Last night ended on a sad note so...

I want to inject a more upbeat sensibility this morning.

Right now I'm watching this program on the History Channel known as American Eats. Today I'm looking at a episode about beer in America. I wish I had started this program at the very beginning.

We look at the history of beer in America from producing low alchoholic beer in the early 20th century. Then how beer was finally canned and how the national brands became more prominent than some of the local/regional brands. To how these local/regional brands (they might be referred to as microbreweries) are making a comeback today.

I enjoy programs such as American Eats. A few weeks ago I saw an episode about pizza. Pizza has been around for maybe hundreds of years and it was only recently that pizza became the phenomena is it now here in the states. Hmm, did you know Tomatoes were thought to be poisionous in Italy because they appeared to grow from the same tree as another poisionous vegetable?

Anyway the pizza was just a plate of bread and the toppings were a little different from what we know today. Tomatoes weren't used at first but I can't remember what was. The cooking style was brought from the motherland with Italians using coal or wood burning ovens.

Then we have a look at this thing called New York style pizza. I've heard people say that this is better pizza than Chicago style pizza. I don't know about that. Check out this website for a pizza parlor shown on America Eats.

Anyway they eventually came to Chicago and looked at how Pizzeria Uno started. From Pizzeria Uno was a new type of pizza, deep dish. Check this wikipedia article on Chicago-style pizza which has various styles from deep dish, stuffed to even Chicago style thin crust.

To be sure I cut my teeth on Pizza Hut pizza. I wasn't until high school that I had the taste of what I thought was some real pizza, Edwardo's stuffed when I was in high school. After that I haven't had Pizza Hut.

There were many pizza huts we visited over time. For instance we visited a Pizza Hut in Dolton, Illinois on 147th Street and today that's no longer standing. Recent years my family would go to a Pizza Hut on Cottage Grove and today that's no longer standing. But at least I know where to go for Edwardo's.