By Deena BustilloPLAY Editor
It’s almost certain that only one more oozing Giordano’s stuffed crust pizza stands between me and a mandatory artery unclogging. See, pizza is the ultimate comfort food, and, well, it’s turned out to be a quarter (uhh, college career) that needs excessive comforting. So therein lies the regrettable contradiction: On one hand it’s slowly wrecking my physical health, on the other it’s preserving my mental health. Talk about a toss up.
But I don’t give up that easily. I want to have my pizza (and cake, for that matter) and eat it too. The solution? Different types of pizza. I figure by varying the pizza style – deep dish, thin crust, wood-fired, with or without sauce, etc.- I should be able to minimize the probability of a quarter-life stroke, while maximizing the probability of making it past that quarter of life.
My first love will always be Chicago’s signature stuffed crust. Since my first bite at Giordano’s (which may or may not have sealed the deal to trek all the way to the Midwest for college) my relationship with pizza has been forever altered. Nothing beats the flaky crust that envelops the cheese and yummy toppings, which is topped off with smooth sauce – especially on Monday nights when dine-in is 30 percent off (even though I’m still upset that last year was 50 percent off.) I’ve even learned to like the slightly lighter thin crust alternative, which still comes with the toppings tucked under the cheese. But I digress, onto other pastures.
HomeMade Pizza Company (with locations on West Central and Chicago Ave. in Evanston) is a healthier option and an almost DIY meal. They sell unbaked pizzas made from scratch, so you can take it and bake it at home. Choose from suggested combinations like the Wild Mushroom (with Fontina cheese, mushrooms, thyme with an olive oil base) or the BLT (with bacon, spinach and Parmesan with a tomato sauce base) or create your own from an extensive ingredient list. The pizzas are pretty foolproof and seem a lot lighter – physical weight and calorie-wise. I guess I could even take it to the next level and order one of the fancy pre-made salads they make too. Let’s not get too crazy though, but the cookie dough slab was tempting.
Metromix, that Tribune entertainment guide we all live by, has over 500 restaurants listings for pizza – so I’m sure I’ll at least make it through the next year and a half at NU, with pizza and health services on speed dial.
Medill junior Deena Bustillo is a PLAY assistant editor. She can be reached at [email protected].
