Fast Food

Online poker is to live games, as fast food is to gourmet fare.

How online poker and fast food are alike:

• They both are quick options.
• You think they are satisfying till afterwards.
• They are addicting.
• Afterwards, you'll be thinking, "why did I indulge?".

That being said, although I do play my fair share of online poker, I do NOT eat fast food regularly.  Maybe once every 4 months at most.  Unless you count pizza, and I do not!

Mmmmm pizza.....as much as I love pizza I don't have it very often either.  When I do have it, it's to be social at lunch time at work. 

I work at the edge of the North End of Boston, which is Italian, Italian, Italian.  I am a 2 minute walk from the famous Pizzeria Regina, but most of the people at work get their pizza at Ernesto's.  First time I went to Ernesto's I ordered 2 slices of pizza and was handed 2 thirds of a large pie.  I didn't know that when you order one slice, you get 2 very large slices.  Those Italians are generous, which is why everyone in the office goes there - quantity not quality.

The bestest pizza in The North End (hence in Massachusetts) can be found at Galleria Umberto's on Hanover Street.

Umberto's

Oh my God, is it good!  It's soooo goood....that you have to wait in line to get pizza, huge line, unless you get there before noon.  And NO you can't call your order in.  They don't allow that. It's hard though, because if you have an hour for lunch, you can expect to spend half of that hour waiting in a line that usually spills out onto the sidewalk.

And it's not like they will sell pizza all afternoon.  They make so much dough - enough for the day, and when they run out of dough, the restaurant (I'm using that term loosely) closes.  I dunno that I'd call it a restaurant.  It's an open hall, which is needed for the huge line, and there are seats on either side of the hall. 

Oh and you want pepperoni on your pizza? NO! They don't do that. They sell ONE kind of pizza. Cheese pizza. And it's unfrigging believeable. They sell maybe 5 items.....pizza, 2 kinds of calzone, aranciata and maybe one other thing, but I wouldn't really know because if I'm there I'm getting pizza.

Slices are small, square and only a buck each.  Everything there is super cheap although all the "trattorias" that surround Umberto's are anything but cheap.  But they don't care about competition, progess or raising their prices.  I just checked to see if they have a website and of course they don't, but check out this link: http://www.hiddenboston.com/GalleriaUmberto.html

I know they're been there for at least 40 years.  Because my mom would take us kids there when we were very little.

We lived in the suburbs but once in a while my Mom would go to The North End on the weekend to shop at Haymarket - which was an open air market that sold produce and fish, and everyone spoke Italian.  Anyway she brought all of us kids, so we could carry all the stuff she bought.  Produce is heavy!  If we did as we were told we'd each get a slice of pizza from Umberto's.

I had completely forgotten about the place till I started working in the area and someone told me I should go to this "secret hole in the wall" and it was a Russian woman who mentioned it.  I told her I'd been there before but I'd love to go!

Mmmmm pizza.

Can you tell I'm back on my diet?  This post was intended to be about online poker but c'e la vie.

Play smart.

Josie