I am pretty pizza ignorant, never having cared for it most of my life, so I couldn't tell you what makes any particular city's version of it so special. Our local Domino's has a special two days of the week, and they stand out at road's edge with a sign when the sale is going on, and you can buy one already made up for $5.00. I'm certainly not above veering in and out to pick one up if I am having a very busy day. That's a pretty cost effective meal when I am time constrained. This only happens a few times a year, however. I added pizza to our family's meal repertoire when I started making my own crusts. That was one thing my old bread machine was good at. How very easy to slap condiments on it and shove it in the oven. And, they beat any I have purchased hands down. Everything I need to make a pizza is in my fridge or pantry and no two I have ever made have been exactly the same. I noticed I was in town helping care for my mother, there are people in her block who have four or five cartons in their trash every week. rofl. OMG, would I get sick of that and I suppose one reason for its popularity is it's one meal many people can have delivered to their house, if they live in an urban area. Andie came the closest explaining what makes a NY pizza special. Thin crust? I can only imagine, given the times I've stayed in NYC that there are restaurants who make killer pizzas. Chicago has some wonderful restaurants too.

I tend to like a plain pie, just your standard sauce and cheese. I used to order different toppings, but now I prefer just plain by a large margin. However, I'll go for something totally different, like the brunch pizza I've posted about, the pide mentioned above, and that Austin pizza looks and sounds great. (Alexa - I think you got a bad link there.) Arley - the two best pizzas I've had locally are made in coal-fired ovens so there must be something to that.

It will be interesting to hear your recipe, trailrunner! I just made a small batch (way too small as it turned out), this was enough for two pizzas. Minced garlic from 2 heads, simmered slowly in around 1/4 cup olive oil, for 5 minutes only, being carefully to not let brown. I can't remember for sure, but I think it was almost equal parts garlic and XV olive oil. Then, added a small can of tomato paste, 1/4 cup sugar and a couple Tbsp of water, and 1/4 tsp of oregano and pepper. The crusts do look different but I'm pretty sure they are both the Baguette recipe (which I must attempt this week, having found my pans). The second crust looks more like the Bittman recipe, but that was because it was made in a square pan, more deep dish style. I wasn't thrilled with either crust this time. We had a hockey game in the middle of the day so I made the 4 batches of dough in the morning and let them proof in the fridge, then skipped the second rise for the baguette recipe. Maybe they rose too long? Next time, I'll shoot for around two hours before oven time. Then again, I tend to not eat when I am hosting, so maybe I am imagining the difference. Everyone else loved the pizzas, which is all that counts. Between the two, I like the baguette recipe a little better but DH likes the MB.

Zalco, I haven't been to Terun, their crust looks delicious! Thanks for the rec. FYI, I don't consider Round Table to be great pizza, but it's close to my house and nostalgic. Pizza Delfina is really good and Vesta in Redwood City is where I go for creative toppings. Now that I think of it, Menlo Park doesn't have any great pizza places but I live in the next town over so if I'm lazy it's there or Redwood City. I grew up in Palo Alto and love to reminisce about all the great restaurants up and down El Camino, University Ave. etc. that are now gone. It's amazing that Round Table is still going strong. I especially miss the "old" Mings before they switched to mostly dim sum. I think we went out for dinner more than a lot of families. I could name 50 restaurants from Mt. View to Menlo Park that are now gone. I miss the good old days! I bought a small pizza oven but making the dough from scratch seemed more trouble than it was worth. Never tasted as good as the better pizza places.