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FredipusRex

  • Favorite foods: Pizza, pizza, pizza. Fried chicken, burgers, steak, pasta, peanut butter anything. Ice cream, frozen custard, chocolate chip and molasses/ginger cookies, most anything with cinnamon (no tree nuts).

Lunch in the Loop: Tortas Frontera

@Nick - Next time, get the Cubana - it's ridiculously tasty. A torta take on a Cuban sandwich, it's a little like a mashup of the cochinita pibil and the pork belly sandwich. I'm not sure I've had a more satisfying sandwich - your taste buds will be given a full workout.

Cereal Eats: If You Could Bring Back One Discontinued Cereal...

Hands down - Team Flakes. The only flake cereal that actually stayed crispy in milk without being absolutely shellacked with sugar (not that that's a bad thing, but Team Flakes were just mildly sweet in a malty kind of way). The blend of four grains also gave it a fairly unique flavor.

Some of the cereals mentioned above as being "gone" still exist - I can purchase both Quisp and King Vitamin in local stores. And Count Chocola and Lucky Charms are still top sellers, folks!

Vodka Pizza

The pictured pizza pretty obviously has some grated cheese that has browned on the edges. Do you leave that out of the recipe on purpose?

Bacon and Ramp Dumplings

That first step has some issues. It starts with "strong>For the Dough:" - looks like you messed up the HTML for bolding. The recipe never states the actual amount of water to use ("not all of it" doesn't count). Also, it should be "Allow dough to ride..." not "All dough to ride..."

French Onion Soup with Braised Short Ribs

Step 6 is a repeat of step 5.

Lunch in the Loop: Loop Pizza

Whoops - I should have added "beef stand" to the list of decent Chi-town walk ups. Al's and Luke's both have good Italian Beef sandwiches and if you expand the "Loop" a little, you get Mr. Beef and a few more.

Lunch in the Loop: Loop Pizza

@PommeDG - You would think so, but it just doesn't for some reason. There are a handful of food courts in some of the larger buildings that have the standard mall food places (seriously - Sbarro and its ilk) but the Loop tends to have fairly pricy and bad quick food options. Burrito shops and falafel/gyro places are about the only places where you see some decent competition. I also laugh when I hear New Yorkers complain about food prices - I could eat two or three much better lunches in the three blocks around Union Square than I could for the price of one good lunch in the Loop.

@Tupper - Beats me too. In the case of Loop Pizza, I think the start up costs probably aren't that high - it's really just ownership changes. The ovens and store "layout" hasn't changed in 20 years. This place makes a dive-y NYC pizza slice shop look like a shrine - it's maybe 10 feet across and doesn't really have much of a display area (2-3 pies at most - some iterations dispensed with a display completely and just had pies in racks next to the oven). It's just some linoleum and a crappy chest-high counter.

Sadly, Chicago doesn't have a slice culture at all - pizza is a sit-down or takeout (whole pie) meal here. I can't think of more than a handful of places in the Loop that "specialize" in the takeout slice.

Lunch in the Loop: Loop Pizza

*acknowledge (ack!)

Lunch in the Loop: Loop Pizza

I should acknolwedge that there are a few decent chicken walk ups (Immigration Chicken, Prison Chicken) around the edges of the Loop, but otherwise it's pretty sparse.

Lunch in the Loop: Loop Pizza

Pizza Broker was the best of a very sorry bunch there. Alcock's (the bar next door) actually had a slightly better slice (from Reggie's, if I remember correctly) but there really isn't any good pizza in that area. The Loop in general doesn't really do "walk up" style food well - no decent hot dog stands, pizza slice shops, etc. I blame the lack of street vendors and food trucks - there's no incentive to create good, cheap walk ups because there's no competition.

The Pizza Lab: Why Don't We See More Kimchi on Pizza?

Probably for the same reason we don't see a lot of sauerkraut on pizza - cabbage on pizza isn't a great fit. Just because it's spicy Korean sauerkraut doesn't make it any more pizza worthy. :D

Save Your Recipes With Our New Recipe Box Feature!

It's probably too much work, but it would be nice if there was a way to import all recipe-based "Favorites" right into ZipList.

I generally use Favorites to keep track of recipes I like on the site, although it isn't great on organizational details.

If there was some sort of script that could be run across the site that pressed the "Recipe Box" button on all Favorites, you'd probably get a whole bunch of Recipe Box users up and running quick!

A Sandwich a Day: Breaded Steak Sandwich at Ricobene's

I miss Ricobene's in the Loop. I occasionally see a truck, but not sure how well that sandwich would deliver.

Chain Reaction: Little Caesar's Deep!Deep! Dish Pizza

Thank you for taking one for th eteam, Dennis. No one should be subjected to Little Sleazers... Jets does the 8 Corner Pizza so well (for fast food pizza) I can't see anyone choosing LC over them (unless they are really starved for cash).

Chris Bianco Talks Pizza, His New Restaurant in Tucson, and Beyond

And this is why Chris continues to make the best pizzas on the planet - passion, humility and respect.

The Joy and Economics of Cooking Pizza At Home

Tomorrow night will be pizza night. Thursday night, I spent no more than 5 minutes creating and portioning the dough for three pizzas, popped them into little Tupperware bowls and they'll sit in the fridge getting tasty until tomorrow, when my three day fermented dough will stretched, sauced, covered and baked on my Baking Steel in 90-120 seconds a piece. Total active time will probably be 30 minutes over the course of four days.

The Joy and Economics of Cooking Pizza At Home

Or maybe Matt just can't make pizza and it's scarred him psychologically: http://thinkprogress.org/yglesias/2010/03/07/196420/pizza-bleg/

Taste Test: Muir Glen's 2012 Reserve Tomatoes

Muir Glen is my normal, go-to canned tomato (although our local grocery store, Dominick's, has inexplicably stopped carrying them). Even the regular Muir Glen's can be missing a little sweetness - they always have great tomato flavor, but I'm occasionally forced to toss a teaspoon of sugar in to balance things out. I do like 6-in-1 when I can find them.

In the photos, it appears that the regular cans are a little "soupier" than the Reserve cans - was this the case or just the luck of the photo draw?

Chris Bianco is Opening a Pizzeria in Tucson!

Sorry, Niki - Tucson is even further away from you. :D

My in-laws live in Scottsdale, so I get to indulge my Bianco worship once or twice a year. Since opening the original pizzeria for lunch hours, it's much easier to get in to these days.

Although it was kind of fun to wait in line - if you showed up around 3pm, you could generally get in for the 5pm opening seating. Even though we only went once each spring break, I actually got to know a couple of the people who waited in line - there were a few locals who were there pretty much every year on the same days that my wife and I would go.

In terms of Arizona foodies, Dominic Armato (who used to run the excellent Chicago, then Boston, then Phoenix and occasionally Hong Kong food blog SkilletDoux) has created a great Phoenix food board called www.phxfoodnerds.com which I highly recommend. Dom is a great guy (and would make a great SE contributor).

The Joy and Economics of Cooking Pizza At Home

I'm just trying to figure out how to post a troll that's good enough that it gets Kenji to invite me to his house for pizza... ;)

The Pizza Lab: Combine The KettlePizza and the Baking Steel For The Ultimate Home Pizza Setup

@Kenji - Nice results. I've actually gotten very similar results with the Baking Steel + broiler method (I got that burnt edge on one of my pies too - and in only 90 seconds!)

Did you ever get the chance to try out the 2stone pizza grill? The latest, all-steel model has been tempting me...

Chain Reaction: Pizza Hut's Crazy Cheesy Crust

Excellent review, Niki. If you look at the promotional picture, you can see there're no perforations on that pizza either - the piece that is being pulled has somehow miraculously separated cleanly while all the other pieces are obviously fused together. It looks as though they just build a thick cornicione and dimple it with their thumbs. I would have thought that they would make a regular pizza and a bunch of little thumb-sized cheese pizzas that they would arrange around the edge of the main pizza crust - letting the baking process meld them slightly but still have a natural break between the main pizzas and the surrounding pizzettes.

Nothing To Fear: Totonno's Is Still Using Their Original Coal Oven

@passion4pizza - I've never been to the Coney Island Totonno's, but the one in Manhattan had crust like cardboard. It was not good eats.

Poll: Nuts on Pizza, Way or No Way?

@TXCraig1/BGEPizza - When at Bianco's, they always seem to add them post-bake. They have no color on them at all (aside from the natural green/purple pistachio color). The Post recipe assumes a home oven, where the nuts probably wouldn't scorch.

Poll: Nuts on Pizza, Way or No Way?

@BGEPizza - that is exactly the Rosa from Bianco's. The Washington Post put up a recipe from Chris Bianco for the pie here.

I've had the Rosa at Pizzeria Bianco and it's delicious.

Broken Leg in Flagstaff = More Pizza!

So, I took my son in a Boy Scout trip down the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon. This would be my one opportunity to check out Caleb's Pizzicletta. I took my son and in-laws there the night before the trip. The pizza was delicious, the space was small but charming and Caleb was a gracious host (I let him know I was a Slicer). Great start to a trip.

4 days of rapids later, I suffered a severe break to my right tibial plateau and had to be air-lifted out to Flagstaff. Worst pain I can even imagine. Had two surgeries a week apart (an external stabilization followed by a knee reconstruction). (My son finished the trip with his Scout buddies and got home safe and sound).

I'm in a rehab center/nursing home until I get well enough to fly back to Chicago. A combination of pain meds and hospital food has seriously suppressed my appetite. Caleb's pizza isn't really deliverable, but I found salvation in the place right across the street from Pizzicletta - a place called Fratelli's.

Completely different style from Caleb's - this is 'American' or 'New York' style pizza. But it is excellent too! They take their pizza seriously - Stanislaus tomatoes, whole milk mozzarella, what seems like house made Italian sausage. Very tasty crust with good bones.

I have ordered pizza from Fratelli's twice now - its delicious (they've won Best of Flagstaff for 10 odd years). While I can't wait to get back to Chicago, Flagstaff is lucky to have two such great pizzerias.

I highly recommend Pizzicletta (get there early!) and Fratelli's.

Lime Meltways

Meltaways were one of the first cookies I made when I began my professional baking career. They're incredibly easy and their delicate, crumbly texture makes them terribly addictive. In this version, I made them with lime zest. But if you'd prefer another flavor—like lemon, vanilla bean or even black pepper—go for it. More

The Best Chicken Tikka Masala

The secret to our Chicken Tikka Masala is a salty yogurt-based mariade followed by intense charring on a hot grill. We purposely undercook our chicken so it can simmer in a creamy spiced tomato and cream sauce before serving. When done right, the sauce should be a multifaceted affair; A balanced blend of intense spice flavors with a gingery kick rounded off by the richness of cream and butter, with a splash of freshness and acid from tomatoes and citrus. As you bite into a chunk of chicken, the smokey char should work its way though to the forefront, to be slowly replaced by a new layer of spicing, this time intensified by its time on the grill. The chicken chunks should be juicy, moist, and tender. More

Philadelphia Butter Cake

Philadelphia Butter Cake is almost indescribably rich: if you can imagine Gooey Butter cake but minus the cream cheese, and with a base that is somewhat like a crushed, compressed danish, you're getting the right idea. More

My Pie Monday: Potatoes, Deep Dish, Eggs, and More!

Today we've got a gorgeous potato and thyme pie from Scott D, a Pequod's-style deep dish pizza from FredipusRex, and a seriously delicious-looking pie from Pizzacommander's pizza party (why didn't we get an invite?)...But that's not all—Norma's working her milk kefir starter, Professorplum shares a nice Margherita, Patrick B made a ham, egg, and cheese pie, and there are more tasty pizzas from FoolishPoolish, Bartonkt, dmcavanagh, Tdpl, TScarborough, ESNY1077 , thearrogantchef, and first time MPM'r Soles. More

The Pizza Lab: No-Roll, No-Stretch Sicilian-Style Square Pizza at Home

The ideal square pie needs a soft, moderately chewy, and pliant crust, with an almost fried crispness to the bottom. The layer of cheese should be thicker than on a traditional pizza, and as for the sauce, I like it with a hint of roasted garlic, a touch of herbs, and lightly cooked with a distinct sweetness and overt tomato flavor. I know—I'm a demanding guy, but I'm also willing to work for my pies. 23 takeout containers worth of leftovers,** 8 pounds of mozzarella, 16 pounds of flour, and more tomatoes than you can shake a stick at later, I finally achieved the pie of my dreams. Let me walk you through it. More