skip to main |
skip to sidebar
Last year in May, my family made a trip up from the Kansas City area through Iowa, Illinois, and Wisconsin. I documented on this blog 5 pizzas fre
om 5 different pizza restaurants that we sampled along the way. This year in April, we made a similar trip. However, this time, the trip took us to the Chicago suburb of Schaumburg, IL. We (or at least I) again sampled 5 different pizzas from 5 different pizzerias. The pizzas varied in style from Midwest thin/crackery crust to deep-dish to Neapolitan. The most part, I stuck to my usual toppings of sausage (Italian, if possible) and mushrooms.
Stop # 1 - Perna's Pizza
Our first stop was in Rock Falls, Illinois. We noticed a sign for Perna's Pizza so we drove in and arrived at opening time on a Friday. We were the only customers in this q
uaint, old family restaurant that looked like it had been around for 40+ years (a stone outside was dated 1962). Taking a look at the menu we ordered a regular sausage and mushroom pizza. My wife ordered a salad and we were given complimentary bread while we waited. The salad was most likely from a plastic bag. I asked if the bread was homemade and was told "yes". I'll mention more about the bread later. I noticed after had ordered that Perna's had pizza slices available for lunch - had I known or been told that fact earlier, I would have opted for 1-2 slices instead. Our pizza was ready in about 15 minutes.
The style of pizza here is decidedly a Midwestern/Bar-style, thin, crackery crust based. My initial impressions were of a similar pizza we had eaten a year earlier at Primo Joe's Pizza in Dixon, IL on our previous trip in 2009. However, I have to say that after a couple of bites, all links to any other pizza I might have eaten in my lifetime were broken. 
In a nutshell, the pizza we had at Perna's was totally bland, devoid of any flavor from crust to toppings. The mushrooms were the canned variety. The sausage was flavorless, let alone having any spice or redeeming quality to it. The sauce was minimal, but what little I could taste might have had some flavor to it. As for the bread I mentioned earlier, it was equally devoid of flavor as the pizza, perhaps more so. 
I suspect they use the same dough for their bread as their pizza dough.
It is difficult to put into words my impressions of Perna's Pizza. Was it bad? Well, it certainly wasn't good. It's hard to describe an eating experience when there is no flavor on which to comment.
All in all, I would not go back, nor recommend it to anyone who still had their taste-buds intact. Not a good way to start off a pizza crawl across the cornbelt of America.
I have been absent from writing here for quite a while. I guess I just wanted some time to see how things would turn out in the big debate on health-care reform in the United States.
The title of this entry is the date because of what I think will be an important day for history of the USA. Will it be a day of infamy or a day that forever changed health-care for the better, that is yet to be decided.
I, personally, am not sure how things will turn out, and I am not altogether pleased with everything that went into and were left out of this bill. But, based on my previous entry, those folks who read this will hopefully understand when I say something had to be done. Because
1) There are too many average citizens losing ground when it comes to maintaining their own and their family's health-care and insurance
2) Too many other countries on this planet have found a way to make things work better. Not perfect, but better, and why shouldn't the US be able to make things better?
3) Had the status quo simply been maintained, the country would have been bankrupted by the current fee-for-service health-care system anyway.
This bill passed by the House is at least a jumping off point to what will hopefully be changes that will continue to improve health-care provided to all the citizens of this country.
On a final note, I would just like to add a few more personal comments.
I was born and raised in this country, and therefore I have been afforded many luxuries that many people of this world will never have or even see. I believe in God. I believe in doing the right thing and what is best for the people, not just for Mad Ernie. I believe doing what is right is not always what is best for me financially or in any other way.
There is far too much fear going on in the world today, especially in the United States. Change not only comes, but it comes at a faster rate than at any other time in the world's history. People fear change. They fear the unknown. I understand that. But fear often leads to anger, and then to hatred. I am quite sure that is not a good thing. My biggest hope for the future of the United States of America now is for people to live with less fear and be willing to listen and discuss differences. Debate, yes. But yell, scream, threaten, and try to instill fear in others ... that is just not good.
uaint, old family restaurant that looked like it had been around for 40+ years (a stone outside was dated 1962). Taking a look at the menu we ordered a regular sausage and mushroom pizza. My wife ordered a salad and we were given complimentary bread while we waited. The salad was most likely from a plastic bag. I asked if the bread was homemade and was told "yes". I'll mention more about the bread later. I noticed after had ordered that Perna's had pizza slices available for lunch - had I known or been told that fact earlier, I would have opted for 1-2 slices instead. Our pizza was ready in about 15 minutes.
The style of pizza here is decidedly a Midwestern/Bar-style, thin, crackery crust based. My initial impressions were of a similar pizza we had eaten a year earlier at Primo Joe's Pizza in Dixon, IL on our previous trip in 2009. However, I have to say that after a couple of bites, all links to any other pizza I might have eaten in my lifetime were broken. 
In a nutshell, the pizza we had at Perna's was totally bland, devoid of any flavor from crust to toppings. The mushrooms were the canned variety. The sausage was flavorless, let alone having any spice or redeeming quality to it. The sauce was minimal, but what little I could taste might have had some flavor to it. As for the bread I mentioned earlier, it was equally devoid of flavor as the pizza, perhaps more so. 
I suspect they use the same dough for their bread as their pizza dough.
