​Happy National Pizza Day! [February 9th]

With so much variety, pizza is one of the foods that I can eat a couple times a week and not get tired of. Different toppings, sauces, crusts...a practically endless set of combinations.

Did you know that pizza wasn’t available in the United States until the late 1940s? Immigrants from Naples, Italy came to New York and brought their tasty treat with them. And I say thank you!

Shakey’s Pizza was the first franchise pizza chain in the U.S. They were founded in 1954 by Sherwood "Shakey" Johnson and Ed Plummer in Sacramento, California. Since I grew up in Sacramento, I was lucky enough to enjoy to original Shakey’s at the 57th and J Street location, which stayed open until the mid 90s. 

While I like most of the standard toppings...cheese, pepperoni (the most popular), olives, mushrooms, onions, and yes, occasionally pineapple...I really enjoy some of the newer offerings on a good wood fired crust. Things I never would think to combine, like figs, apples, and goat cheese for example, end up making the best pizza! I'm a sucker for pesto and zucchini.

You may already know that the least-liked topping is anchovies (according to this YouGov.com poll). I agree 100%.

I read that Americans buy about 4 billion pizzas a year, with SuperBowl Sunday and Halloween being the biggest pizza days! I have definitely done my part to add to that statistic over the years. 

How about you? What's your favorite pizza?