Let me say that I adore spirituality in all its forms; be it Roman Catholic incense of frankincense & myrrh, & mass of course, to Jewish & Muslim Sufi mysticism to my beloved Asian Buddhist & Hindu traditions. It feels good to be at Maria's with my incense smelling fragrance that I am wearing, which has top notes of Roman chamomile, frankincense, myrrh & vanilla, & smells like a Catholic cathedral with the memories of Catholic Mass that I recall from my countless visits to Church. People tell me that my fragrance is dark & sensual & that they absolutely love it. I often have people comment on how great it smells & some of the reactions are surprisingly strong with few telling me it reminds them of Catholic churches in Ireland, Italy & France with stained glass interiors smelling just like my perfume, come to mind.
Leaving the Catholic Church for a bit, the ambiance at Maria's does justice to that, not just with my incense like heavy smell. Why? Because it's cheesy here!
The wafts of smoke & cheese meld nicely like mass at Maria's, & my own fragrance too is melding well with it's incense like smoke here with the ambiance of Catholic picture frames.
On more pertinent matters, we are greeted & seated. We order the cheese pizza BECAUSE that's the way pizza should be & it's the best way to tell how the pizza holds up in every way & makes for the easiest comparison.
I also ask our pizza be cut up in triangles or pie cut, & not in squares, like many Wisconsin pizzas. The waitress tells me that it comes one way only. I'm thinking OK. That's not good (in my head). One of the two pet peeves that I have about Wisconsin pizza: square cuts & cheese sliding off & over like a wet water slide up in Wisconsin Dells (!) & coming right off the crust to my dismay. What can I say? This is one of two pet peeves of pizza.
It's necessary to travel with Gorilla Glue, to y'know, glue the cheese back to the crust so that the cheese doesn't slide off the crust! Lol
As far as square cut pizza is concerned, I'm not sure why they do this? From all the places in the world, the Milky Way & the Andromeda Galaxy, why does Wisconsin do this? I heart Wisconsin completely & I know the great food, drink & culture it has. By not having crust in the middle portion of the pizza pie, it completely negates the sensory & kinesthetic appeal & taste of an equal proportion of crust to slice. A good, well formed & pliable crust that naturally bends down like a poster & cover model is definitely one to eat up completely, not just in part, but in whole, because the parts of the pizza are truly equal to its sum & whole.
Our pizza arrives & is laid in front of us.
My partner exclaims, "wow!"
The pizza is gorgeous, all rectangular & irregular, showing the handcrafted & hand made dough laid out to rest on a rectangular pan. It's crispy, dark & nicely charred, & the tomatoes & cheese look very romantically paired like the Roman Chamomile & frankincense in my fragrance wafting & melding in whole together as one.
We eat the whole pie. It's easy enough to eat it all up, being thin like a cracker, but exactly opposite to the unappetizing cardboard crust from Zaffiro's, Ned's & others. It's now truly the best pizza here in Milfuckingwaukee or Moowaukee (Northern vowel shift pronunciation), & depending on your linguistic take.
We have a good conversation with our waitress & compliment her for telling me that the pizza only comes one way because it's a rectangle pizza & is cut Sicilian style in smaller rectangular pieces. Perfect. It's not thick like true Sicilian pizza but it's tasty just the way it is.
As we enjoy & feel the intensity, our waitress smiles. My own scent, the fragrance I was telling you about earlier is of gothic cathedrals & Papal palaces, of tapestries imbued with centuries of incense, & is working out nicely here. Of cold marble steps, holy relics & dark confessions. The recognizable smells of frankincense & myrrh open the high mass of my eau de toilette, giving way to the almost eye-smarting, gloriously smoky & resinous heart. A dry vanilla & soft Roman chamomile dull the edges of my reverent fragrance as the beautiful, dark & mysterious picture frames at Maria's meld completely & in a unique way with my perfume. Bravo. read more