In Defense of Pi

...the pizzeria, not the number. I suspect 3.14159...can hold its own.

So, Pi is a pizza place in St. Louis that specializes in deep dish. You may recall the kerfuffle back when Obama shanked Chicago in the heart by calling it the best deep dish he'd ever had. Pi is pretty damn good, so we were happy to hear that Pi would be opening a DC outpost around the same time we moved out here.

We ate at Pi DC a few weeks ago. To clarify: I, not a Chicago native, ate there with three Chicago natives. Who love their deep dish. We all found it extremely tasty, though I thought they were still ramping up to full Pi deliciousness as compared to their St. Louis locations. I didn't take any photos, and didn't blog about it. So why now?

One of my fellow dining companions from that night emailed me the WaPo food critic's assessment of Pi DC.

I generally appreciate food critics in the cities we've lived. We've been lucky to have a slew of good ones- Jason Sheehan, before he moved on to Seattle; Katharine Shilcutt in Houston; Ian Froeb in St. Louis. You may note these are all the alt paper critics: somewhere along the way, we discovered they represented our food interests better than the newspaper critics. Perhaps that's my problem with Mr. Sietsema. I'm still trying to figure out the DC food scene, and what perspective everyone brings to the table. But this review just leaves me puzzled.

First, I think there are some unreasonable expectations. We're talking about deep dish born in St. Louis, purporting to be Chicago-style. As anyone familiar with restaurants should know, cuisine is a product of where it's created. Go try some Italian food in St. Louis, for example. No Italian would ever mistake it for their cuisine. Frankly, I'm from America and had trouble recognizing it as Italian food. It's not Italian food; it's St. Louis-style Italian food. Think deep-fried, breaded ravioli ("T-ravs"), pasta cooked to death, thin, sweetish red sauce on everything. It's peculiar, and some of it is disgusting, but you can see clearly the blending of Italian ingredients with Midwestern sensibilities.

Now let's talk about deep dish. I've only had it in Chicago a few times, but it has a few distinctive characteristics. The biggest one, I think, is density. Chicago deep dish is a meal. Eating an entire pie might kill you. They're laden with cheese and meat, and collapse into an oozy, artery-clogging pile on your plate. The crust is crisp, and has a deep-fried appearance that often spits grease as you bite in.

If we're talking "authentic", I'd say the best deep dish in St. Louis is actually from Black Thorn Pub. It's dense, it's oozy, one slice hits you like a load of bricks to the head. Jon had two, and had to go home and pass out afterward.

I guess all this leads up to the big tell: Pi isn't really Chicago-style deep dish. It's *better* than Chicago-style deep dish. If St. Louis didn't already have an eponymous pizza style, this stuff could hold its own. Maybe a better name would be "St. Louis deep dish"?

So what's different about it? It's less dense. It's a drier pie. Less sauce, less cheese, but still more of both than a conventional pizza. It tastes healthier, even if it's probably not. That alone to me means it's not real Chicago-style deep dish. The crust is better, too- it keeps the crispiness, and a light greasy sheen, but it's no longer soaked in the stuff.

So why do these dumb Chicagoans in DC seem to love it if it's not Chicago-style, and if it's allegedly *SO* awful? I have two theories that I think explain it better than delusional "homesickness".

1)The urban professional class (ie, Pi DC's target market) is more concerned about their health, generally speaking, than Midwesterners. Pi's pizza has healthier topping options, and tastes less greasy, than most of what's available in Chicago. Chicago transplants enjoy the nostalgia of deep dish, in a tastier, possibly healthier package, maybe more than they would enjoy the real thing if it were available.

2)Expectations. I've lived in Texas, I know great barbecue. Do I expect to find it in DC? No. Would I be really happy to find good barbecue, even if it's not Luling City? Would I maybe go a little crazy and evangelize about how awesome it is? Um, yeah.

And sure, there's a little homesickness wrapped up in it, too. I can't help but wonder what Minnesota-raised Sietsema's review would look like should a hot dish place open in the District.

Summer Food Adventures

Today for breakfast, I had iced coffee and a guava bar from Inversion Coffee.

I've been on a search this summer for the best iced coffee in Houston, and Inversion has tied for first with Dirk's. Dirk's is the Dietrich's across from the University of St.Thomas, inexplicably re-branded, and which some internet sources claim is a front for Starbuck's...which puzzles me, because Starbuck's iced coffee is beyond awful.

But I digress. Both shops have excellent iced coffee; Dirk's is incredibly mild, with chocolate/caramel flavors, while Inversion's is more acidic and robust. They tie because their coffees are both excellent, but completely different.

I also like Inversion for their guava bars- buttery cake-like bars with a quarter-inch thick layer of guava paste sandwiched in the middle. They're unique, and delicious.

So, where have I been?
Vacationing in rural New England and Washington, DC.



This is the lobster shack we visited, it's just past Two Lights State Park outside of Portland, ME. Sorry for the photo wonkiness, that's what happens when you drop your camera in the sand at the beach. It has since recovered.

I had a lobster roll plate for about $15, which consisted of lobster chunks on the typical split-top roll (for anatomy of a lobster roll, this site is a good primer), with a side of fries and coleslaw, and a strange, jam-filled cookie for dessert. It was good, and the view was awesome:



Another delicious meal of note was from Jonathon's Seafood Restaurant in North Conway, NH. I had the baked scallops lunch, which came with a nice salad, for about $10. The scallops were cooked perfectly, not at all dry or tough, and drowned in butter. So yummy. Jonathon's is a nondescript local place my NH family visits regularly; apparently, it was just sold to a new owner, but the food has gotten better, not worse. The waitstaff were all very sweet (despite the glass of water that ended up in my lap...), and the fish counter they run on the side looked delicious and inexpensive. I'd go back in a second.

My time in DC was more frenetic. I was looking for an apartment, thinking we'd move there for Jon's grad school, but we've since decided on school in St. Louis, so the whole thing was moot. I didn't have time to seek out interesting food, but I managed to eat some delicious things anyway.

I stayed with some friends in DC who have recently become vegetarian; their cooking is always interesting and delicious, influenced by the years they lived in Hungary. My dinner with them consisted of red sweet peppers and jalapenos, stuffed with kasha, brown rice, and a variety of seasonings, with a side of veggies and some red wine (maybe a garnacha?) from Spain's Rioja region. It was the perfect light summery dinner. I'm skeptical of most vegetarians (only because most use it as an excuse to load up on simple carbs, to cover up an eating disorder, or both), but this meal reflected the potential vegetarianism holds for people who know how to cook and know what they're doing. Well played, Stephanie.

My other interesting DC meal was Ethiopian food from Meskerem, in Adams-Morgan. I had missed Ethiopian food fiercely since leaving Denver last year. There is supposedly one Ethiopian place here in Houston, but we haven't been, and the menu sounds more soul food-ish than truly Ethiopian.

My friend and I debated going to Zed's in Georgetown instead, but reviews were mixed and this place sounded more our style. Definitely made the right choice- the atmosphere was far less stuffy, the food was perfect, and it was much cheaper than Zed's. We first ordered a bottle of honey wine and beef- and chicken-filled sambusas, which I'd never had before and sort of resembled samosas. They oozed grease, but in the best possible sense. The honey wine was also a new experience- I'd ordered it in Denver and truly hated it. The wine there always tastes vinegary and overly sweet, though I have no idea where it is from, or why it tastes so awful. This wine was produced in California in the style of Ethiopian honey wine, and was much, much better- semi-dry, with a light, lingering honey flavor, and reasonably priced at $22/bottle.

Our entrees were kitfo and special tibs. We ordered the kitfo raw, which was spicy and incredibly delicious. Just thinking about it gives me a massive kitfo craving; I'd had it before, but it was never anywhere near this amazing. The tibs were a little disappointing- my usual Ethiopian order is key wot, and Jon usually gets the special tibs. I wanted to try something different from what I usually get, so I settled on the tibs. They were tough and bland, and reminded me why I usually don't get them.

Last night, we finally ate at Feast here in Houston. I'm still pondering that experience, but will post on it in a few days.