The Pizza Therapy Forum and Pasta Therapy Forum

[MikeOne496@msn.com]

The History of My Pizza
Reprinted from last year in my blog [No April Foolin'!]http://spaces.msn.com/members/FlynnsBeachPark/
Aloha From FlynnsBeachpark! 0600, Sat Apr 1, '06 Aloha !
I've barely been satisfied with the idea of spending money for someone else to do what I can do better myself. & I've always thought that, if something really interests me, & I'm no good at it, practice makes me better at it.

I'd never been a major pizza fan as they always seemed so expensive when comparing them to a couple of quarterpounders or better still 6 Jack-In-The-Box Tacos [no lettace & no cheese please, just the 'meat' & what-ever-else ya slam in der] which always resulted in a cash outlay of a measily 3 bucks & a very happy driver! Usually if a passenger would pay & I'd pump up the tab with 'a large RootBeer, no ice, no lid & no straw!' I'd refuse to accept the drink watered with ice, covered with plastic to inhibit my ability to see & no straw because it's jest more litter. & besides, straws are for people who suck! I digest...

As a 'latch-key kid' in Chicago in the '60s, my food allowance afforded me the opportunity to choose between the corner 'Shays' Chilli joint, 'Franks Steakhouse', featuring a salad & a Steak for $1.09, or stop by the convienience store to select things like macaroni & cheese, hot dogs, or even those pizzas in a box by Chef Boyardee! So I suppose I started by grabbing the extras like olives, mushrooms, bell peppers & slice up a redhot (Chicago Hot Dog) to cover the very generic, small cheese pizza. The results always seemed like something was missing from the whole proceedure. Oh sure, there was the little packet of flour, the small can of sauce, the packet of shredded cheese & even a tiny portion of parmesian! It would be 40 years before I realized the best missing ingredient was garlic!

One of my 1st part time jobs, while a soldier stationed in Germany, was a delivery driver for the base Officers Club. I had a keen behind the scenes gander of the carelessness of kitchen staff & the traffic in & out. I lost alot of respect for my fellow man that season.

Cut to a hunerd year later , you Ron, might remember Zorros Pizza on Kuhio & Nohonani? My friend owned it & was going through delivery drivers like water through a sivve. Nearly everyday at least one of his drivers destroyed a moped or put themselves out of action due to their inability to negociate Waikiki traffic. So I'm on off-season hiatus waiting for maintence to finnish on the taxi or sumthin, & he's beggin me to deliver pizza for him cause he knows I know the neighborhood & he knows I can make money & he's desparate to stay afloat just for another month. Ok & I watched how to make professional pizza! Surely I could see that too many extras without renumeration would bankrupt the business abruptly! But the profit margin on a nicely run pizza joint kept his 3 kids sheltered, clothed, fed & educated. Plus he was drivin a nice Jag & seemed to be enjoying the rewards of Waikikis favorite delivery service! But they closed!

Soon after arriving in Australia, my nephew took us to 'Pizza Hut' with his family. It was exactly like the one on Beritania but no beer makes a night out with pizza a terrible failure. The pizza was less than mediocre & reminded me of the adage, if ya want somethin done right, do it yersef!

So, there ya have a fairly full story of my pizza makin history. Neighbors here in Australia are always inviting their friends to our pizza parties & it's quite the ego trip to get so much positive feedback...as if showin a tourist the view from the peak of Diamond Head. I am very content to spend my money at the supermarket & keep my own tradition of the worlds best pizza. The worst one I ever made was excellent!
Please Be Sure to Have a very, very Nice Day!

K-den ,NSWMoke/MikeOne,

[pizza]

Thanks, Mike

That was quite a story with a personal history lesson thrown in to boot.

I always think of my friend Peter Reinhart's quote:

"There are two types of pizza, good pizza and great pizza".

I also have to quote the Pizzameister, Coye Jones:

"I never meet a pizza I didnt like."

Good on ya, mate.

Thanks for the great pizza tales,

albert
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