PrintDear Slice: New Mexico–Style Pizza?
About your article on regional pizza styles... I don't know if this really rises to the level of "style," but people here in New Mexico eat green chile on their pizza. Most people also dip their pizza in ranch dressing. It's so common that all of the local pizza places serve green chile as a topping, and most have some kind of "green chile and ____" topping selection.
The chile I can deal with, but the ranch dressing thing is vile and wrong (I'm from Chicago, so I have pizza ethics), but I haven't seen it done anywhere else so it may be a "style."
—Stephanie H.
Dear Stephanie,
The green chile topping, I've never heard of. And it sounds kinda cool and quirky and possibly even pretty darn good. It might have a kick to it similar to kimchi pizza. And I've had green-chile cheeseburgers before (in the style of Bobcat Bite Cafe), so I'm familiar with New Mexicans' proclivity to top things with the peppers.
The ranch thing, I have heard of. I'm from Kansas, and it was a popular practice there. The delivery places I used to order from in college included little tubs of ranch dressing—but it was always understood by us students that you dipped the end crusts in there—not any part of the pizza that contained sauce and/or cheese.
Thanks for your email!
Hasta la pizza,
Adam
Add a comment:
Previewing your comment:
HTML Hints
Some HTML is OK: <a href="URL">link</a>, <strong>strong</strong>, <em>em</em>
Comment Guidelines
Post whatever you want, just keep it pleasant. We reserve the right to delete off-topic or inflammatory comments. Learn more at our Comment Policy page.
If you see something not so nice, please, report an inappropriate comment.
8 Comments:
The Golden Crown Panderia on Mountain near Old Town makes a really good pizza, you can order medium or thin crust...the New Mexico twist is that they make a green chile crust...I haven't tried it but sounds interesting.
elaine nan at 3:33PM on 01/25/08
Yeah, ranch dressing is pretty ubiquitous at college campuses nationwide. Ohio State-area pizzerias offered it with their pizzas (or they did 10 years ago, anyway.)
me3dia at 7:14PM on 01/25/08
P.S. The Golden Crown Panderia is in Albuquerque and was featured on the Food Network....also really good pastries.
elaine nan at 8:43PM on 01/25/08
I believe we need to come up with a consensus when it is no longer pizza and it's baked dough with all sorts of crap on top.
kmc212 at 12:01AM on 01/27/08
That is, without question, the grossest thing I've ever heard. And I just came from Rochester, where I was offered so-called Buffalo wings avec ranch dressing with a few sad lumps of blue cheese mixed in. (Not to mention two (!) tiny slivers of celery to accompany same.)
I'll discuss the alleged Brooklyn pizza in Rochester in another post. I'm dealing with a head cold and a badly slashed finger at the moment. (If you are chopping pork and peeling shrimp for fried rice at the same time, do remember to wipe your hands occasionally, otherwise the knife handle gets slippery.)
BaHa at 12:29AM on 01/27/08
Hmm..I'm not sure unusual toppings counts as a regional style, although California pizza is clearly all about the topping (with little cheese, small, and thin, so maybe that makes it more like a style).
Then again, I was wondering if Hawaiian pizza (ham and pineapple) ALMOST counted as a style, given its ubiquity years ago when I was babysitting for kids and they all wanted to eat pizza with those toppings to be like the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
Marathoner Bill Rogers used to slather mayo on pizza crusts, when he was carbo-loading, I heard--I guess that was before Power Bars :p
HeartofGlass at 1:21PM on 01/27/08
I lived in Taos for a bit, but never heard of the ranch dressing procedure. Unholy, is what that is.
Taos is home to one of the best pizza places I've ever encountered -- maybe the best: Taos Pizza Out Back. Huge slices, excellent ingredients. I never was a big fan of thick crusts and heavily-laden pizzas until I ate there. Amazing crust flavor. Local terroir much in evidence.
Kidding about the terroir. Totally serious about the pizza, though.
DelDavis at 10:29AM on 01/28/08
I am in Colorado, and the green chile is common - Old Chicago (chain) uses it as meat substitute on veggie pizzas...the ranch thing just can't be any good for anybody!!! There is a well known skiier's pizza place with awesome whole wheat crust...there is honey on the table so you can eat it as dessert.
rckymtnski at 6:24PM on 01/31/08