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.