I am way too obsessed with pizza. As my young daughter says, "Daddy, you're crazy about pizza." What she doesn't know (or maybe she does), is that my food fanaticism extends well beyond pizza. It encompasses all sorts of foods and ingredients, whether prepared at a restaurant, at a friend's house, or at home. There are some common threads running through these passions: value and affordability, new discoveries, indigenous specialties and their rich histories and permutations, and most of all - good taste.
While enjoying a meal with friends or family, I often meander from the delights and nuances of the moment, and fixate/propose/plan future meals. For instance, while enjoying my favorite udon noodles one night, I may - to the chagrin of some - direct the conversation to my excitement for the next morning's crisp potato pancake with eggs and gruyère. I need to work on this. It's hard for me. I am too obsessed with food.
Pizza is one of my favorite foods. But I also love a good octopus salad, clams just about any way, a juicy burger on a good soft bun, and -- these days -- granola with rice milk.
My wife would love to leave New York City, where we currently live. Maybe we will some day. But the thought of moving gets me very worried. What would I do without all of these NYC food options? I'm referring not to upscale, more expensive restaurants (though there are plenty worth visiting), but to those restaurants andmarkets that feature foods made by people whose lives and food culture are totally intermeshed - such as pizzeria owners who simply cannot bear the thought of eating any other pizza besides their own.
My daughter, who is 6 and happens to love pizza too, sometimes offers very insightful observations about pizza and other foods. I'll try to share them occasionally on Pizzacentric....
Besides producing this blog (to which I post less often than I would like), I am a freelance photographer specializing in food-in-action and real people in real places. I also produce websites and work as a small business consultant.