I FOUND NOT AWFUL PIZZA IN JAPAN!!

As most of the three people reading this may know, I loves me some food. Specifically, I am a kid born in the Chicagoland are. By land I mean as close as physically possible without actually living there, but you Chicagoans get moody when I describe myself as "from Chicago", so "land" it is.

Chicago has one food I'm sure we all know of. Deep. Dish. Pizza.

And I luvvvvv deep dish pizza. If you scroll back the clock on this blog you'll see my last meal in the states was deep dish. Um. Delicious.

But in Japan, deep dish pretty much doesn't exist. So I have to settle for regular, which is fine really, since delicious pizza is still good pizza.

That is, if I could find a good pizza place. It seems like American style pizza is just completely missing from the tastes of Japanese.

The reason, however, is actually fairly straight forward. Although Chicagoans and New Yorkers sure disagree on which of their pizzas is better, you can bet that they agree on one thing: the crust is the most important part. Any American pizza lover will agree to this. Without a delicious, flavorful crust, pizza falls flat. Be it crispy, buttery, soft, thin, thick, whatever your prefference, pizza crust is the maker and breaker in a good pie

And this is the mega issue here in Japan, because the idea of praising the crust, making it just as imporant as the toppings, is nonexistant. Mind you, Japanese attention to quality within ingredients is the best in the world, but here it seems, the majority of pizza crust is more like a textured delivery device for the wonderful (and sometimes odd) toppings.

So my quest to find American style pizza has existed since arriving here.

And I do believe I found something close today in Tokyo.

SHAKEY'S is an American chainthat recently opened up shop in Tokyo. They have stores scattered over the city, and for ¥850 at lunch, or ¥1100 at dinner, you can enjoy an entire pizza buffet. All you can eat.

I entered the hall, payed my 850, picked up a few small slices. As I was lifting them to my plate, I noticed the granules of corn meal on the bottom of the crust.

"Oh shit... This might be legit"

My first slice, double cheese. As I tasted it, my eyes lit up. "This tastes like... Decent American pizza!!"

Indeed Shakey's has managed to make pizza in a way that doesn't totally ruin the crust, it's crispy and flavorful. Though this is by no suggestion the most amazing pizza I've tasted, I have to applaud the effort of this chain.