Vegetarian pizza?

When it comes to my pizza, I’ll try anything. It doesn’t matter if it’s bad tasting, or totally not palatable, as long as I get to try it once. I’m not exactly what you call an adventurous eater, but sometimes, the weirdest looking food turns out to be the most delicious. Like my take on the vegetarian pizza.

I’m a lover of cheese, especially when it comes to my pizza. In Singapore, there are many pizza places that serve good cheese pizza. I get excited whenever I see my piping hot pizza with all the cheese melted on it, especially if it’s a combination of mozzarella, gorgonzola and parmesan. That’s heaven in every bite.

But people are now becoming health conscious and restaurants know that. That’s why they started serving vegetarian pizza. I don’t have a problem eating vegetarian pizza. I actually like it. I like bell peppers, capers, olives onions and mushrooms on my pizza. I was at a famous Italian restaurant here in Singapore when they served me this pizza with arugula, mozzarella and just tomato sauce. I can’t believe that it was even better than the ordinary pizzas’ with meat on them.

Pushing it more is the fact that they’re also using gluten free dough for their pizzas now. At first I have a problem with it. Actually, I’m the type of person who appreciates the real content of the food. If it says use butter, I’ll use butter. I’m not going to find an alternative that says, it tastes like butter but it’s not. If you’re worried about the calories or anything else about it, then don’t eat it. Plain and simple. Why ruin something that was created for that very purpose?

But now, I’m slowly opening my eyes to these changes. There are so many variations right now in the market that it’s really hard to keep up. Gone are the days when you want pizza, they’ll serve it to you right away. Now, when you order a pizza, it’s like answering a census sheet. They ask everything, and the funny thing is you answer back.

I myself can’t believe it. Before it was just a matter of thick or thin crust? Now, it’s wheat, gluten free or regular. And I wasn’t even referring to the many toppings that are available now. Especially with the vegetarian pizza, it’s not just one dimensional now. The vegetarian community likes their pizza healthy and still appetizing.

Pizza has indeed evolved. And I’d say, bring it on.

A Skinny pizza experience

It’s been awhile since I thought about dieting. I mean how can I think of that when my hobby is eating? I’m not going to be shy and lie by saying I watch what I eat. I DO NOT. I like to indulge on food, especially when I’m eating my favorite think crust pizza. I love eating pizza, but I have a soft spot for thin crusts.

Italian food in Singapore is abundant. I have no problems hopping from restaurant to the other. I think I have my favorites in some of Singapore’s famous Italian restaurants. I spend money when I know I’m getting my money’s worth, but I’d rather starve instead of eating some half hazard –made pizza.

My friends usually eat at the Skinny Pizza in Orchard’s road. I think I ate there a couple of times already too, but service was bad for the few times that I was there. Last week, we decided to go there for some brunch. It’s actually lunch time but we all didn’t have breakfast yet, so for us, it was still brunch.

We all ordered the truffle fries for appetizers. No salad, we just like our truffles in the morning…er I mean lunch. The waiter asked us if we wanted the set menu. Why would we want that? We’re starving. But we did order the mushroom soup. I like their mushroom soup because it has real mushrooms in it.

Sharing is caring is the theme of this place. But how can you share your pizza when the crust is so thin. It’s like a thicker version of a popiah wrapper. I like how it doesn’t turn soggy. We ordered the English breakfast pizza with poach eggs. I sliced the egg in half that turned the yolk into a sauce instantly. It was so rich, it was borderline sinful.

My friend who’s pretending to be a vegetarian ordered the squid ink pizza crust. It looked like purple yam instead of jet black. But the toppings were great. The squid rings are tender to the bite. She didn’t like freshly sliced onions so we had them removed.

I’m glad that I came back. I forgot how good their pizzas are. I just realized that it was dangerous eating there because their pizzas are so thin that you wouldn’t notice you’re actually finishing the whole pizza. And while we’re eating I saw the next table eating a pizza with mozzarella, arugula, and fresh tomatoes on it. I wanted to go to their table and ask for a slice.

I would definitely come back to this place, even though service still needs to improve.

The blessing of a new oven

We’re at a friend’s house. He just got a new oven for his wife as a gift. His wife’s a good cook. We like going to their place because there’s always good food waiting for us. When he was doing the invite, he asked us what food we wanted to eat, we told him we should bless the oven with something good. He said why not pizza? Finally, we’re talking the same language here. He’s a fan of pizza too and his wife’s good at creating great made from scratch pizzas.

I brought wine. I didn’t know what else to bring, the rest of our friends had chips, dips, and more booze. Linda, his wife’s name was already busy at the kitchen. I’m seeing my favorite toppings, fresh basil, mozzarella and tomatoes. I really wanted her to do fresh tomato sauce, because I really miss the tanginess of the fresh tomatoes on my pizza. On the table too were fresh cherry tomatoes, in my mind I know this pizza will be the bomb.

A pizza margherita is just so simple to make. But I always say that if you don’t use the freshest ingredients then there’s no point in making one. She slightly roasted her tomatoes. I was actually watching her cook instead of joining in on the fun. They started drinking already, by the time food’s serve, half of them will be drunk.

She then mashed them with minced garlic and EVOO (extra virgin olive oil). Linda’s not a trained cook, but in my book, she makes cooking look so easy. She said her pizza dough’s already done. She did it ahead of time. It took her only a few minutes to assemble the whole thing. She made 2 pizzas, but same toppings.

Aside from the pizzas, she even whipped up spaghetti in Bolognese sauce and her signature tiramisu cake. I seriously love this lady more than my co-worker. She knows how to feed us. I felt bad not leaving anything behind for our other guests, but I think I ate at least 4 slices of the pizza.

Red Sauce vs. Cheese sauce

So I’ve been addicted to four-cheese pizza ever since. But I love my pizza with still a hint of red sauce, coz I don’t like my dough dry and sticky. I still would love to eat my pizza with little red sauce drippings while I pull it away from my mouth.

But in recent years, pizza makers are trying to re-invent our good old pizza. From just having tomato sauce, basil and mozzarella to the many faces it has now. In a fancy restaurant in New York, they put caviar and lobster on it. The topping is more expensive than the dough itself. I had one at Max Brenner’s, it’s a dessert pizza. It’s with chocolate and marshmallows.

In Singapore, some of its more popular pizzas have seafood toppings on them. I love my seafood pizza, especially if it’s shrimp and squid. I don’t like fillets of fish. I find it fishy, no pun intended. But last night a few of my friends decided to have beer and pizza at our usual hang-out. I wasn’t feeling very adventurous so I said I wanted my usual.

They started complaining coz cheese doesn’t really go well with beer. But I insisted since I told them I wasn’t drinking. Couldn’t play the designated driver coz we’re all taking the train, but told them I had an important meeting in the morning. They made me pay for my own pizza so that we can order another one.

They opted for the meat lovers’ pizza. We were all silent when the 2 pizzas arrived. They couldn’t be more different to one another. The meat lover’s overflowing with toppings, while the cheese one is flat, because everything’s melted.

The colors are so vibrant from the other, while it’s a sea of goo on the cheese pizza. I have to admit that pizza is synonymous to re sauce. Actually, a pizza can live on marinara sauce alone. But I think people are eating pizza in red sauce for too long. It’s about time that they should try something else.

Like my pizza. It still has marinara sauce, but the main lead is the cheese. Don’t worry, because four-cheese pizzas are usually not salty. Most of the cheeses that they use for this type of pizza are not salty. They have characters alright but definitely not salty.

Barbeque and Ham in a pizza?

My sister’s been here visiting me. She’s been convincing me to make pizza instead of ordering deliveries or eating out. It’s been raining anyways these past few days so there’s really no point in staying out. She likes barbeque in anything, so she suggests that I should make her a barbeque pizza.

I don’t mind that I have to do pizza, but barbeque in my pizza? I love pizza but I’m very picky with what kind of pizza I eat. But she was persistent. She even bought her own ingredients. She said I had no choice because Singaporeans love this recipe. As if it matters to me, but still what the heck.

I made my dough. For the first time, I knead and waited for the dough to rise. It was quite a sight. I’ve never had pizza that I made from scratch, literally. The barbeque sauce was store bought, so I couldn’t take credit for that, even the ham that we used. I did sliced the pineapples as thick as I want. Not that they were super thick, but thicker than your usual tidbits.

I would’ve preferred a marinara sauce and lots of mozzarella on my pizza. I like pineapple and mushrooms instead of ham, but I still enjoyed this barbeque ham pizza. Maybe because I made it, but I didn’t know that there’s more to pizza than the typical pizza sauce. I even put less mozzarella. To which I was surprised too.

My sister loves parmesan, but I told her, if she’s doing barbeque, the least she could do is let go of the parmesan to give way to my mozzarella. She ate it anyways. She was proud of herself for being able to convince me to make her a pizza.

Honestly, I was proud of myself too. As a lover of pizza, I should know how to make them.

Where there’s gooey, there’s greatness

Whatever happened to good old pan pizza with just pepperoni and mushroom for toppings?  Now every time I order my pizza, they always ask me what I want to put on it.  That gives me headache.  I would want to say, all the works, but then what’s really in with “all the works”.  

When I get a pizza, be it at Domino’s or those fancy Italian restaurants, it takes me awhile to come up with what I want.  My typical order’s usually with cheese and some meat.  Sometimes I go vegetarian and have those red bell peppers and mushrooms on top.  I’m not really extravagant with my pizzas I usually just like them plain and simple.

My sister was visiting me and she brought this store-bought pizza dough.  She said since I love pizza so much I should start making my own.  I accepted the challenged and hurriedly went to the store to get me some of my favorite cheeses.

I didn’t have time to make my own marinara sauce so I decided to get a canned one.  The store doesn’t carry that much cheese so I only picked what I think makes the best combination.  I got parmesan, gorgonzola, cheddar and Monterey jack.  The two are sharp in taste, but the combination of white, yellow and blue on my pizza is hard to resist.

Although a four cheese pizza doesn’t include red sauce on it, I still put some in mine.  Just a super thin layer coz I don’t like my pizza to dry out.  I thought it would be a disaster, because there’s just too much cheese in it.  But it turned out pretty well.  I like the almost burnt taste of the gorgonzola.  I like that it was really gooey, and it wasn’t salty at all.  It was a good thing that I put marina sauce on it.  The pizza dough was moist and it was crispy on the side. 

Nothing but Pizza

Last night I had some cold pizza and a beer for dinner. I was alone in the apartment and I didn’t want to order in too much food. The beer’s been sitting in the fridge for so long that why it’s really iced-cold. The pizza’s a left-over from the other day, so it was still good.

Actually, after re-heating the pizza in the oven, it was really still good. Just like how it was served to us at this Italian restaurant. My friends and I decided to order 3 different types of pizza because we couldn’t decide on a certain topping. I wanted just plain mozzarella with basil and tomato sauce while the rest wanted pepperoni, mushrooms and other cheeses. It was pizza galore on our table. Imagine just 4 of us eating with 3 whole 16” pizzas.

You may think that Singapore food is just about seafood dishes, but they make a mean pizza around this side of Asia. I have to admit though that some restaurants here in Singapore serve mediocre pizzas, but there are some which actually serve authentic Italian pizzas. Some even transformed them into halal dishes to offer some variety.

We all love thin-crusts. I guess to avoid the guilt of eating too much carbs. But thin-crust pizzas are definitely better. It’s light, crispy and do not overpower the taste of the toppings. I like my pizza because of the fresh basil and mozzarella. The mozzarella’s sliced just enough that when it melts it turns into this gooey substance.

I prefer if the sauce used is made fresh daily. I like the tanginess of the fresh tomatoes. You can’t have that if it’s from a can. But I’m not very picky, as long as it’s not too heavy, and spread evenly on the dough, we’re good.

I finished at least 3 slices, I wanted more but had to control myself for fear of unbuttoning my pants. We all went home with some left-over pizzas.