The Popcorn Stand: Nothing more American than pizza

Saturday is National Pizza Day, so of course I have to write about, well, National Pizza Day. Pizza has become America’s favorite food, surpassing two of America’s other popular foods, hamburgers and hot dogs.

There’s nothing more American than pizza delivery just like there’s nothing more American than the Chinese food takeout box, which is an American invention.

We Americans love our pizza and have come up with all kinds of creative and different types of pizza as demonstrated by those Coke commercials. There’s thin crust, deep dish and Chicago-style just to make a few.

We can buy a jillion different brands and types of pizza from the freezer at the grocery store. We can take and bake our pizza. We can make our own pizza if we choose. And we Americans pretty much now use anything and everything as toppings for our pizza. I’ve also noticed the slices of pizza tend to be getting larger and larger.

While this old fuddy duddy loves pizza, I do long for the days when pizza used to actually be a treat. Now I can get pizza whenever I want. That wasn’t the case when I was a kid. A trip to Poor Richard’s Pizza in Porterville, Calif., when I was a kid was as special as when my father decided to make some popcorn on a Sunday night.

Much like ice cream — I consider Rocky Road and Neopolitan to be quite exotic flavors — I like my pizza simple. My two favorite types of pizza remain pepperoni — and when I really get wild — combination with pepperoni, sausage and olives as the main ingredients.

It seems, though, a lot of Americans agree with me and keep it simple. Pepperoni remains the most popular pizza and 36 percent of pizzas that are ordered are pepperoni.

I must admit, though, when it comes to any big pizza pie — for me that’s amore.