Colorado Mountain Pie and Honey
I love Mike's challenge to cover some of Colorado's local foods this month because I am actively using it as an excuse to buy delicious things I might otherwise budget against. Like Friday night, for instance, I was craving pizza like you wouldn't believe. The whole week had been jammed packed with cooking clubs and birthday party gatherings and Passover dinners, and I just needed some pizza on the couch already. Normally, this would mean a call into one of the many pizza places in our neighborhood for an average pie. However, with the challenge securely in place, I thought it was my duty to go out of my way a little for the best Colorado-style pizza there is: Beau Jo's. It's traditionally made with a very thick outer crust, like so:
The company has been around for about 30 years and specializes in these "mountain pies." There are a few locations around Colorado, but only a couple of them offer The Challenge: a 12-14 pound pie, filled with heaps of veggies and meat. If two people can eat the whole thing in one hour, they win $100 and a couple of shirts. Skinnyboy and a friend couldn't tackle it, but they gave it a valiant effort about a year ago.
The crust is huge because it serves a double purpose: pizza holder and dessert. At the restaurants, bottles of Colorado honey line all the tables and you're supposed to pour a puddle onto your plate for dipping.
I love this part, but some people find it a little weird. Though honestly: what's weird about delicious hot bread in honey? Since I took the pie to go on Friday, I asked them for some honey so I could give the local stuff a taste test. I didn't realize until we got home that they just loaded up a paper bag with little containers of Kraft honey. Lame! But then, upon further investigation, we realized our little honey bear in the cabinet was a Colorado local, Rice's Lucky Clover Honey, bottled right here in Greeley. ( Some internet research is showing they used to produce their own honey up until 1980, but then started focusing on refining and packaging it. Some of the honey still comes from Colorado, but also Montana and South Dakota. But whatever, I'm calling it Colorado.)
A side-by-side comparison gave the Colorado honey a huge advantage. The flavor was more intense, but more mellow and even, while the Kraft honey had a strong bite that was distinctly unpleasant after tasting the local stuff. We win!
Coming up: Denver tofu, local tomatoes, and--yes--a trip to the candy factory.
Your countering Denver's gigantor pizzas with Denver tofu. Brilliant!
Hmmm... its funny for me to be using a generally Portland website for updates on life in Denver - especially since my intentional search for Denver culture blogs came up sort of empty (outside of Westword). Glad it's here. I'm writing with a suggestion of a daytrip at the end of the month to crash my brother's birthday party and eat my father's homemade pizza over in Glenwood Springs. There are slight risks involved, but most folks come away unscathed. It'll be Friday the 27th, let me know if you want details. I can't go - so why not a send a complete stranger?
beau jo's! I've eaten there! Whoooo. :)
I am 100% in favor of honey and pizza mingling. I used to dip my french fries in honey when I was little.
I'm whimpering a little here because I want the pizza and the honey.
And Liz, now I might have to start calling you "our little honey bear."
Hi Liz! Is it alright if I borrow your picture of bread and honey for my blog, just until I get a chance to make some bread and take a picture of my own bread and honey? I'm just putting together my blog, called bread and honey, and I need a graphic for the top of the page.
Thanks!
Barbara
Liz, I just read your comments about Rice's honey and had to tell you that I moved away from Greeley in 1993, but I STILL GET RICE'S HONEY. I have tried scores of different honeys where I live now, in Virginia, and NOTHING comes close. I do not know how they do it, but the taste of their raw, unfiltered honey beats the most expensive orange blossom honey hands down. They send me several pounds at a time. And, oh, try dipping warm, sourdough bread in Rice's. It is divine. The other thing I miss from Greeley are the krautburgers. I have never seen them anywhere else.