Rang up (ok, logged on) to Delivered Dish tonight for a change of pace. We use them quite often. Never really had a bad experience with them. They’ve always showed up on time, and the delivery people are pretty courteous. Delivery fees are apparently set by the individual restaurants and can range for a couple dollars to ten. There is usually a minimum $ amount food order as well. Tonight’s occasion was that Mrs. BurgerDogBoy is out making the bacon, as she has been known to do, so that means it’s burger or pizza night (or both) for me!

I’ve never been into Cara Amico, even tho it’s older than dirt, as far as Portland restaurants go (1949). That’s even older than BurgerDogBoy!

But we had ordered a couple of delivered dinners from them before (also thru Delivered Dish) and I recalled once I had them include a small pie, merely as an afterthought. I seem to recall it was pretty good.

And since my local Dominos bit the big one (two owners in a row!), and Apu, over at 7-Eleven, hasn’t gotten around to putting in the new whiz bang Turbo oven to crank out the 7-Eleven two minute pizzas yet, I have to scrounge around for delivered pies.

So I ordered the large pie (at 18 inches, larger than most pizzeria larges), with three toppings, Italian Sausage, Pepperoni, and extra cheese. Cara Amico offers you a choice of several different sauces as well, but one type of crust only, a thin baby (fine with me).

My email order confirmation said my pie would be delivered at (approximately) 6:37pm, and it is now 6:17. Tick…..tick…..tick….

So they pulled in the driveway at 6:39, but only because he cruised by twice, couldn’t see the house number, I guess. We concluded our transaction quickly, and I zipped up to the kitchen to pop open the box and examine my prize.

It’s not 18″, it’s 15″ x 13″ of rectangular goodness. That’s 195 square inches. (18″ round would have added another 25% of noshing surface, if you’re wondering). The crust is “New York thin”, which is fine for me tonight. Crispy at the rim, chewy working inland. Strong enough to hold the toppings, and no hang or slippage at all. Nice. I am surprised at how much this pizza weighs! It’s a heavy sucker! (No, we don’t have any scales in this house, what are you, nuts?)

The irregular shape of the pie tells me it is definitely hand-formed. There’s a slight char in spots, which is fine as well. The bulk sausage is crumbly, also fine with me, I like it small, I like it big, as long as it wasn’t formed in a machine. There’s ample quantities of the sausage (in fact the pie is wall to wall with it) as well as the pepperoni, which is mild.

Real damned cheese, too. The red sauce is mild, there’s some fresh garlic somewhere. (Tell them if you don’t want it, or tell them you don’t want it and to put the extra on my next order!)

It’s big, it’s beautiful, and it’s filling! Eating as I am typing this, I have come to the realization I won’t be able to finish 3 slices. Wow. But baby, that means ‘za for breakfast! YAY!

Cara Amico gets 7 out of 8 slices.  You can follow me on Twitter @burgerdogboy