Despite the incessant butt sniffing, it's actually quite heartwarming to see him play with other dogs. They'll follow each other around curiously, lap up big gulps of water together at the communal watering hole, and noisily welcome new dogs as they arrive at the park. The cutest thing I've noticed is that every dog, Puck included, will return to his / her owner periodically, just to check in and say, "Hi, I'm okay!". If only I was that thoughtful during my teenage years... hah!
Overall, our dog run experiences are definitely a big contrast to Puck's interactions with other dogs in our building (lots of growling and rude paw-swiping), as those incidences seemed to make me think that he was doomed forever, socially speaking. Good to know that's not the case! (Clearly, the dogs in our building are the problem... hehehe.)
This particular weekend, we decided to do some extra exploring on our way home. With our tummies a' rumblin' and Puck panting away after an exciting evening of what I presume to be some form of primitive doggie tag, we stumbled across Gusto, a small pizzeria with a quaint, but welcoming exterior. After a bit of menu-perusing, we decided to order ourselves a large Italian sausage pizza (for the boyfriend's love of sausage) with extra eggplant and mushrooms (for my conscience) and settled down to eat outside. Moments later, this is what came out of the oven:
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| "I'm hungry!" "Hi, Hungry. My name is Pizza. We gonna be BFFs." |
Fresh, piping hot, and delicious. Probably, hands down, the best pizza I've ever eaten in my life. To quickly summarize, here's why:
Crust: Simply put, the crust struck a good balance between thick and thin. It was chewy, without being overly dough-y, and crisply "fried" on the bottom without being too thin and unsubstantial.
Sauce: Again, Gusto strikes the perfect balance of sweet, sour, and savory, with enough smeared all over the pie so that the pizza is moist and full of tomato-y flavor with each bite. Color is also a good indicator of freshness (have you ever opened up an expired jar of Ragu?), and this tomato sauce was a bright, appetizing red!
Toppings: A satisfying layer of cheese to balance out the tomato sauce and delectably fresh toppings -- thinly sliced gourmet Italian sausage, moist chunks of eggplant, and soft velvety mushrooms. I was honestly expecting to get raw eggplant and mushroom pieces, half-baked at best -- so this was a nice surprise!
Bonus Points: The pizza chef came out just to say hello! He took one look at Puck and immediately launched into a story about how dogs with spotted tongues are immune to snake venom. These special canines are also very expensive in his country (unspecified) for their special "superpower". Now, I'm not sure if this is true or if I want to test it out... but, what a cool tidbit! I will be adding this little factoid to Puck's official resume -- "I iz immune to snake venomz." What a balla'.
Overall: My biggest beef with pizza is that it usually makes you feel greasy and (what I imagine to be) 7 months pregnant. But, we handily polished off 2/3 of a large pie (with gusto!) and still felt sprightly and far from preggers. See chart below.
Gusto
240 S. 22nd Street
(22nd & Locust)
Philadelphia, PA 19103
(215) 546-7200
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