I tend to be pretty particular about my pizza. When I lived in Virginia, I plotted out most of my region based on the tastiest pizza, the best priced pizza, and a few other key pizza considerations. While New York is a daunting pizza town, I've spent much of the past few years figuring out the best pizza places, calibrating the difference between amazing pizza and that which is simply acceptable, and generally trying to figure out how to best enjoy one of my favorite foods.

While I prefer mom and pop pizza joints, I have occasionally been know to frequent chain pizzerias. Of the major pizza franchises, my favorite was always Pizza Hut; their flavors always struck me as particularly clean, and their ingredients always seemed quite fresh. However, when I removed high fructose corn syrup from my diet, I started being able to taste it in fast foods. One day, while eating a pizza, I detected its foul flavor in the sauce. A little research confirmed my suspicion: Pizza Hut was using the dreaded HFCS. In a moment, Pizza Hut joined the foully-sweet Papa John's and the blandly repulsive Domino's on my no-eat list. My "pizza island" got a little smaller, a little narrower, and a little sadder.

Recently, however, the chain has developed The Natural, a pizza that allegedly uses vine-ripened tomatoes and all-natural mozzarella, while eschewing artificial ingredients like HFCS, nitrates, nitrites, artificial colors, and preservatives. According to some sources, they are planning to extend this all-natural trend to the rest of their line.

It looks like I may have to revisit one of my old favorites!

Do you have leftover pizza this morning? Don't reheat it in the microwave!

This pizza is so new that DiGiorno doesn't even have any info about it at their web site, except a picture of the box.

This is the latest pizza in DiGirono's "Ultimate" line. They just keep releasing pizzas that are the ultimate this and the ultimate that. They should just go ahead and name a product This Is The Only Pizza You Ever Have To Buy, All The Others Suck. But I guess that would mean they couldn't release any new pizza products.

This is pretty good actually. It's incredibly thick and has a crunchy focaccia crust, and it's probably the heaviest pizza box I've ever carried out of the store. At first I thought it came with its own pizza stone or something. Right now it's in two flavors: cheese with sun-dried tomatoes and pepperoni with spicy red pepper flakes. I tried the former, and while the taste of toasted sun-dried tomatoes got to me after a while (definitely a topping you can't overcook), it was tasty and filling. Tonight I'm going to buy the pepperoni version (and kudos for someone finally releasing a pizza that has those red pepper flakes on top!)

Pizza, that inexpensive, staple food of students and late night revelers, is about to get a little more expensive. Pizza shops and other businesses that use a lot of flour are feeling the pinch of rising prices and are starting to pass those costs along to the consumers. According to a report on Philadelphia's NBC10, in addition to being effected by rising fuel costs, flour prices are also going up as farmers plant corn in place of wheat in order to meet the demands of alternative fuel manufacturers.

Pizza will still remain relatively inexpensive, with slice prices going up in $.25 and $.50 increments. Whole pie might run you a buck or two more than they did in the past.

[via NBC10]

I've been seeing these commercials for the new Freschetta PizzAmore. It comes pre-sliced and the ads promise that it tastes just like one that you'd get in a pizzeria.

Um, it doesn't.

Everyone always says that the pizza they make at home is better than what they can get delivered on at the supermarket. Now's your chance to prove it.

Bolla Wine is having a "Taste of Your Town" Pizza Recipe Contest. They're looking for the best regional pizzas in the country. And not just any ingredients, either. They want recipes that use ingredients and toppings that are local to you. They also want you to tell them which Bolla wine would go with your pizza. Five first-place winners will get a handful of prizes, including a Delonghi Pizza Oven. The Grand Prize winner gets a trip to Europe and a tour of the Bolla winery.

Here's a quick poll. How many of you are planning to order pizza on Sunday? Pizza is one of the most popular Super Bowl foods and pizza delivery places are known to get swamped on this particular day of the year. Don't you wish there was a way to keep track of your order? A way to take some of the anxiety out of waiting on your order to arrive.

If you ordered a Domino's pizza, there may soon be a way. The pizza chain is currently testing a phone tracking system in 3,200 of it's 8,500 U.S. stores. You would call the system, enter your phone number, and be informed of the whereabouts of your pizza to within 40 seconds.

There's one area of the order cycle that Domino's won't inform you about. Domino's did consider a GPS tracker for drivers. But for safety reasons, the tracking system won't tell you where the actual delivery person is en route to your location. You'll just have to be content knowing when your pie left the store. Even without knowing where the deliverer is, it's nice to be able to know where your pizza is the rest of the time.

[Via ColdMud]

As a lover of all things pizza-related, I really have to try these.

It's a recipe for pepperoni pizza, only using Pillsbury's Easy Grands! refrigerated biscuits. I always get a little uneasy when I see an exclamation point in the middle of a sentence instead of at the end. Imagine! how! annoying! that! would! be! if! it! was! done! all! the! time!

Anyway, these look pretty good, and ridiculously easy to make. What I find particularly great is that the Grands! come in various flavors (original, buttermilk, Southern style, etc), so you can get some different tastes without adding anything extra to the recipe.

Wow, talk about the ultimate holiday.

Of course, most people don't need a special holiday to celebrate their love of cheese pizza (if I could eat if for every single meal of my life...well, I wouldn't, that would be boring, but it's probably my favorite food). But this would be a good day to make a pie of your own. Hopefully today just happens to be your "cheat day" if you're on a diet.

Here's a bunch of cheese pizza recipes, from Jeff Varasano, MealsMatter, MyRecipes, RecipeZaar, Wolfgang Puck, Emeril, and Rachael Ray.

Of course, if you don't want to make your own and want to call Pizza Hut or Papa John's or maybe go the store and buy a frozen Mystic or Freschetta or even Ellio's, well, that's OK too! And don't forget the posts from our Pizza Day celebration.

After pointing you to Wendy's new Design A Burger contest, I figured I'd point you to this site, since many of you eat pizza and not burgers.

It's the Random Pizza Generator, and it automatically chooses your crust, the types of cheese and all of your toppings for you. It's sort of like that idea Kramer had on Seinfeld, only you won't burn your fingers. The webmaster doesn't suggest you actually make the pizza you get, but if you do, take a picture of it and he'll post it.

The one I got was Smoked Gouda, Provolone, Cauliflowers, Salsa, Wurstel, and Spam. For the record, I am never making that.

I have a love/hate relationship with olives. Or maybe a like/hate relationship. I like olives, many kinds, but they're not the type of food I ever think of buying myself. I just don't. If I'm with friends who order a pizza with olives on it or I'm at party where they are served or I find them in a salad, I'll eat them. But they're not something I really think about otherwise.

But I do like them on pizza, which makes me want to try this gourmet pizza pie that also utilizes brie cheese.

Nationwide, pizzerias are revving up to high speed to fill all their orders today. Surprisingly, Halloween is one of the busiest pizza nights of the year. It's the second busiest night to Super Bowl Sunday and in areas where football isn't big Halloween blows it away for sales and it's in the number one spot. Pizza sales increase by a minimum of 30% today and in some places up to 300% or more. Whether it's the trick or treaters needing quick easy meals before all that candy, or for all the parties, Halloween is big business in the pizza industry.

I dropped by my local pizzeria where several of my friends work for a midday snack and the place was hustling. All the tables were full, moms with pre-school kids were just finishing up and kids from the local school were all lined up waiting for a spot, all in their costumes and fooling around. Instead of just the one daytime delivery guy, they had two and were running behind on deliveries. They told me they would have three and hopefully four guys on duty starting late afternoon and asked me if I wanted to help, something that happens a few times a year on busy days like this. I declined, but I just may reconsider after hearing how much I would make for five hours work. I was told that they have started baking some of their more popular pies ahead of orders in hopes that they won't fall too far behind. On a usual busy weekend they typically have a reasonable 30 minute wait, today they hope to keep it less than 45 minutes for pickup and an hour plus for deliveries. Last year they did a week worth of sales on Halloween and stayed open two hours later than normal because of late night bulk orders for parties. So folks, if you want pizza tonight I recommend you order ahead of time or you just may be in for a long wait.

First, a note to Slashfood readers:  I apologize for missing pizza day.  Not that anybody cares.  But I feel badly about it.  My long displacement kept me from regularly posting, but now, having landed at my new headquarters here in beautiful Midwood, I’m ready to resume my subliterary labors.  I’ll start with my tardy post on the unpredictable genius of Domenic DeMarco.  And early next week I’ll report on my experience this weekend as a judge at the Long Island Pizza Festival. Writing in Newsday some months ago, I penned the following paen to Dom:

"One man - bent, driven, possessed - towers over the world of pizza. His name is spoken of in hushed tones by the circle of believers; his work is subsumed in mystique; and no one who has made the trek to distant Midwood to eat his handiwork has ever walked away less than awed.”

Thanks to you guys, Pizza Day was a rousing success. And thanks to our crack team of bloggers who spent all night mulling it over, we're happy to announce the winners of our contest. Drumroll please...

Most Creative

We loved Stephen Cooks' Slashfood-specific interpretation, with Gorgonzola, rosemary, soppresata and walnuts, but this Calamari Goat Cheese slice earned extra credit.

Most Bizarre

How can we not give props to this Cantonese-style BBQ pork, bean sprout, Shanghai bok choi pizza with mabo tofu sauce from the Revecess Blog?

Editor's Choice

We loved all the entries, but one turned Slashfood Headquarters into one big puddle of drool. Congrats, Traveler's Lunchbox! Your Fig and Prosciutto Pizza wins the grand prize.

If you're one of the above winners, please contact us for info on how to collect your prize. Thanks to everyone for entering, and reading Slashfood!

Many thanks to all who entered Pizza Extravaganza – those who took the time and effort to join in have created some marvellous renditions. 

• The Traveler's Lunchbox
  
• Thought For Food
  
• Brandon Eats
  
• The Revecess Blog
  
• Pizza County - Pancetta Pie
• Pizza County - Pesto Pie
• Mel's Kitchen
• Chief Family Officer
• Stephen Cooks

The illustration, by the way, is a Giant Pizza Playground maintained at the Smithsonian Institute.