I know "pizza" is more of a category than a specific dish, and encompasses food as disparate as crappy takeout square-cut crackers with grease on them all the way to Chicago stuffed pies, but to me, if there is a pizza ideal, it must live in Naples, because Punch's version that they claim is pure Neapolitan is, to me, what pizza should be.

Man, I love me some Urbanspoon. Just pick a general direction on the map, start poking at flags, and seeing what works.

Sauce Pizza and Wine

I finally ate something at the Shops At West End.

For you non-locals, or even you locals who don't partake of the western border of Minneapolis / eastern border of St. Louis Park, the Shops At West End is a new, huge retail complex installed at 394 and 100, where the Costco and the new, frequently irritating, St. Louis Park Rainbow are.

I'm not sure what to make of this:

Serious Eats' review of the Cantina Tacos

I mean, yeah, their opinion is different from mine. On the Internet, no less. Which means they are Nazi Satan. But all hyperbole aside, it's just so damn wrong.

So on Thursday, drained from a week of chronic back pain and a long day at work, I found myself at Taco Bell for dinner. And I vaguely remembered seeing commercials for new items at Taco Bell, something involving cilantro and lime. I will of course always try any new item at Taco Bell that isn't based around either bacon or lettuce, so I looked.

And I blinked.

And I looked again.

And I blinked again.

Therein lies a tale. A Tea House tale.

Last night, we ended up at the new University location of the Tea House, a small set of Chinese restaurants that dot the Twin Cities from the Western suburbs to East St. Paul.

I haven't been to any of the others, but the first thing you notice at the new location is the incredibly striking decor. It's a lavish mix of modern and iconic, that walks right up to tacky, introduces itself, then wanders off in a whole other direction.

In medieval times, chefs developed sauces in order to mask the flavors of meats whose quality had deteriorated over time.

On a completely unrelated note, here's an embedded commercial.

And so we conclude our backwards trip through Chicago's food with the first night. We checked into the hotel after eight hours on the road, right near dinnertime, and the decision was unanimous. Someplace close to the hotel.

Since I'm not going to bother covering the Field Museum's McDonalds, there's only one more of these to write after this one. We're back to Saturday night, and Pizzeria Uno. So. Pizzeria Uno.

You may well wonder why someone who seeks out Japanese burger joints on his iPad would deign to dine at the touristy mouthwaters of a deep dish pizza chain. Well, I'll tell you why.

The Italian Beef sandwich is one of those Chicago things. I didn't seek one out while I was in Chicago, because I had more interesting fare in mind, but destiny put one in my hands anyway.