Fictionlet

[the_gneech]

"Despite what you may think, I have been in love," Brigid said. "Brian had me from that first dinner."

"Really!" said Greg. "That must have been some dinner."

"It was pizza," said Brigid.

"Pizza?"

"Yeah, pizza. Brian really understood pizza. So many people don't, anymore."

"You've lost me."

"Pizza, real pizza, proper pizza, comes from a little shop tucked away in a corner somewhere. And it doesn't come in a freakin' red insulated bag! If you want to eat your pizza at home, you have to go pick it up and carry it home in a thin, white cardboard box."

"The white box is key, is it?"

"Real pizza has a thin crust that was spun and tossed up in the air by some burly, slightly-balding, dark-haired guy named Tony. It's crisp on the outside edge and completely floppy in the middle, so you have to fold it in half if you want to pick it up."

"Does he have to be named Tony?"

"Real pizza is at its best when it's put on a little stand on the table -- because the table is so small and the pizza is so big that there wouldn't be room for the plates if you put it on the table. Picking it up and carrying it home in a white cardboard box is good too, but not what's best."

"There must be a lot of fake pizzas floating around, then."

"There are!" she snarled. "That's what drives me nuts about it! All these damn corporate pizzas, all these squidgy-crusted frozen things, they're all squeezing real pizza out! Every year there are fewer and fewer places that make real pizza because of all these goddamn dopplegangers!"

"Sorry to have touched on a tender subject," Greg said.

"But that's why I loved Brian. He said he was taking me someplace good for dinner, and where did he take me? Tony's Mediterranean Café over on Winchester. A real pizza place. A real pizza place. Good God, by the end of that meal, I wanted to leap across the table and tear his clothes off right then and there."

Greg's eyebrows headed for the ceiling. "Now that's a mental image I never expected to have lodged in my brain. So what happened to this paragon of pizza, then?"

Brigid suddenly turned sullen and stared at some nonexistent thing in the corner. "I don't wanna talk about it," she said, and suddenly made for the kitchen.

Greg blinked at her retreating form. "Then why on Earth did you bring it up?" he asked.

-The Gneech

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Comments

[the-sedgwicks.livejournal.com]

I couldn't agree with Brigid more. I know where I can find real pizza, and now I think that is what I MUST have for dinner.

[kylet.livejournal.com]

I've never seen pizza in just a bag o.0

So, guys, forget chocolate or cheesecake. Pizza is the way to her heart...?

And I have a mental image of Greg with cartoony floating eyebrows above his head XD

[the-gneech.livejournal.com]

Well it's usually in a corrugated cardboard box in the insulated bag, if it comes from Pizza Hut or the like.

And yes, pizza ... but the right pizza.

-TG

[wbwolf.livejournal.com]

The entire population of Chicagoland would disagree with Brigid on what constitutes a "proper pizza". That sort of New York/Connecticut style is simply not found here on the west coast...

[kylet.livejournal.com]

Personally I'll take any kind of pizza, but I'm not Brigid.

However, I will note there's a pizzeria across from work here that had so much difficulty recreating the NY-style pizza they grew up on, they have to *import the water* back from NY to make the crust o.0

[laurie-robey.livejournal.com]

That's pretty extreme!

[rhanlav.livejournal.com]

Extreme Pizzamaking! Get me a pile of dough, an oven, and some rockclimbing equipment! We're gunna kick it up a notch, BAMMM!

--Salen

[frostdemn.livejournal.com]

You don't mean... Mango salsa??

[rhanlav.livejournal.com]

I'm just taking a page out of the playbook of Extreme Ironing.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extreme_ironing

[the-gneech.livejournal.com]

Good pizza is worth it!

-TG

[frostdemn.livejournal.com]

Incorrect! there's a place out in Oakland in Jack London Square that used to be UNO's pizzaria, but now it's the SF Pizzaria. That's where I first had chigcago-style deep dish. Mmmm... *drool*

[wbwolf.livejournal.com]

That's sorta of my point. Brigid wouldn't consider Chicago-style as "proper pizza". Her idea of an ideal pizza is hand tossed, stretched thin, with a little olive oil, tomato sauce, cheese and maybe pepperoni, cooked in a coal fired stove. Anything less (or more) is sacrilege.

[the-gneech.livejournal.com]

Exactly; to Brigid, "pizza" is NY style; other stuff, whatever its merits, is not pizza. Chicago style, Sicilian, deep dish, etc., are all "fake pizza" to her mind.

-The Gneech

Take another little pizza my heart now bay-beeeee

[genecatlow.livejournal.com]

Brigid suddenly turned sullen and stared at some nonexistent thing in the corner. "I don't wanna talk about it," she said, and suddenly made for the kitchen.

Greg blinked at her retreating form. "Then why on Earth did you bring it up?" he asked.
Jeez... Why is this guy still alive? Why hasn't Brigid had some skilled mechanic (an old friend of Brian's) screw with the brakes on his car and then sent Greg on a fool's errand that would unerringly require him taking the sharp curve on Dead Man's Hill?

*sad sigh* Need to learn about what it means when a lady talks about what she loves, G. You're waaaaaaay out of the loop... O_O

[frostdemn.livejournal.com]

Proper pizza is chicago style deep dish. Mmm, loaded with lots of meaty toppings and fresh tomatoes and an oh-so-delicious crust... *Drool...*

:< i'm stuck with frozen goods.

Oh, and for the record:
List of names of appropriate pizza makers:
Tony
Luigi
Marco
Guido
Carlo
Giovanni
Sergio
Giuseppe
Pietro
Paolo

Other names are welcome for this list. Let me know if you think any shouldn't be here.

[the-gneech.livejournal.com]

Come 'round to my place sometime; we've got a few decent places in the neighborhood. :)

-TG

[mg4h.livejournal.com]

Hi, New York native here, and you just managed to completely NAIL what it is I like about "real" pizza.

I almost managed to nod my head off there ;)

[the-gneech.livejournal.com]

Yarr, NY pizza. Arrnumnumnum!

-TG

I &hearts; Brigid

[exatron.livejournal.com]

Brigid certainly knows the way to my stomach.

I do disagree with her about the proper way to construct a pizza (Only Buddy's does it right), but her point remains valid. Now we just have to figure out what possessed her to bring up the subject.

[hossblacksilver.livejournal.com]

Makes me think about how I still need to go to this local pizzeria here in the Charlotte area. While I'd love to try the pizza itself, the real draw is that the manager is a member of the U.S. pizza tossing team (and all that considering that he's in his early 20's to boot).

I just miss green olives in pizza, I grew up on it and gave up olives on mine when my favorite pizzeria closed and everyone else has the atrocity of black olives only.