I miss New York City pizza so much. Whenever I go back to the city, I head straight to Claudio's on 10th Avenue not because it has amazing pizza...just because it's right there next to my parents' house, and even non-amazing New York pizza is amazing. (It's a cliche, but an absolutely true one. Even the 99-cent pizza you get from the random kiosk outside the Port Authority Bus Station? Amazing.)
Pizza in California is not amazing. I've found a few places that are good - even very good - but they're all of the personal pizza variety, and tend to be fancied up way more than I want my pizza to be. I need a medium crust. And red sauce. And a lot of drippy, melty cheese. That is all.
So I started making pizza myself, and you know what I discovered?