Trenton Nj, Delorenzo’s and Pops

My pizza bible; everybody loves pizza eats highly of Delorenzo’s, and I can understand why. Like a cute girl from msp the more time and layers you uncover the more you enjoy this pizza/ person. This was an odd pizza experience, the sauce was splattered on top, and it was not exactly love struck first bite. It changed the consistency and taste/ texture consistency on the palate. The crust was a little too dry and crispy hot from the oven. The seasoning and flavor was there but seemed to be lacking. The more I sat enjoying myself and the jerseyite company it grew on me. The seasoning and salt built up on my palate and the crust softened. The sauce concentrated and browned without the usual blanket of cheese to palates delight. I never thought pizza would improve after sitting yet Delorenzo’s manages. Delorenzo’s was followed by a brisk walk to pops with a short layover at the kwik e mart for now and laters and a gallon of diet soda. The mustard pizza and cheese had slightly thicker crust, was seasoned well and overall was pretty balanced. Dijon mustard in a crust is a flavor/ pizza experience I was ignorant of but was incredible, the mustardy zing brought balance and a slightly sweet finish. When hot out of the oven it had an orange mustardy glow. I have never had anything like this before and am in awe of what I ate that day.
I would learn a few things on this trip; 1- Jersey pizza is called tomato pie and has sauce on top 2- People have been putting Dijon mustard in pizza crust for years and it’s intriguingly delicious. 3- I think 1.5-2.5 hours is the comfortable one way range of going to get pizza (New York to New Haven falls into that category)
For the past 2 years I’ve made a pizza trek while in Nyc the weekend of Nathans. Usually the pizza is more enjoyable than the contest. I don’t know what stops on the pizza train I will make next year, but I know it will be delicious.

East coast pizza tour Tocconelis and Anthonys

Want to eat at tocco’s(as the locals call it)? Call ahead to order your dough. Want to eat at tocco’s with a competitive eater and his look a like understudy the natural? Pre order 3 dough balls. Sometimes when writing recipes one will fall in love with an idea. Flavor combination, preparation, play on words, or new take on an old flavor combination. The idea may be great but sometimes it can hinder the execution of a dish. I fell in love with the idea of preordering the dough, if they are in such high demand it must be some of the best pizza on the planet, right? I am glad I made the trek and it was delicious but was a little harsh around the edges, it was well seasoned but overall fell a little short. This pizza needs to be send to finishing school to iron out its tom boy and burping at the table tendencies. My mind interpreted the pre order ritual to not having salt on the table. If you don’t have salt on the table the food better be perfectly seasoned, I guess I figured if you had to pre order dough it would be close to perfect. Toccos was close to being really really good. As for Anthony’s it was delicious, good crust, seasoned really well and has the alternating sauce/ cheese rings. This was a few hours after tocco’s and my palate was still in sodium shock so my palate couldn’t give Anthony’s its due respect. It was delicious but I need to go in fresh palated.

The pizza of australia

Ham and egg
Had to try it while on the continent, looks a lot better than it tasted. I would of liked a vegamite pizza better. At least there are only 4 more continents I have to eat pizza from

Frank Pepe’s

White clam pie

Good for a hangover but not as a base for binge drinking. This is quite possibly the most unique and best executed pie out there.

a pizza video all chicagoans need to check out

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFArBn2LXC8

My compadre jeff ruby did this video about testing pizzas in chicago. It's a must see!

Pizzeria Milan

Chorizo pineapple

Hot damn this was an extreme case of sweet, salty, savory, and greasy. It puts that Hawaiin pizza abomination to shame. It's the traditional flavor mash up on whip its. And boy do pizza and whip its go good together, just ask erik the red denmark.

-pddb

Aurelios (nearing perfection)

Aurelios (nearing perfection)

Childhood/ adulthood perfection(hit's the right taste buds)

Nothing puts the stress of working a shitty catering job or having a douche boss to ease faster then eating a fiesta size cheese from Aurelios. I would not be surprised if Jesus actually changed water into the Aurelios sauce, it’s just that good. Tell em joe or deep dish sent you.