No Ketchup

[MNHighwayMan]

Chicago deep dish isn't pizza. It's a casserole labeled as a pizza.

[roadman]

A couple of weeks after I started my freshman year at college, I inquired about where I could get good pizza.  The response I got was "What do you like, Greek sponge or Italian cardboard?

At the time (1980), deep dish was still relatively unheard of in the Boston area (IIRC, there were only one or two local restaurants that sold it, and mentioning Uno would have gotten you a "Huh?")

[inkyatari]

Chicago deep dish isn't pizza. It's a casserole labeled as a pizza.

No.  It's REAL pizza.

[MNHighwayMan]

Chicago deep dish isn't pizza. It's a casserole labeled as a pizza.

No.  It's REAL pizza.

WRONG.

[hbelkins]

Chicago deep dish isn't pizza. It's a casserole labeled as a pizza.

No.  It's REAL pizza.

WRONG.

^^^
This is why I compared the pizza debate to the no-ketchup debate.

FWIW, I looked up both "catsup" and "ketchup" in the AP Stylebook. There's no entry for "catsup," and there is just the word "ketchup" with no admonishment not to use "catsup," such as there is for Kriss Kringle (not "Kris.")

[sparker]

Chicagoans love Chicago style thin crust just as much, if not more than deep dish.

Nah.  Deep dish rules the day in Chicago.  I am sure it isn't a matter of exclusivity, but there is a general preference for deep dish there.

The best pizza.....period! I've had in the Chicago area was from a little "hole-in-the-wall" place out in Elmhurst on York Ave. a couple of blocks north of the Metra station.  I was on my way through town, staying in a nearby Red Roof (this was 1989, on a very extended cross-country trip), had a batch of laundry to do, and this place was next to a laundromat.  It was late afternoon, and I had skipped lunch, so I decided "what the hell, just get a pizza".  Didn't know what to expect from this place, although I had figured it would likely be deep-dish (not my favorite, but more than acceptable in a pinch).  They did have a deep-dish on the menu, but they featured "Chicago-Style Medium-Thin Crust" as their specialty.  So I tried it with my usual toppings (sausage, mushrooms, olives, extra garlic if available) -- and it came out:  a square pizza, about 16" on a side, and cut into 16 4" x 4" slices with, as advertised, a "medium-thin" crust -- thicker than the usual NY-type "cracker" crust, but not even approaching deep-dish status.  It was one of the best pizzas I'd experienced.  I wolfed down about half of it immediately and had them put the rest in a box to go; after finishing my laundry, I ended up eating another couple of slices on the way to the motel, nuked a couple more that evening while watching TV, and having the rest semi-cold on my way to my next stop in Iowa. 

Postscript:  I went back there about 9 months later, and it had changed ownership -- and, frankly, the pizza had gone from great to mediocre in the process.  But at least the original experience showed that Chicago pizzerias are capable of turning out a superior "conventional" pie!  But I can't remember for the life of me the name of the pizzeria (with the drop in quality, I'd venture a guess it's no longer in business anyway).

[MNHighwayMan]

Before this thread gets too derailed about pizza, I must say: it is very much wrong to put ketchup on pizza in any way, either as the sauce, and/or as an additional topping/condiment.

[ET21]

Before this thread gets too derailed about pizza, I must say: it is very much wrong to put ketchup on pizza in any way, either as the sauce, and/or as an additional topping/condiment.

Ketchup on pizza??????  Now that is very wrong....

[WR of USA]

Ketchup and mozzarella cheese shall not be united in any way.

[sparker]

Regarding ketchup:  not really a fan (too sweet); on fries I prefer either seasoned salt or a good tart BBQ sauce (like Stubb's or Kinder's); on burgers I'll mix up ketchup & mayo half-and-half (the old "secret sauce" recipe touted in Fast Times at Ridgemont High); a slice of red onion, butter lettuce, and Swiss, on an onion or Kaiser roll, completes the product.

[MNHighwayMan]

Ketchup and mozzarella cheese shall not be united in any way.

[formulanone]

Gee, if only all meals had to adhere to a strict Manual of Uniform Foodstuffs, with no local deviation, no attempted fusion, was rigorously tested in a laboratory, and it all tasted the same way we'd first experienced it when we were seven years old.

...If only.

[abefroman329]

I live in Chicago, and eat thin crust all the time. It's called tavern-style pizza here, and Home Run Inn does a great one (and you can wash it down with Sprecher's root beer!), but nearly every pizzeria sells a version of it, including Giordano's and Lou Malnati's.

New York-style pizza is fine when it's served hot, but I'll nevee get the appeal of a slice that was made several hours ago and reheated in an oven for a few minutes.

[inkyatari]

Chicago deep dish isn't pizza. It's a casserole labeled as a pizza.

No.  It's REAL pizza.

WRONG.

Yes, you are WRONG

[cjk374]

My dad & my daughter put ketchup on everything...including scrambled eggs! I have never liked the taste of eggs ruined with ketchup.

[abefroman329]

My dad & my daughter put ketchup on everything...including scrambled eggs! I have never liked the taste of eggs ruined with ketchup.

Same. I've tried to get behind hot sauce on eggs, but can't.

[cjk374]

My being from Louisiana would make you think I like hot sauces. I don't like any of them because they have a strong (to me anyway) vinegar taste.

[abefroman329]

I hate vinegar, but haven't found that to be the case with hot sauce. I love Buffalo wings and Buffalo shrimp.

[GaryV]

My dad & my daughter put ketchup on everything...including scrambled eggs! I have never liked the taste of eggs ruined with ketchup.

Besides it looks like a train wreck.

[formulanone]

My dad & my daughter put ketchup on everything...including scrambled eggs! I have never liked the taste of eggs ruined with ketchup.

Same. I've tried to get behind hot sauce on eggs, but can't.

I visit some hotels with bland and repetitive breakfast choices, so occasionally I reach for a little hot sauce.

Ketchup doesn't improve too many flavors or textures; I only use it on very bland and unsalted french fries.

[vdeane]

Re: pizza stuff
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ue5YC666rtI

[webny99]

Fact: the best pizza is neither Chicago-style or NY-style.

It's probably slightly closer to NY-style, but then again, NY-style is a lot closer to one's expectation of pizza in general.

[english si]

Ketchup on pizza??????  Now that is very wrong....

There was a Dominoes one here in the UK a while back called Meltdown with some of the spicier menu options before being topped with America (yellow) Mustard. Now, not only is mustard on a pizza gross and far more wrong than Ketchup, but yellow mustard isn't spicy at all (certainly by English standards, where our own mustard is bright yellow and blows your head off) despite being on there to make it spicier. 

Though it's good to see that even American food can be twisted across an ocean enough to be abominable, just as the Americans did with various other cuisines. 

FWIW, I looked up both "catsup" and "ketchup" in the AP Stylebook. There's no entry for "catsup," and there is just the word "ketchup" with no admonishment not to use "catsup," such as there is for Kriss Kringle (not "Kris.")

And the Malay word we borrowed in English is spelt 'kecap'. It's all just different fonetik spellings (made worse by English not being a phonetic language). Catchup was one previous Eng-NAm spelling.

Malaysia and Indonesia have 'kecap manis' (lit sweet ketchup), often called black ketchup - soy sauce and molasses and maybe some spices reduced until syrupy. In Indonesia, normal soy sauce is 'kecap asin' (salty ketchup). Though the original thing the English settlers of Malaya were trying to copy was a pickled and spiced fish sauce, rather than those. Mushrooms were originally used to make it (savoury flavor and all), but eventually tomatoes were.

Then Mr Heinz replaced unripe tomatoes with pickled ripe ones, adding some more vinegariness, and a load more sweetness, and that made a very different sauce that has crowded out the others due to being much more of the flavour profile of a child. Ironically, the reason for the replacement was the Pure Food Act - given how sweet tomato ketchup is now seen as ruining pure food!

[jon daly]

How can anyone complain about ketchup on hot dogs when powerful men commit this culinary faux pas straight out of "Here Comes Honey Boo Boo"?

http://www.post-gazette.com/life/food/2018/09/04/Brett-Kavanaugh-pasta-with-ketchup-Yale-Supreme-Court-nominee/stories/201809040115

[inkyatari]

There was a Dominoes one here in the UK a while back called Meltdown with some of the spicier menu options before being topped with America (yellow) Mustard.

We had a chain down in the far SW Chicago suburbs called Marchelloni's that had a cheeseburger pizza that had mustard as the sauce.  I guess if you think you're eating a cheeseburger, it's OK, but if I want a cheeseburger, I'll get a cheeseburger.