Heck, I guess I just appreciate every form of pizza for what it is supposed to be, but your question reminds me that every slice bring back another memory so in reverse order the top 10 best pizzas are so intimately tied to the who, where and when, so here goes in Letterman format, the best pizza in the world are:

10. Dominos Delivers. I didn’t realize you could have so much fat in a pizza, but I can’t look at one without looking down at the 10 pounds of gut I still have from consuming 2 slices a day for 10 years at the big Microsoft for dinner. I still get nausea seeing the ads.

9. ‘Sroom ‘Za from the college pizza delivery agency. I bet that now you just order it online from somewhere real, but there was nothing quite like the disgusting plastic taste plus the fury of finals studying and the starvation of not having time to make it to the Eating Hall for dinner of limp Turkey Divine.

8. Mad Pizza. Anything you can get that’s hot. The cheese tastes like plastic and it is slow, but somehow I’ll always think of this as the place to go after a baseball game with the kids. And then the ice cream next door.

7. San Diego. On the beach in San Diego, after a bike ride on the boardwalk, you walk a block and they serve 36″ pizzas. If you eat one plus 2 things of beer, it is free. Enough said. Best thing there were all the surfing and boarding videos and the ‘tats on the guy making the pizza.

6. Home made. OK, we never really figured this out, but it has not been for want of trying, but its fun to try to peel the burnt edges from the cookie sheet 🙂

5. Pagiliacci. OK, this is the closest to authentic in Seattle (barring Tutta Bella and Cafe Lagos which I haven’t tried). But, the best thing about it is the salad that goes with it and the memories. See entry #2.

4. Chicago Stuffed Pizza. OK, this is another variant and you have to *not* think about the calories, but the first time I had it in Chicago, all I remember was the beer. Loads of it plus the smell of all that pepperoni. That plus the Ramones and Rock N Roll High School or watching the Blues Brothers in Chicago. It was a summer full of movies.

3. Beverly Hills. OK, my girlfriend (then fiancee, then wife, now super mom) was dressed in all white as they still do down there. We end up at California Pizza Kitchen and try the Thai chicken for the first time. Thin crust and lots of flavor, but it aint’ real pizza, but it is fun. Still think of it everytime we go to CPKs.

2. Middletown NJ. OK, I date myself, but I still have the burn on my thigh where an incredibly hot mozzarella burned me. This was truest to the thin pizzas. NY Style I guess, but the main thing is that it is burning hot and there is so much grease that you crack the back of the pizza and let it drip out. Delicious. To this day, I try to approximate this by getting a plain cheese pizza from Paggliaci’s and putting in the oven at 450 degrees to get the cheese that warm. No grease though. I’m a purest by the way, just cheese and tomatoes please.

1. Amalfi Pizza. Ah, Amalfi, its 102 degrees and blazingly hot, we have a nice dinner, but our guide says, the crew is having the best pizza in the world. It sure is, we get a slice or two and devour it. The crust is light and thin, but the main thing is that the tomatoes are like eating candy. I haven’t had a chance to try Tutta Bella, but I can’t imagine it can be better than that. Heck, let’s charter a plane and get our butts to the marina at Amalfi right now. We can be there by dinner time!