South Pasadena Pizza, Volume 9: Round Table Pizza

I have always liked Round Table, and, when I was young, I thought it was great. This was before I'd eaten New York Pizza, of course, and probably before I'd figured out that Domino's and Pizza Hut aren't good. (I used to eat those with a disturbing amount of frequency.) Round Table always felt like a step up from Domino's, although it was rare I ever eat anywhere besides King Arthur's when I was a kid.

In junior high and high school, there was a Round Table a block away from my school, and I often would go there during the couple hours between school and basketball practice. Sometimes my friends and I shared a pizza but usually we would just play pinball and drink soda, and occasionally get in fights with kids from other schools who hung out at Round Table to roll dice and smoke cigarettes.

My best friend from high school worked at a Round Table in San Jose when he was in college and I would go up and visit him a couple times a year. After he finished work he would make us the largest pizza he could without getting in trouble with his boss. Sometimes these pizzas had enough pepperoni to cover the entire table. That and a pitcher of beer would cost him about 5 bucks, always a good deal.

I have not eaten at Round Table in several years, though. With places like Mamma's and Nonna in South Pasadena, I never have any need to eat Round Table, not to mention the fact that I love making my own pizzas in the oven with Fresh & Easy dough. But I was at Vons next door and I was hungry, so I thought I should give Round Table's $6.99 buffet a try.

I paid the cashier and took a plate. There was only one pizza out, pepperoni, so I grabbed three slices of that and made myself a salad. Neither of these were particularly good. I wasn't expecting much out of a buffet salad bar, but the pizza tasted like it had been sitting out for quite a while, which is definitely possible. The last time I was at Shakey's, the place was packed and they kept putting out new pizzas every couple minutes. Round Table was not very busy at all, so there was no need to.

After I ate those three slices I went back to the bar. There were two new pizzas: sausage and pepperoni, and cheese, so I grabbed two of the former and one of the latter. These were much better. The sausage and pepperoni was the pizza I have always liked from Round Table: hot, crispy, and a little bit spicy. The cheese was fresh but bland; with a few shakes of the red pepper flakes it tasted better but not great.

I made another trip. They had put out a pizza with Canadian bacon and pineapple so I took a piece of that and another piece of the sausage and pepperoni, both good. I didn't really need to eat these but I was trying to lower my cost-per-slice. I was quite full after eating both of these, but when I went to get a refill on my Pepsi I saw they had put out a supreme pizza as well, so I took a slice of that. I don't like tomatoes or mushrooms but I still took the slice. It was fresh, but I am not a big fan of pizzas that have so many toppings. Too much going on.

I finished that slice and sat there for a moment to contemplate the lunch. It wasn't bad but it wasn't anything special. I don't think I will be eating here again. It was a good deal, though. For under $10 I had three glasses of Diet Pepsi, a salad, and nine slices of pizza. So I didn't have to eat again for a long time. Almost three hours.

Pizza

Last night I made pizzas for myself, Elizabeth and Tracie, and these are basically the same pizzas I have made many times before, so I will keep this short. But I made slight variations to each so I wanted to share.

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The pizza I came up with a couple months ago and have made several times is one with Sicilian chili oil, goat cheese, caramelized onions, and chives. I tweaked that a little. Instead of a quick caramelizing of onions in my stir fry pan, I cooked them in our new slow-cooker for several hours, with some olive oil and balsamic vinegar. These were the sweetest onions I have ever tasted. And instead of adding chopped chives to the pizza, I sliced a poblano peppers and added it. This was good, but not hot enough. I wanted to start with a mild pepper, which this certainly was. Next time I will go for something a little spicier.

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For my usual fresh mozzarella and basil pizza, Tracie brought over a large amount of basil from a plant at her house that has been doing great (much, much better than our basil plant.) So I carpet-bombed this pizza with it. This was fantastic. Fresh basil is one of the greatest flavors in the world.

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I may have to take a break from making pizzas for a while. For one, it's already hot enough in our kitchen without cranking up the oven all the way. Last night, with the oven on, it was probably 120 degrees in there. And second, after the party last month where my friends Tyler and Zach made pizzas in the wood-burning oven, the pizzas I have been making, while great, have been falling a little short. It's like trying to get all excited about the Lakers winning this year with Kobe, Pau, and Lamar. I mean, yeah, I'm happy they won, but I grew up watching Magic, Kareem and Worthy. How much can I be expected to love this year's team? Years ago I bought a bootleg of the Rolling Stones in Paris in the middle '60s; all they played was American R&B. It's impossible for me to see the Stones now without comparing it to that bootleg, and they always come up short.

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(And yes, I just compared that pizza party to the Showtime Lakers and 1965 Rolling Stones. It was that good.)

Pizza & The Lakers, Part 3

Having had the successful combination of pizza and Lakers games for the last two games - which were easily the best the Lakers have played in the playoffs, and perhaps all season - I had to keep it going for the second game of the Finals. This is not a big deal; I could probably eat pizza 9 out of every 10 meals and still be happy. And if it means another Lakers championship, I would eat pizza every meal for a month straight.

Friday night on my way home I had stopped by Philly's Best to get cheesesteaks for Liz and myself. It was about quarter to 9 PM and it was obvious the employees were trying their best to get out the door right at 9. I ordered a pepper steak with cheese and a plain cheesesteak. There was another guy in there ordering a cheesesteak with peppers and mushrooms. Long story short, when I got home we had gotten that guy's sandwich, which Elizabeth did not want. That guy had gotten her plain cheesesteak, I'm sure.

Sunday, when planning what pizza I was going to make, I took out the sandwich. Three of my previous four meals over the weekend had been sandwiches (my cheesesteak Friday night, a turkey sourdough melt Saturday for lunch and a pulled pork sandwich Sunday for lunch) and I knew I wasn't going to be eating this cheesesteak. So, I figured, why not put its contents on a pizza? I've certainly made stranger pizzas in my life.

Our friend Tracie had been to Fresh & Easy earlier in the day and bought several pizza doughs and jars of sauce. But she has a small refrigerator and decided to store all the pizza supplies in our fridge. This works just fine by me, as we always make pizza at our place, and besides, this way I can just eat the food she's purchased and then tell her I have no idea what she's talking about if she notices.

I cut one ball of dough in half and rolled it out nice and thin. I spread out the steak and peppers, with a few mushrooms sprinkled in, although I picked out several of the large pieces. After baking this for about 5 minutes I added handfuls of Dubliner Irish cheddar and a little bit of mozzarella.

The pizza was good. That sounds like damning with faint praise, I guess. It wasn't as good as most of the pizzas we've made lately and it certainly wasn't as good as a fresh sandwich from Philly's Best, but it was definitely good and I definitely enjoyed it. It was a little on the bland side so on the last slice I added a few squirts of Franks Red Hot new "Sweet Heat BBQ Wings Sauce."

The Lakers won, or more to the point Orlando lost the game, so I will be making pizza again for the game Tuesday night, although I am not expecting a Lakers victory.