By Jim Duncan
CVFDude@aol.com
Twitter.com/foodude

Noah's served the first restaurant pizza in Iowa

Pizza is a flat out contradiction — a "fast food" that can take hours to prepare; a "pie" we eat as a main course; and a relatively "new" food that's old as civilization. Really, 4,000 years ago Babylonians, Israelites and Egyptians were all cooking flat unleavened breads in mud ovens. Greeks, Romans and Egyptians were topping them with olive oil and native spices before the birth of Christ. Yet the world's first pizzeria, Naple's "Port'Alba," didn't open until 1830. Another 75 years would pass before America's first pizzeria, Lombardi's Napoletana, opened in New York City. The dish didn't catch on beyond Italian neighborhoods though until World War II (WW II) when Naples became a major base of operations for American forces and G.I.'s came home craving pizza.

Most Italians who settled on the south side of Des Moines also came from pizza loving southern Italy (Il Mezzodi) — Calabria, Puglia and Sicily. By the end of WW II, sons and daughters of Calabria dominated the Des Moines restaurant scene. One of them, Noah Lacona, personally designed a gas oven that simulated the wood-burning ovens of southern Italy and a pie-making machine that duplicated Neapolitan crusts. By 1947, Noah was serving the first pizza in Iowa at Noah's Ark.

In just a few years, pizza became a craze here. By the end of the 1960s, people were arguing about who made the best pizza in town. Those arguments gained momentum over time, with no clear verdict. All food arguments are necessarily subjective. After all, every human has a unique combination of 2,000 to 8,000 "taste buds," each of which can be more or less sensitive from one tongue to another. Taste buds change as we age, too. For instance, balding humans almost always experience "balding" (less sensitive) taste buds.

It takes a consensus to settle food arguments. So, Cityview is following up last year's Ultimate Sandwich Tournament with an Ultimate Pizza Challenge. Last year, more than 4,000 people voted for their favorite sandwich. We think even more people have strong opinions about pizza. The Challenge works sort of like "American Idol." A few food judges winnow the field to a manageable number. We wanted a nice bracket-friendly number — 32. Like "Idol" judges though, we couldn't limit ourselves and ended up with 42 unique styles of pizza making.

Many are old school Calabrese. At least four of them — Gusto, Noah's, Bambino's and Mama Lacona's — are owned by descendents of Teresa Lacona. La Pizza House might well be the second oldest pizza maker in Iowa. Bordenaro's, Orlondo's, Chuck's, Centro, Christopher's, Sam & Gabe's, Scornovacca's, Baratta's and Polito's all trace their roots to the southside or Mezzodi traditions. Bagni di Lucca has a Tuscan connection, as does Leaning Tower of Pizza. Paglia's roots are in northern Italy. Others with long histories are associated with a specific style of pie — Felix & Oscar's, Paradise and The Tavern.

Others are pan Italian. El Chisme features their superb Mexican meats, Fong's offers Chinese American verve. Simon's features smokehouse meats. Some hail from fine dining establishments that also make trendy pizza like Dish, Kirkwood Lounge, Court Avenue Brewing Company, Chef's Kitchen, Marino's and Cosi Cucina. Others are pretty much famous for pizza and not much else — Big Tomato, Flour, Coach's, Beaverdale, Paesano's, Angelo's and Adriatic.

Some are rather new — NYC Pizza, Fia's and Rock Power. Three — Boston's, Sam & Louie's and Red Rossa — are chains, yet through excellence, they overcame the baggage that category usually has for the foodies upon whom we rely on for judgments such as this.

So there's your field. The first round of voting will last three weeks, to name the top 16 pizzas in town. Additional rounds of voting will reduce that to the top eight, then four, and finally Des Moines' Ultimate Pizza.

Side Dishes

Paradise Pizza is about to become Paradise Italian Grill, under new ownership, with a new lounge addedÉ Joyce Larson of New Market won the state fair's fruit pie blue ribbon with a lard crust six berry (hand grown) slice of genius, see foodude.twitter.com for recipe. CV