Pictured above is the Castro pizza from the Bolier Room. It’s essentially a Cuban sandwich on a pizza. I find it to be absolutely delicious. Just like the sandwich it is topped with ham, pork, bacon, pickles and instead of mustard they’ve add mustard seeds. I love this pizza. The salty meat with the bitterness of the pickles and the sweetness of the mustard seeds play together extremely well. But I’ve learned it’s not for everyone. Several people I know don’t like it. And even the ones that do like it have told me that they don’t see it as pizza.

People’s responses have started me thinking about what pizza is and how people see it. Growing up in Chicago I’ve had so many different pizzas that I don’t see it as a simple thing. My boss is from New York and she sees pizza in one way. The large New York slice. She says deep dish is weird and doesn’t understand cracker crust at all. Another woman I spoke to said you couldn’t or shouldn’t put chicken on a pizza. That olny pork products should go on pizza. And yet I had garlic chicken alfredo on a cracker thin crust and found it to be one of the best tasting pizzas I’ve ever had.

Lately I’ve been buying pre-made custs at Target and throwing pepperoni, pizza sauce from a jar, mozzarella and black olives on it. Simple non pretentious. My mom loves them. She says they’re better that the pizzas we order. I see it in a different way. To me they are delicious but so are other pizzas because I look to different pizzas as different things. Almost as if each pizza is a different food.

What do you think? What’s your favorite kind of pizza and why? And what do you think defines that?