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RE: Dining Out - Pizza @ Christies
BBQ Chicken sounds delicious that photo looks somewhat of a lazy created pizza. I don’t think I’ve ever had sea food on my pizza before. Always interesting to see how differences around the world. That is a shame at that price point they could not create and provide a high quality pizza.
There are quite a number of pizza places in my area. Most I consider being trash. They tend to be just giant puddles of grease. People swear by them and I never want to consume another pizza from such places.
I always enjoy a pizza with a decent amount of sauce that has a good flavor profile. I also prefer crust that has some extra flavor on it or in it. If a place can nail those two aspects of a pizza I have high hopes for the rest of it.
I think that's a great way of describing it. Lazy. It really felt like they were just phoning it in and relying on past success. Well, as a new customer, I won't be returning. I imagine their shopper docket vouchers might be because of a downturn in trade as regulars stop coming because they've discovered better/cheaper elsewhere.
I also like seeing what others do with pizzas, but as I've gotten older (and since I re-visited Italy as an adult foodie instead of just briefly as a kid) my taste in pizza has changed quite a bit. I used to love cheap, deep-pan, with everything on it. These days, I'd much prefer a tasty base with a well flavoured sauce and some good quality toppings. I don't expect it from the take away chains, but if you're over $10 for a large pizza, you have to be offering something decent and/or different. I'd have been better off getting pineapple added to the BBQ Chicken at one of the chains.
On the plus side, they weren't puddles of grease, which I agree is a plague on most pizza places
Many here somehow enjoy the $5 pizzas from a place I shall not name as I have thankfully forgotten the name of it. I tend to just call it “pizza bread” as it just has this awful thick toast like crust with some toppings on the top.
Pizza is one of those things I never thought I would be picky about but it turns out I am highly critical of it. Even worse when you try a new place and you can’t help but think a cheap frozen pizza you buy at the store for half the price or more was far superior.
In my area restaurants have issues holding onto good cooks. So they tend to have many that just phone it in. They know if they get fired they will just find another place. They don’t seem to pay enough and are often times in need of someone who just can do something they accept lazy people who don’t care about the customer or the quality.
I’ve had people swear to me such and such place they went to years ago was the best food they ever ate. Than you go and it’s just awful. Most of the time it seems to be changing of the cook. The really great ones that often make or break a place get hired away to better places over time.
I grew up with home made pizza. It wasn't until many years later that I learned my mum used a composite dough that's mostly similar to a scone dough to get the semi-deep pan, but light and fluffy crust. Somehow (student poverty I suspect) I got to the point where $5 pizza was 'great', because it was the cheapest meals. Then somehow I became a foodie and my desire for some kind of quality has seen me struggle to have the 'cheap' options. And then I went to Italy for a month... I'm still shocked I can eat some of the dross we have that seems to be thought of as good and authentic!
As for the good cooks not staying, it's tough for the pizza (and other 'cheap take away' foods) to maintain staff since it's reasonably easy to get a better paying job. One of my local chicken places has staff wanted signs up pretty much every other month, though it seems the main cook is also the owner, so not going anywhere. Likewise with the kebab/pizza place I like near home.
And often the other staff are just there because it's better than unemployment, so they're working and applying elsewhere the whole time. Sometimes even while working...