safe way to correct vision these days if you don’t mind having your eyes messed with for a few minutes and can put up with a bit of itchiness and sensitivity for a day or two after.

Personally, I’m hoping for a 10 minute procedure that will give me my taste buds back after many years of abusing them with every hot sauce known to man.  Now THAT would be impressive.

New Mexican Culinary Invasion in Everett

This isn’t a restaurant review blog but as much as we like to try various kinds of restaurants I’d have no trouble turning it into one, at least on a part-time basis.  That’s why BowlingWidow and I were quite pleased when we saw that there was a new New Mexican restaurant opening on Hewitt Avenue in downtown Everett a few months ago.  After giving the owners a few weeks to work the bugs out (and hopefully that’s just an expression in this case), it was time to give it a try.  Appropriately enough, the place is called The New Mexicans.  It's also owned and operated by native New Mexicans.

The New Mexicans:  Just Look for the State Flags on Hewitt Ave.

For the uninitiated, New Mexican food is a culinary melting pot of Mexican, Southwest, with some Pueblo Native American styles thrown in for good measure.  As one might expect, many of the dishes revolve around the chile pepper and contain sauce made out of red and green chile peppers.  The most notable are types of peppers known as Hatch peppers, called so because they’re grown only in a chile-rich region near Hatch, NM.  Should you attempt to sell peppers grown in Texas and pass them off as Hatch peppers, chile snobs will hunt you down and backhand you in the chops in much the same way a wine snob would do if you sold wine bottled in Oregon and called it “Bordeaux”. 

Much of the Kitchen is Front and Center in This Floor Plan

On our first visit, I tried the enchiladas with red chile sauce (and cheese, onion, lettuce).  It came with a side of pinto beans and I also ordered a small coleslaw on the side.  It was absolutely delicious and there’s nothing in the world like a good chile sauce.  New Mexican cuisine doesn’t necessarily pack an overabundance of spicy heat, but here’s what I like about this place:  they have a wide variety of hot sauces on their tables ranging from mild to wild, giving the diner the option of kicking it up.

BowlingWidow went with the chicken and dumplings.  She loved her dish also.  It was tasty, creamy  and dumplingy (if that’s a word) with just the right amount of spice for her.  I’m not sure if that’s a traditional dish in New Mexico or if it was a family recipe that they brought with them.  Either way it was a big hit, as was the small spinach salad she had on the side.

Getting Ready to Dig Into the Green Enchilada Casserole

We returned a couple of weeks later with BowlingWidow ordering the large version of that spinach salad.  I decided to try the green enchilada dish which is served casserole style and consists of Hatch chiles, corn tortillas, onions, jack cheese and a creamy sauce.  Again, remarkable but in a completely different way than the red enchiladas.  And at five dollars a serving it’s clearly the best restaurant deal in town.  (I refuse to include the Junior Whopper in this category, although I think they’re just fine).

We’ll be back to try breakfast one of these days soon.  Perhaps a breakfast burrito.  Right now the menu selection is a bit small but they said that as time goes on they’ll be introducing new and interesting dishes.  And I’m prepared to try every one of them.