What is Pizza?

I'm crazy about pizza. My wife and I were joking about the fact that I could eat pizza every day and not get sick of it...so we tried to figure out how far you could deviate from the traditional "pepperoni, cheese, and sauce on a round crust" paradigm before you ended up with something that could no longer be called pizza.

Is a 'garlic pizza' or 'white pizza' still a pizza? What if it has broccoli on it? It's not really what I'm in the mood for when I feel a desire for pizza, but I can't deny that it is, in fact, of the pizza family.

What about taco pizza? Dessert pizza?

Pizza rolls? French-bread pizza?

What about those horrible 'sauce-on-an-english-muffin' things they fed us in elementary school? They called that pizza, too.

There's a parallel here with prog music. I'm sure you could see that coming a mile away.

But even with all the different preparations.. there is still one common ingredient - bread

You hcan have no sauce or sauce, no cheese or many cheeses... meat, fruits and vegetables...

But without bread... its just not pizza!

But is pizza prog?

No are ANCHOVIES prog?

Try this kids!

Well I have the distinct pleasure in living in the mecca of Pizzadom. Chicago Style Pizza is the best there is and Lou Malnati's is the best Chicago Style Pizza.

The rest of you poor saps live the 3rd world when it comes to pizza.

Actually its a worldwide fact that NYC has the best pizza... even most of my friends from Chicago agree.

However, I'm originally from North Carolina.. so I prefer Pizza Hut.

(Meatlovers pizza with the cheese in the crust)

Pizza! Yes, delectable, but, is it really the toppings themselves or the person who adds the pepperoni to the pie? Imagine, if you will, Keith Emerson, dropping large fat fingered handfuls of mozzarella cheese all over the place, while balancing on spinning Hammond. Adding the classic spices, oregano, a touch of basil or chive. Personally, I would prefer Rick Wakeman's approach, a touch of curry, some moogy cheddar and a slice or two of mello Jack cheese and performing all these culinary functions whilst wearing a flowing technicolor cape.

Of course, all the BEST pizzas were baked in the 1970's. Todays pizzas are cheap copies, derivative of the original bakers. Sure, you can add sushi and anchovies, spinach and jalapenos, or even Oreos and Fromunda, but they all pale in comparison to the pizzas made by the big 5. Even the taste of the Genesis pizzas changed after Peter Gabriel left, they added too much cheese and plugged the bowels of progholes everywhere. Can anyone suggest a good prog-lax supplement?   

Enough, I have to sit down and devour another thirty year old pizza that I just re-discovered and, boy, am I hungry!