Pizza Time

Anya Larson

Hour 5

Baking & Pastry

Pizza Time

Pizza has been a timeless dish for years on end, originating from Naples, Italy back in the early 1800s. One slice of it can grab your attention instantly and make your mouth water. The rich toppings and the fluffy crust will draw you in and hold you captive until you finish every last bite. We had our very own pizza parlor in class yesterday. Three different kinds of pizza were served to the people (well...just us), and we enjoyed the great variety. We had Frozen Pizza, Pizza with a Premade Crust and Homemade White Crust Pizza to choose from.

Each slice of pizza had a very different texture, taste and aroma. None of them were exactly the same, which is wonderful. Variety is a thing to cherish, not discard. Due to my gluten allergy, I was not able to eat any of the pizzas that we had to taste and critique. Although I have become used to watching people eat the things I cannot in front of me, it was a bit difficult. What was it exactly that I was feeling, then? Scared? Angry? Confused? I wasn't any of those things. I was perfectly confident in my abilities to critique the pizza based on the senses I COULD use.

The first pizza on the list to observe was the Homemade White Crust Pizza. I imagined the taste resembling that of a pizza served on a fancy silver platter at a parlor in the city. Just a simple item of food to eat if you are in a rush, or just hanging out with family and friends. Homemade food is always baked with love and care, no matter what it is. Not literally, but metaphorically, of course. You always know that somebody really took their time to produce the magical product that lies before you on your plate. All of the ingredients had to be added correctly, and the time to bake had to be set out very carefully. Our teacher baked this pizza for us, which really made it even more special. The texture was very thick, and it had many layers to it. It was almost as if every time you took a bite, you were turning to a new page in a book. It was very smooth, and did not have much of a scent. It was very odorless. Although I could not eat it, I was able to collect opinions from the students who sat at my table. They relayed to me that it had a very rich and chewy taste to it, due to all of the fresh ingredients added to it, and how it was baked. It had a very pale color, but what it lacked in color it made up for through the overall appearance of it. I really enjoyed the pizza (although I couldn't taste it). It was the best out of all three.

The second pizza we could try was the Pizza with a premade crust. This type of pizza looked very dry, and the color resembled that of an apple, drained of all of it's color. The thing my table mates tasted was a very grainy kind of taste. It did not have a good blend of flavors, like the homemade pizza did. It looked almost like cardboard, which is something that is obviously not safe to eat. This pizza was very real and edible, of course, but just didn't live up to the standards of the pizza before it. It had a very herbal kind of aroma to it, though, which pleasantly surprised me. Even though it was a very small, meek kind of pizza, the crust looked very floury and crispy. It seemed to stand out more than the other parts of the pizza, almost like it had a spotlight shining down on it. This pizza was the kind of pizza you expect a 10-year old to make and proudly present to the consumers. I wouldn't recommend he go into the restaurant business when he's older....

The very last pizza we had to try was the frozen pizza, just your basic throw-in-the-oven-and-it-will-be-ready-in-10-minutes kind of pizza. The thing all college students live off of during their years at school. It was very flat, but not in a pleasant way. It looked like the life had been sucked out of it. Not a party kind of pizza. It wasn't airy or light like the homemade pizza was. The greasy aura of it was very disconcerting to me, as I could not eat it anyway. They say it tasted very 'salty and rancid'. Great describing words, just not for something that should taste delicious. As I leaned forward to smell it, my nose was met with a very stifling and pungent kind of odor. Just one more thing to add to the list of reasons why frozen pizza should be outlawed in areas with any kind of taste in wonderful food. It was lumpy and grainy, and it made me secretly wish I could chuck it out a window, hoping it would land in the dumpster just outside.

In conclusion, the three pizzas we had were very different from one another. I enjoyed the smell, texture and color of the homemade pizza. It was very appetizing to look at, and it really tempted me to eat it. Although it is a forbidden food for me. The pizza with a premade crust was almost there, but just not quite as great as the homemade one. It was so close to teetering over the edge of the cliff, but took a step back at just the right moment. And finally, the frozen pizza was the worst one of them all. Frozen pizzas and I have never connected with one another. College students really need to find a better food to eat. Even a collection of celery on a plate would be better (I really dislike celery). But anyway, after writing this review, I know one thing is true; pizza is just a great food to eat overall. 

You just have to find the right one to enjoy.