The Weather Cooperated…

and Chuck’s cousin Dora safely made it out of the snowy and frigid Midwest and spent a few leisurely days in the Phoenix area visiting with Chuck and Dora’s aunt Evie and cousin Raina. When she arrived in Tucson, we immediately made arrangements to meet her and her grandson for a quick bite for supper. And it had to be quick since her grandson had other college-related commitments that evening.

We decided on Rocco’s Little Chicago, the home of our favorite pizza in Tucson,

and since the night was warm and balmy, we elected to sit on the covered but open patio.

And, by chance, the night of our visit was “wing night.” Now this must be a big deal since there are five rules or, as Rocco calls them, “tenets” for wing night. I found Tenet Number Five (“Please remain at the table at which you were originally seated so that the waitstaff may serve you best.”) to be especially interesting, since I’m not really sure what kind of problem “table-hopping” creates.

None of my three dining companions will eat mushrooms so I knew that the Fungus Humongous topped with a grilled mixture of portabella and white mushrooms with onions and garlic wasn’t going to fly. So Chuck and I stayed with our usual—a large thin crust cheese and sausage. One problem, we neglected to specify light cheese so it came with more cheese than we would have liked. Still, it was a very good version of the Midwest thin crust pizza. And it was cut Chicago style—in squares.

I am sure that all of you know that Chicago is the birthplace of the deep dish pizza. Well, some pizza entrepreneurs kicked this—as Emeril Lagasse would say—up a notch and created the Chicago stuffed pizza. “In the mid-1970s, two Chicago chains, Nancy's…and Giordano's began experimenting with deep dish pizza and created the stuffed pizza…. A Chicago Magazine article featuring Giordano's stuffed pizza popularized the dish...

“Stuffed pizzas are often even taller than deep-dish pizzas, but otherwise, it can be hard to see the difference until you cut into it. A stuffed pizza generally has much higher topping density than any other type of pizza. As with deep-dish pizza, a thin layer of dough forms a bowl in a high-sided pan and the toppings and cheese are added. Then, an additional layer of dough goes on top and is pressed to the sides of the bottom crust (street directory.com).

Dora and her grandson decided to share the small (Believe me, there was nothing small about this.) Heart Attack stuffed pizza that contained sausage, pepperoni, prosciutto, roast beef, and extra cheese. I think that Dora managed to finish one slice while her grandson consumed two and a half slices. The remainder he took home for a midnight snack.

The following day, we caught Dora’s grandson between classes for a brief lunch at Beyond Bread. Dora and her daughter had eaten there on a previous visit to Tucson and you know that this is one of Chuck and my favorites. Time to introduce a college student.

The day was beautiful with temps in the mid-70’s (Sorry to our friends and family suffering through the winter in the Midwest and East.) so we again found a seat on a shaded patio.

Both Dora and I ordered the Molly’s Crisis with turkey, hummus, cucumber, sprouts, tomato, and mayonnaise on rustic bread. It was the whole sandwich for me and the half for Dora.

When I saw the size of my whole I thought that maybe Dora had made the wiser choice.

Chuck selected the whole Stan’s Stack with turkey, provolone, roasted red peppers, sprouts, and Russian dressing on white.

Given that he has never been a spouts man, I admit to being surprised that he didn’t ask for them to be held. Since I really like spouts on a sandwich, this may be a promising development.

When we were in on the previous Saturday, we noticed this table sign.

That’s a whole lot of turkey! But, given that three of us had turkey on our sandwiches, it’s totally believable.

Dora’s grandson ordered the day’s sandwich special—the Good Parma with chicken, marinara sauce, provolone, parmesan, fresh basil, and Caesar dressing grilled and served on parmesan herb bread.

Using as my clue the rapidity with which this sandwich disappeared, I feel safe in saying that he enjoyed it a great deal.

All but Dora got the kettle chips as our side. Dora instead selected the cole slaw.

And we couldn’t let them leave without one more side—one of Beyond Bread’s large Philadelphia-style soft pretzels.

It was hard to tell if they enjoyed them.

Both Chuck, Dora, and I took a part of our lunch back to the RV with us for an early evening meal. Two 5.0 Addie meals with 5.0 Addie company.

To review the role of Adler and the Addie rating system, read the November 14, 2011 blog.