October 11: National Sausage Pizza Day
Today’s national food holiday made me a little sad. How could pizza ever make someone sad?! Because it made me really miss the awesome pizza in Chicago (notice I didn’t say “Chicago-style” pizza… that stuff is also delicious, but I’m just talking about regular ole pizza… from Chicago). I would literally cut someone (okay, maybe I’m exaggerating…) for a Barnaby’s sausage and onion pizza right now. Or from like, 10 other places in the Chicago metropolitan area.
Sigh.
Until National Sausage Pizza, I have only been out for pizza once (my birthday last year) and it was good… for California pizza. It’s not something I really want anymore since I know it’s not “worth it”… but I definitely get my pizza fix when I’m back in IL.
I suppose that saying we’ve only been out for pizza once in over a year is misleading. I’ve had pizza more than that since I’m sort of in love with my pizza stone so I make homemade pizza once a month-ish. Even so, I highly doubt I’m anywhere near eating the 23 POUNDS of pizza that the National Association of Pizza Operators (NAPO!) reports an average American eats in a year.
Here’s more PIZZA BY THE NUMBERS:
- 3 billion: Number of pizzas sold in the U.S. each year. (Anna: How many of them are worthy of being called pizza? Not many!)
- 350: Slices of pizza sold every second. (Anna: I’m assuming this means triangle slices not squares, since who buys a square slice of pizza?)
- 46: Slices of pizza the average American eats each year. (Anna: Again, I’m assuming this means triangular pieces of pizza. I probably eat 46 square pieces of Barnaby’s pizza a year now… a drastic decreases from prior years.)
- 93: Percent of Americans who eat pizza at least once a month. (Anna: I am not part of this grouping, unless it counts homemade, which I’m assuming it does not.)
- 70: Percent of Super Bowl viewers who eat at least one slice during the game. (Anna: I have never eaten a piece of pizza watching the Super Bowl, or likely any football game for that matter. Pizza is not football food. Chips and dip, nachos, and chicken wings are football food.)
- 251.7 million: Pounds of pepperoni Americans consume each year. (Anna: Pounds of pepperoni Anna consumes each year? Zero.)
- 36: Percent of pizza orders that specify pepperoni as a topping. (Anna: Blehhhh.)
- 70,000: Number of pizzerias in the U.S. (Anna: How many of those are in the Chicago metropolitan area? Those are the ones worth frequenting.)24: Percent of those pizzerias owned by Pizza Hut, Domino’s, or Papa John’s. (Anna: I was seriously depressed when I read this. Think of all the poor saps who think this is pizza!!!
ANYWAY! Back to the matter at hand: National Sausage Pizza Day. I decided to fulfill my duty at the pizza place across the street from my work. I could have waited and gotten pizza for dinner since Bryce and I were meeting friends at California Pizza Kitchen later that night, but I didn't want to "waste" my dinner at CPK on sausage pizza*. So I went for lunch at the place by work and ordered a slice of the only pizza that had sausage on it. Which means it also had pepperoni on it. If you remember from above, I don't like pepperoni. But in the name of SCIENCE (or whatever it is I'm doing for a year), I picked it off.
Verdict? I miss Barnaby’s.
Tomorrow: National Gumbo Day.
*I used to work at CPK in college and people who go there and order “normal” pizzas are doing it wrong. If you want pizza at CPK, go for something fun like California Club or Tostada. Or, better yet, do what I do and get the BBQ Chicken Chopped Salad. You’re welcome.
