Quick bites: Where are your favorite places to get a slice of pizza?

A friend of mine, Emiko, grew up in Japan, with a father in the restaurant business. Given that, it's no wonder that she sometimes has a hard time with Japanese food in the United States.

There are a few restaurants she really enjoys, a few more she tolerates and many that she categorizes as "emergency sushi" — only to be consumed if she's just dying for sushi and can't get it any anywhere else.

This always makes me laugh, and it's also gotten me thinking: Are there any foods I'm as discerning about as Emiko is about sushi? I'm not sure, but there is one possibility: pizza.

I'd really rather eat nothing than indifferent pizza. My husband has told me stories about college "feeding frenzies" where he and his dormmates consumed mass amounts of cheap pizza that tasted about as good as the cardboard boxes it came in, and I sincerely don't see the point. If food isn't good, why eat it? I guess it's the critic in me.

This mental exercise also got me thinking about the pizza I do like — and why. I've realized that, without really meaning to, I've sub-categorized my mental list of Places to Get Good 'za into several groups. Here are some of my favorites; I'd like to hear about yours.

Traditional American

This is the kind of pizza you had when you were a kid, in restaurants with fat red candles and shakers of red pepper flakes and Parmesan centered on red-and-white-checked tablecloths.

Two of my favorites are South Jordan's Mountain Mike's (www.mtnmikesutah.com) and Rock Creek Pizza Co. at 10255 S. 1300 East in Sandy. Both make thick-crusted, chewy, perfectly crisp pizza piled with tons of toppings. Both seem to cater to families. Neither seems interested in going "gourmet" or getting fancy, though they offer impressive lists of toppings from which diners can choose.

Eastern pie

I'm talking here about the thin-crusted, fold-it-over-to-eat-it pizza that has spread across the country from the Eastern Seaboard, mainly from New York. Este (www.estepizza.com) and Big Apple Pizza (www.thebigapplepizzeria.com) are great examples of the classic New York style, put out with a minimum of fuss.