Sun-Times file photos
Say what you will about Deadspin, they apparently have great taste in food. A less-than-scientific study pulled the best food from each state (plus Washington D.C.) and ranked them, presumably on the basis of deliciousness. Despite being maybe a little overrated to the point of being a touristy gimmick, Chicago’s deep dish pizza naturally clocked in at number one.
Rounding out the top five are shrimp and grits from South Carolina, a mission-style burrito from California (speaking from experience, they are seriously amazing), crab cakes from Maryland, and peach cobbler from Georgia.
Here’s what Albert Burneko has to say on Chicago’s deep dish:
Man is mortal. He frolics upon the grass of life for but a short season, and then is snatched back to the inanimate dirt of his origin. The Chicago-style deep-dish pizza, America’s greatest regional foodstuff—all those toppings, good God so much cheese and meat, I can hear my heartbeat, this can’t be right, it sounds like a goddamn chainsaw, can that be right?—will greatly hasten that day’s arrival, but it will also fill at least a little part of at least one of those days with a transcendent, mind-boggling, outrageously indulgent sensory experience. This is the best thing any food can do, and certainly far beyond the capabilities of [stares daggers at New York] a sheet of soggy cardboard with a flap of waxy melted cheese stretched across it.
Hard to argue with that. To celebrate, here’s some gratuitous pizza photos.
The sausage and onion deep dish pizza at Pizano’s Pizza at 61 E. Madison. | Al Podgorski/Chicago Sun-Times
11-7-07 Deep dish cheese & sausage pizza with a butter crust at Lou Malnati’s 439 n Wells. | Brian Jackson/Sun-Times
Deep Dish Chicago Pizza as served at Joey Buona’s on Superior. | Bob Black/Sun-Times
And for dessert, deep dish pecan pie from Ditka’s restaurant. | Scott Stewart/Sun-Times
Brandon Wall is a digital editor for the Sun-Times. He prefers super thin crust to deep dish, but he isn’t picky when it comes to pizza. Follow him on Twitter @Walldo.
