Ode to Round Table

Considering I currently reside in what many people (erroneously, in my opinion--cue angry New Yorkers) believe to be the mecca of pizza slices, I often wonder why my belly pines for the Round Table pizzas of my childhood.  No NY slice will do--frankly I've never been over the moon about thin crusts, unevenly distributed cheese and anything requiring origami acts en route to my mouth (I'm surprised an NYC pigeon hasn't targeted me for all of this pizza-blasphemy) and in Manhattan that's pretty much the only way it comes.

Pizza is such a big to-do here, in fact, that statisticians have actually used mathematical calculations and occurrences of online reviews to deduce New York's favorite slice.  No two sources (authoritative or otherwise) can agree, what with over 5,000 yellow pages listings for pizza it's no wonder.  In the year that I have been living at the center of the "pizzaverse," I have sampled my fair share--from late night slices to full-blown pies, Sicilian (thicker crust, more cheese) to Neapolitan (your classic Italian-American NY style)--and have yet to be wildly impressed. (Lombardi's pizza--one of NYC's most famous pictured to the right)

Don't get me wrong, I'm not eschewing pizza entirely yet I rarely find myself inspired to eat that extra slice.  Most striking, there is very little variation.  While Manhattan generally considers itself the center of the culinary universe, the world of pizza is kept on a tight leash, never straying from the standards and keeping the crust a strict quarter inch thick.  You'd think with a city full of chefs making the most of what they've got, someone would think to do something about that damn pizza!  Maybe it's nostalgia that's holding me back, but give me a Round Table any day--savory rich sauce (none of that "grandma's recipe" sickly sweet stuff they have over here), prefect three-cheese blend (spread like a blanket for the toppings to nestle in), that not-too-thin/not-too-thick crust--nothing in New York compares.

We talk a lot about nostalgia and food: how it can play tricks in your mind, make flavors seem more than what they were.  Round Table for me is chock full of memories: girls nights when dad worked late, Monday night football dinners, slumber party snacks--that pizza smacks of family and friends and good eatin'.  To this day, though, the pizza is just as good as it was when I was five years old--no matter how full I get I can always eat that extra slice (I've been known to accomplish impressive gastronomic feats involving the family classic, a large pepperoni)...and it's damned good leftover/cold/and just about any other way.  I'm off to California in a few days and my mom and I already have our RTP date set.  There are some things I can skip on the rare occasions I get back to my homeland (god forgive me In-n-Out), but not that pizza.  Cheers to safe travels, happy homecomings and my all-time favorite slice.

(I'm not the first person to be wooed by RTP's culinary charms--and most certainly not the last.  This man wrote his own ode to the pie.)