Rant #2,103: Yummy, Yummy, Yummy

" ,,, I got pizza in my tummy.

And I can't stop loving it."

I have had a culinary love affair with pizza since I was about five years old, when I had my very first slice of pizza courtesy of my uncle, who took me to my first pizza parlor back in 1962 or so.

Back then, even in New York, there wasn't a pizza parlor on every corner, and I remember that we had to go into Greenwich Village, where all the beatniks lived back then, to get this round thing with the sauce and cheese on it.

I haven't seen my uncle in about 30 years now--he lives on the West Coast in San Francisco--but if he had one single influence on me, it is one that has lasted more than 50 years--

I just love pizza. And I am talking about New York-style pizza, with the cheese mixing with the sauce and all supported by a thick, chewy crust.

None of that phony Chicago or California pizza for me!

And I really love the basic pizza. I don't like pepperoni, I do like meatballs and garlic on my pie, but honestly, just give me a basic pie, and I am in pizza heaven.

My love affair with pizza picked up steam as I got older.

After my first encounter with pizza, I probably didn't have another slice until I was about seven or eight.

We had moved from one Queens, New York community--Kew Gardens Hills--to a brand spanking new one that seemingly was created just for us--Rochdale Village, South Jamaica--where there were seemingly a thousand kids around my age to hang out with.

The 20-building community contained two malls, one at each side of the development, and my family, friends and I gravitated to what became known as the Big Mall, the first one that opened for business, and indoor mall with some outside stores.

In that mall was King George Pizza, and, as a young consumer with a quarter allowance a week back then--and with my mother every once in a while slipping me some money to do things like eat out--this pizza parlor was pretty much perfect for me.

For $1, you could get two slices of regular pizza and a drink, and have money left over to go to the movies, another attraction that was part of this mall.

Plus, you also had your choice of free garlic knots, as many as you could eat.

So, from 1964 to 1971, King George Pizza was my pizza heaven. My friends and I went there regularly, and every once in a while, my mother would order pizza in the house from there (my father never got into this, and to this day, hates pizza).

As I got older, and my allowance grew, my frequency at King George Pizza also increased, and I even had a friend who ended up working there, so the pizza parlor became a major hangout for myself and my friends.

When we moved to Long Island in 1971, I still frequented King George Pizza, but only when I visited my friends on some weekends.

The last time I had pizza at King George Pizza was probably in the mid 1970s, and sometime later, the place closed for good as all my friends moved away from the development as we moved from high school to college.

On Long Island, there was a succession of local pizza places, none as good as King George Pizza was, and yes, it probably had to do with the water, the ingredient in real New York pizza that makes it so good, and so distinguishable from imitations elsewhere.

I even briefly worked in a local pizza shop, making deliveries and picking up supplies. I remember that also working there was a very pretty blond girl who I went to high school with, who had a seedy reputation and would ask me why people looked at her that way, with her zaftig figure so very innocently hanging out of every part of whatever she was wearing that day.

Anyway, flash forward to the current time, when there is just about one pizza parlor per corner on Long Island, there are national brands all over the place, and pizza has become the All-American fast food.

I still eat it, still love it, but I don't eat it as frequently as I once did, as along with the pizza explosion has been the rise of other fast food in America, everything from McDonald's to Taco Bell, so if you want a quick meal, you have more choices today than ever before.

And the pizza parlors on Long Island rate from very good to very bad, and yes, I do believe you simply can't beat New York City-made pizza because of the water, so Long Island pizza is good, but can never hold its own against New York City-made pizza.

But last night, my wife and I (and later our son) kind of got back to business related to pizza.

My son had a work meeting about 40 miles away from where we live, so we trudged out there after work, tired and hungry.

We delivered our son to his meeting, and then my wife and I went to a pizza parlor in Patchogue that I had gone to during a prior work meeting for my son, one that my wife could not attend because she, herself, was working late that evening.

It is called Nonna's, and they make about the best pizza I have ever had on Long Island.

My wife--who hadn't had one single slice of any pizza in about a year because she claims it is too fattening for her, had a slice of salad pizza, and she ended up stating that it was the best such pizza she had ever had.

I ordered a pie for myself and later for my son to eat, and the pizza was magnificent, with a thick crust, a nice mix of sauce and cheese, and with absolutely no oil dripping from it.

When the work meeting was over, our son had three slices himself, and we were all in pizza heaven once again.

I even have a slice left over to eat at lunch today. Honestly, I wish I had two or three!

We probably won't have pizza now for at least many weeks, if not months, probably leading into the summer, but for one evening, it was so nice to go back to basics, and remind me of my youth.

Yes, King George Pizza might not still be around, but with pizza as good as I had last night, its spirit still lives on in me.

As for my uncle, well, maybe one day he will surface again.

And I bet we meet over a nice, thick, hot pizza.