There Should Always Be Pizza Night

This post is inspired by a conversation I had this morning with my friend Jenn. I mentioned that I'm craving pizza, and she said the same. She and her boyfriend menu plan each week like we do, and Jenn requested a pizza night. She also said they had pizza night in her house almost every week as a kid. There should always be pizza night, don't you think?

When I was growing up, we didn't make homemade pizza. Sometimes we did Boboli (yikes), and I do remember how fun it was to add the sauce and toppings. I think pizza would be so fun to make with little kids. But really, if we had pizza, we usually ordered from Mission Pizza, our favorite spot in my hometown. It's just the best stuff.

We really only ate it on occasional Friday nights, when my parents' best friends would come over and all the kids would hang out. And now it's become part of special events, like the day after my wedding when we had our bridal party over and all shared pizza.

Mission Pizza is delicious, but I'm also biased because it holds a lot of memories, so maybe I think it's delicious because of those memories. (Although most people who taste it for the first time agree that it's awesome.) But here are some of my other favorite pizza experiences:

Vietri Sul Mare, Italy
Terry and I visited this tiny town on the Amalfi Coast in Italy during our honeymoon, and for our first meal we ventured down to the village to try some famous Italian pizza. It was only five euros, so we assumed it would be small, but we ordered two and received two full pizzas. And they tasted like nothing I've ever had before or since. Perfectly cooked crust, the tiniest bit of crunch with the perfect amount of chewiness. The sauce was so simple, and the cheese--not gobs of it, but just enough--melted in my mouth. This is how pizza was meant to taste!

Trastavere, Rome, Italy
You'd think the pizza in Italy would all be the same, but I guess it's a little like how we do things here: same dishes, totally different execution. Still, the pizza in Rome did not disappoint, and we tried more variety like the eggplant (melanzane) pizza. But I guess ambiance had a lot to do with how much we loved the food; there's something magical about having a romantic lunch with your new husband, sipping wine in a foreign country and munching on seriously phenomenal pizza.

Buffalo, New York
Guys, I'm not kidding when I say I actually really like Buffalo. It's a hidden gem for foodies! It's totally down home, and the food (at the right places) really just hits the spot. Last time I was there, Terry and I finally tried the famous white pizza, which the aforementioned Jenn (Buffalo native) had raved about and even made at home for years. We went to the unassuming Pizza Plant, ordered a white pizza on wheat crust, and just could not stop talking about how incredible the flavor was. My mouth waters thinking about it. I wish we had tried it earlier, because I can tell you we would have eaten there at least one more time.

Chicago, Illinois
I know, I know, you probably saw this one coming. For the longest time, "Pizzeria Uno Deep Dish Pizza" was my response when asked my all-time favorite meal. And it truly was incredible. I ate it my second time in Chicago, on my first trip with Terry and his family. We had flown out for the UCLA-Notre Dame game in 2006 (ouch--lost in the last minute of the game) and stopped for pizza right before heading to the airport. It was seven years ago, but I still remember the cornmeal crust, the two layers of dough, the ridiculously meaty toppings. It's a hearty pizza, but it's just SO good.

Back here in LA, we haven't found The Most Amazing Pizza in LA, but we like Fresh Brothers. It's possible that I ate Fresh Brothers for dinner tonight. Come on, I spent half the day talking about pizza; did you think there was a chance I would eat anything else for dinner? It was delicious.

Alrighty, off to bed! Have a great night!

What's your favorite pizza place? Any pizza-related memories? (Why do I have so many?)