It's Good Friday - Having Fish Are You?

So what did you give up for Lent? Does everyone realize that this is the earliest Easter will be in over a century? (I learned that when I went to church, something I have started doing again as my son prepares for his baptism next month.)

So during Lent, there is that whole no meat on Friday's thing. I use to try and observe this tradition. Finally I decided that I am surely going to Hell for other things that not eating meat on Fridays would only surely help me to get a better seat on the express train.

But remind me some day to tell you the story of my mother serving up scallops and tater tots to her children, who weren't sure about scallops, but liked tater tots. If you don't know what a tater tot is, it's a small cube of hash browned potatoes, about the same size as a scallop. And therein lay the issue. Or the time my mother served swordfish and later admitted she had served shark instead. Whatever.

So in addition to the above "fish" incidents, we had a fair amount of pizza growing up. I benefited from living on Long Island, where the pizza was thin and exquisite. There are times when Mrs. BA and I will visit the land of my youth and the first stop is the pizzeria and then the bagel store.

Good Neapolitan pizza is to die for. I have found a few places in the DC area that have it, but many are like pita bread with sauce on it - icky. And don't get me started on the express places. I used to be a pizza jockey for one of those places and it's never been my favorite.

I saw a posting some time ago (again my information guru, kottke.org, which everybody better have in their readers by now), which pointed to this blog. You gotta love a blog about pizza that is called "Slice." So in this post, they listed all the different styles of pizza that you can get in the United States. It's a fairly comprehensive list.

So dear reader, best places for pizza? Let me know in case I come to visit. Favorite pizza? Toppings? And you, over there? Drop the ham and pineapple and slowly back away. Pizza has cheese, sauce, and maybe some sausage on it. "Designer pizza" is not worth it. Interesting for a diversion now and then, but not for when you want the greasy cheese pizza. Then you have to go here, or somewhere like it.

Then there's this place in Albany, New York. I have been known to drive an hour and a half for this pizza. It's that good. I used to think that Jesus Christ was in the kitchen making the pizza.

(See how I did that? I came full circle on this post. Starting with the church thing, talked about food and wrapped up with Jesus. There may be heavenly hope for me yet.)