Today I brought two Zachary's Pizzas to work for lunch. This is a sort of goodbye gift from me to a co-worker (James), who is leaving Friday. This is a great pizza and I thought he should eat some before he left. I got everybody who was there and urged them to eat some and by the end of the day it was all gone. Everybody liked it, and they should since it's the best pizza.

Zachary's makes deep dish Chicago-style pizzas. They're in Berkeley so their pizzas are more like the ones that I bought (Chicken, Spinach and Mushrooms) than the meat-lover's pizza you find in other pizzerias. They've been around for years, and I've only met one person who actually doesn't like the pizza (and only a handful who have no strong opinion).

The first time I had a Zachary's pizza was my freshman year in Berkeley. Darren, one of my roommates, had a birthday and his parents drove up from Ventura, CA to celebrate with him. So his parents took a few of us to Zachary's on Solano (there's also one on College, which is the one I frequent) and I believe they had been there before.

It's hard for me to describe it. A piece is agood inch and a half to two inches deep. Tomatoes on top, cheese and stuffings in the bottom. The crust is tasty and it's just really good. And it's not like any pizza I've ever had before or since. I've had some other deep-dish pizzas but they're not as good; usually they're drier and not as deep.

I don't remember eating pizzas in Peru. My first memories are Chuck-E-Cheese and Pizza and Pipes. Chuck-E-Cheese was always the place to go if you're a kid since there are lots of video games and other kiddie-type games. Heck, I don't even remember the food.

Pizza and Pipes is this pizza in Sacramento that my family went to occassionally when I was growing up. It's more of a family place. Big, long oak tables and rather dim lighting dominated the place. An automated organ played tunes (hence the Pipes in the name) while these animal robots up on the walls sang songs. In the back where a bank of video games where my sister and I played after eating.

For a good general pizza place I like Round Table. Dominoes has always been cardboard to me, not that I don't eat it if it's there, but it's quite low on the pizza chain. Round Table has always been good as a delivered or take-out pizza.

There's also another place in Berkeley called La Valle's which is right close to the campus on the North and South sides. In both the place is also somewhat of a sports-friendly place with big screen televisions and loud music. La Valle's is a pretty common local pizza place that's been around for a long time.

The other "local" pizza place in Berkeley is Blondie's. (There are quite a few more pizza places now, but the three I mentioned where the primary ones when I started school). Now I never really liked Blondie's. When you buy a slice it's square, and it's very greasy. I don't mind eating greasy pizzas, but not when I'm walking down to class. In general people like La Valle's or Blondie's or neither, but not both. I haven't met anyone who actually likes both places, their pizzas are quite different.