I am a total pizza snob. Yes, I admit it. Sadly, my East coast taste buds have never really accepted California's poor attempts at capturing the elusive taste of this seemingly simple food. I'm not the only one; Tom completely agrees. I also must say that this drives Felix nuts. From the time that we first started dating, we've been quibbling over pizza, snow days, fall colors, lightening bugs, thunderstorms - everything about the Northeast that kick's California's BUTT. It's enough to make him tear his hair out.

Now, I'm not saying that there isn't yummy "pizza" in the Golden State. There's definitely stuff that tastes good. I just don't think of it as pizza, not the real thing anyway. Over the years, however, Felix has dragged me all over the state, to all kinds of restaurants and dives in search of the special slice that will prove me wrong. I've eaten a lot of pizza. Of the many many joints we've tried, I would have to say that only two make the final cut.

The first would be Maldonado's Pizzeria in Mountain View. It's a tiny little takeout dive that makes surprisingly good pizza. The crust is a little on the thick side and their ovens are weirdly unconventional, but I gotta admit that it's pretty good. The second, however, is as close to real, thin-crust, greasy, New York pizza as I could hope for. That would be Vito's, right here in our hometown of Sunnyvale. I still remember when Felix came home, all excited about this place that he was sure would shut me up. And...well, it's definitely way up there on my pizza scale.

So, if you're ever longing for a taste of ol' fashioned East coast flavor, try one of those places. They're pretty close.