Today’s food post is about pizza. This past weekend, we went to eat at California Pizza Kitchen, which was wonderful. We ordered a Peking duck pizza and a pear & gorgonzola pizza. They were both yummy. The CPK here in Austin is on the south-west side of town, whereas we reside on the northern outskirts of the city, so it’s not often we have the opportunity to eat there. In fact, this was our first time there (I had eaten at CPK in So Cal before). I can’t wait to try some of their other creations.

We sometimes make pizza at home, from scratch. It’s pretty fun to put on the ingredients, but I leave it to Mariko to prepare the dough. I can never make a nice, even pie crust. Once we made chicken and feta pizza, which was great, and then we had some leftover jerk chicken that we made a pizza out of. That was delicious as well. And of course we make the regular tomato sauce pizza with pepperoni and onion. mmmm.

Mariko says she misses Japanese pizza, and I have to admit, I miss it too. We used to have a place called Pizza Captain deliver to us when we lived in Yokohama. They had a great corn and mayo pizza. It’s really pretty good. Other popular toppings are ika (squid), nori (seaweed), and asparagus. Last time we were visiting Japan, we had a kani (crab) pizza, and it was great! Check out the menu at Pizza Hut Japan, and tell me those don’t look awesome!

Here in the states, we have several pizza-delivery chains. Mariko’s favorite is Papa John’s, but I prefer Pizza Hut. But the Pizza Hut pizza has to be a pan pizza. The bottom of the crust is a little crispy and very buttery. Its great. I think my favorite toppings have to be Italian sausage and mushrooms, although I really like pepperoni, onion, and jalapeños. And plenty of crushed red pepper! I am also a fan of anchovies on my pizza. They are so salty, just thinking about it is making my mouth water right now. I’m not too fond of olives or bell peppers, though. Papa John’s pizza is good too, especially because of their garlic butter dipping sauce and pepperoncini’s.

One of my favorite pizza memories was when I was visiting my brother in NYC. The pizza there was amazing. I once ordered a “slice” and the thing was so big, I couldn’t see the paper plate underneath! It was a basic plain cheese pizza slice, but it tasted so good. A little garlic powder and oregano on it, and I was set!

Ok, it’s lunchtime. Whew!

Continuing with my theme for this week, here are my top ten fast food chains, as far as burgers are concerned. And note that I have only lived in So. Cal and Central Texas, with a few years in Japan.

1. In-n-Out (Double Double)
2. Fatburger (Egg Burger)
3. Carl’s Jr. (Famous Star w/ Cheese)
4. Sonic Drive-in (Supersonic Jalapeño Cheeseburger)
5. Wendy’s (Classic Double w/ Cheese)
6. Burger King (Texas Burger)
7. Whataburger
8. Jack in the Box
9. Dairy Queen (Belt-Buster)
10. McDonald’s (Big Mac)

Honorable mention goes to Mos Burger (Japan and Hawaii) for their yummy burgers and dogs, including the rare “Nan-curry Dog”. Mmmmm.... 

A photo from my Polaroid Joycam. 

This morning on my way to work, I drove by the Wendy’s and I noticed that they had a new fluorescent advertisement in their window. It was for their new “Wild Mountain” menu. Now, what in the world could that be? Porcupine burgers? Pinecone soup? You gotta hand it to them for coming up with an interesting name. It might actually get me into a Wendy’s just out of curiousity. (I do like their burgers, as far as fast-food is concerned) The new menu sounds much better than their other “Tuscan” menu. I am not sure what Tuscan food is, or even if it resembles anything that people in Tuscany eat. Maybe some kind of herb-chicken thing?… I think it sounds a little too elitist for me. I’d rather feast on Wild Mountain fare.

I did a little research, and found that Wendy’s and Baja Fresh are owned by the same company, while there is a similar alliance between Carl’s Jr./Hardees and La Salsa/Green Burrito, not to mention the McDonald’s - Chipotle axis of evil… It’s kind of bizarre to see certain fast-food restaurants actually share the same building too. There’s an A&W/Long John Silver’s near our place, and you see lots of Pizza Hut/Taco Bell combinations along the highways too. I guess it makes sense for the company to do that, and it does make it more convenient for the consumer too.

Some good stuff this week at The Onion, including this story entitled “Nation’s Poor Win Election For Nation’s Rich”. The infograph, “Prehistoric Discoveries” is also pretty funny. 

Here’s an interesting site. It shows the average IQ’s of the 50 states, and how the states voted in the 2004 presidential election. Fascinating....

[via Shelly]

I was watching “The Empire Strikes Back” and listening to the commentary, and I noticed just how nicely shot this film is. Of course it is widescreen, and I noticed that the main subject/characters in each scene were rarely in the center. In fact, it seemed that they were positioned well off-center. In photography, there is the “rule of thirds” in which you divide the frame up like a tic-tac-toe game, and place the subjects at one of the four intersections. I wonder if that applies to movies as well. At any rate, they did a wonderful job with Empire, especially the scenes on Dagobah.

I did a little searching on the Internet about aspect ratios of film and came across “The Letterbox and Widescreen Advocacy Page”. They describe the aspect ratios of the different lenses and companies, such as Cinemascope and Panavision. They also show have examples of movies in their original widescreen format compared with edited pan-and-scan formats, and it really illustrates how much gets chopped off when you view the full-screen version of a movie. Check out the examples of “Star Wars” and another classic, “Escape from New York”. I always buy the widescreen versions of dvd’s whenever I can. It’s a much more enjoyable way to view a movie, in my opinion.

Click here to see a great flash movie that perfectly explains the difference between widescreen and pan-and-scan full-screen.