Strada, Sheffield - 25/5/14 AND Pizza Express, London (Haymarket) - 31/5/14

So here is a post about some pizzas I ate at a couple chain restaurants, specifically Strada and Pizza Express. I'm putting them together a) because I'm lazy and it's 1:41am and I cba to do two separate posts and b) 'cause I thought it might be sort of fun to compare pies at two restaurants of a fairly similar ilk. 'Fun', lol. Christ.

Anyway, here are the pizzas:

Strada

Pizza Express (probably the world's worst photo)

The Strada 'za is their Puttanesca pizza (I think) without anchovies (it comes sans cheese anyway), and the Pizza Express one is called a Pianta. I am gonna go ahead and say that Pizza Express was head and shoulders better on pretty much all counts (however the Strada pizza did have olives on it and they're probably my favourite pizza topping if I can be real with you for one second). However, I would be doing u, my loyal readers, a disservice if I did not explain to u why this is, so at this point I would like to ~unveil~ my foolproof system for comparing and contrasting pizzas - it's as easy as S-T-D (far less sinister and gross than it seems):

S is for SAUCE:
The Strada pizza sauce was rly tasty but it was a pretty ordinary pizza sauce. I probably just thought it was tasty because I pretty much think all pizza sauce is tasty, as I was raised on puréed tomatoes (I have  mentioned before but my dad's Italian and I think his first words were "chopped tomatoes"). The sauce on Pizza Express' Pianta, on the other hand, was not their usual plain tomato and herb base; instead it was a really different spicy Arrabiatta sauce which I was super into - it made an awesome change and went really really well with the toppings they'd chosen. Great job Pizza Express.
Winner: Pizza Express

T is for TOPPINGS:
As you can see, we had to sorta alter the Strada pizza to suit an herbivorous diet - it already came without cheese, but the Puttanesca was also listed as having anchovies, so we got rid of those and had us a party. As I've said, I reallllllly love olives so I was stoked to have so many on this pizza, but something else as well would have been cool. Maybe we coulda switched the anchovies for some  mushrooms or peppers? Would have definitely taken this up a notch in my humble opinion. Pizza Express on the other hand were serving topping realness (I've watched a whole season of RuPaul's Drag Race in five days can you tell) - the Pianta has on it mushrooms, artichokes, spinach, and most interestingly, pine kernels. All of that is then topped with fresh rocket and olive oil. The pine kernels especially were a good touch, 'cause they gave a lil crunchy texture which I enjoyed very much, but in general these toppings all gelled super well together - I am a big fan of spinach on pizza and it was deliciouzzzz as always. The Pianta also comes without cheese as standard which is cool.
Winner: Pizza Express

D is for DOUGH:
A solid foundation is the most crucial part of any successful pizza, therefore pizza dough is super important. Whilst Strada's base was really thin (which I actually was very into), Pizza Express' is a lil more chewy, and both are satisfying in their own ways. Of the two pizzas, I'd say Pizza Express was the more comforting, whilst the Strada one was crunchier and crispier. Pizza base preferences are extremely personal and precious, and, much like a person's opinions on Kim Kardashian and whether they love dogs or cats best, they tell us a lot about that individual. I usually tend to sway towards the crispier side of things (what does that mean about me? Am I abrasive? Do I crumble easier under pressure?? Business idea: pizza tarot), but on this occasion, Pizza Express really had me feelin some type of way. I am going to sit on the fence here because I can't choose.
Winner: ~tie-break~ 

SO, by the law of averages, the victor of this pizza-off is Pizza Express. Their Pianta was dope and probably on the whole a bit more satisfying that Strada's sort-of Puttanesca (which was, however, still rly tasty). I am sleepy from all the pizza science I have been doing, so I'm gonna leave this one here for now, but for realsies I would recommend Pizza Express - I think that their pizzas are always really consistently good, their sauce is great and all of their ingredients taste fresh and delicious. I know it's a chain but DON'T LET THAT STOP U. These are good pizzas, widely available. Which is p kwl.

Strada pizza rating: 7/10
Pizza Express pizza rating: 8.5/10

Strada, Leopold Street, S1 2FG
http://www.strada.co.uk

Pizza Express, Panton Street, SW1Y 4EN
http://www.pizzaexpress.com

Spicy Chik, Sheffield - 25/5/2014

Ben wrote about this pizza we ate the other night when we were drunk. It was a pretty alright pizza I thought. The sauce was especially good and there were bare toppings which was obviously class. Anyway here is Ben to tell you about it properly:

The first time I met Lauren was around a year ago at a house show in Birmingham. That day she took me to a pizza place so it's only fitting that months later she would be sprawled on my bathroom floor vomiting pizza in to the toilet. The evening started with disappointment. A group of around eight of us we supposed to be going to Urban Choola and I had my heart set on indulging in a thali. It wasn't to be as there weren't enough seats for us all so my sorrows had to be disappointedly drowned in a bath of soup noodles. It wasn't too bad to be fair but I just wanted that thali really. [I also really wanted a thali - Lauren xoxox] Our group halved and the weaker ones left. A strong group made up of myself, Lauren, Jake and Behan continued to drown our sorrows further at the discotheque; Sheffield's finest/filthiest Corporation night club. The first time I had been there in 2014. For good reason some might say. Blue pints were consumed but this was a lacklustre trip to the club. A fair amount of eighties bangers, not enough goths. We left the club and went to that pizza place that I always go to with Behan because one time they gave us a free pizza. To get in to the pizza place we had to stride over a girl crying or vomiting or both. 

Here is a photo of Behan in Spicy Chik on a previous occasion.
This picture has existed for quite a while now and nobody can explain it.

I remember having to wait a fair time for the pizza but still had to pay the full £6 or something. Veggie spesh, no cheese ta. The sauce was saucy, the base was based and the toppings were... top. I really didn't have a great time eating this pizza though. I think I might have only eaten two slices because I wanted to be sick or I had a headache or I wanted to go to sleep. It was nice and stuff but I wasn't having a nice time whatsoever.

lmaooooo

We left the pizza place to rendezvous at the velvet chamber. The next day, Lauren's sick was green. [would like to add that this was entirely the fault of the Corporation blue pint] The end.

Pizza rating:
Sober rating 6.5/10 Drunk rating 4.5/10

Spicy Chik
138 West Street, S1 4ES
http://spicychik.co.uk

vegan pizza b4g3ls - 18/5/2014

Pizza bagels you were promised, so pizza bagels you shall have. Continuing my odyssey of turning various bread products into PIZZA products (see 'za crumpets from about 2 weeks ago), I focussed my attentions on the bagel. I just want to take a second to give a shout out to bagels because they are seriously fucking great. I am all about that gooey chewy inside bread life. 

So "how did u make pizza bagels???" I hear u cry. Well, my pizza pal(s) (lol who am I kidding), it was very easy. This post will tell u just how to do it *a million pizza fans breathe a collective sigh of relief*. Also in a restinpizza first, I'm about to hit u with an actual recipe 'cause I made my own pizza sauce so hold on to your damn hats.

These are the basic ingredients you will need. You will also need some crushed garlic or a squeezy tube of garlic puree which is not pictured because I forgot. I chose to use New York Bakery bagels mainly because they come pre-cut and I have some sort of delusion about being a luxury bitch who refuses to do menial tasks such as slicing bagels, but you can obvi use any you like according to personal taste/budget.

Now for the pizza sauce recipe - I usually use that Tesco stuff that I've talked about a couple of times before, but because I am part Italian it was drummed into me as a child that one should always have a vast array of tomato products to hand in case of emergency (I am really not joking about this, I have witnessed my dad buy at least a two tins of chopped tomatoes on every supermarket shop I've ever accompanied him on), and also because I'm hella poor right now, I decided to use the tools at my disposal to craft my own delicious pizza sauce.

So. For four pizza bagels, I'd recommend about a tablespoon and a half of tomato puree, as well as a few generous sloshings (v professional food blogger) of passata. Give it all a mix about so that it's a consistency somewhere in between the slightly thin passata and the thicker puree, and then add a squeeze squeeze of garlic (depending on how strong u like it ;-) hehe) and some herby seasoning - the one I use is Sainsbury's Italian Herb Seasoning and it is a rly good all purpose seasoning for pasta sauces and pizzas and so on. Give all of that a stir and as if by magic - you got yourself pizza sauce. Even though I made this sauce for the bagels, it's obviously fine for any other sort of pizza too (it actually tastes really really good so would recommend giving it a go if you're so inclined) and once you've bought all the ingredients it does actually end up working out cheaper, if a bit less convenient, than buying a pre-made one.

We toasted the bagels super lightly, and then added the sauce, and then we also added some grated mozzarella style Cheezly (which u can see in the ingredients photo - rly good vegan cheese replacement that actually melts and bubbles and does all that cool normal cheese stuff; obviously u can use any cheese, dairy or otherwise, of ur choice and u will still wield similar results). We didn't add any more toppings but we definitely could have - sliced black olives would have been cool here and I'm definitely gonna try em out next time. Then we put them under the grill for abooout 5 mins at abooout 150 degrees (this is why you don't need to toast the bagels loads in the first place), but because every oven is different, just keep an eye on them - you can probably take them out when the cheese starts to bubble. 

You should end up with something like this (tbh I don't see how you couldn't unless you are an idiot or baby, this is not a challenging recipe). They taste totally friggin dope and imo they're better than pizza crumpets. But maybe that's just because I like bagels more than I like crumpets. The squishy inside-ness of the bagel went really, sort of unexpectedly, well with the sauce/cheese combination, and this is 100% something I would make again. 

I am not sure what bread I will turn into a pizza next. I will have to think on it and get back to you. 4 now, c u all soon and happy pizza bagel-ing. Mwah xoxoxo

Pizza rating: 8.5/10   

Franco Manca, London - 17/5/14

Y'all know how I feel about Franco Manca. For ~new readers~ who didn't get to read my last post concerning this dope ass pizza chain, maybe you will wanna have a lil look see here (lmao #web #blogging #content). Maybe you won't. You probably won't. 

Anyway ja so this time I strayed from Brixton Market which is the only Franco Manca branch I've visited before, and went to the Broadway Market one. We got the same pizza as last time, just this time without cheese as well as without anchovies. We got it to take out and even though it was a very busy Saturday the service was nice and quick which was obvi appreciated. The pizza as a whole was pretty great, although I definitely could have gone for a few more olives if I can be real with you.

The sauce brought its A game as usual (it's sort of garlicky and for that, I love it more than many of my blood relatives), and the thin thin thin base was chewy and delicious like always, although because we got takeaway we sort of just had to rip it apart with our hands. I like to handle a good, healthy slice of pizza, so that was kinda annoying but obviously this is a v minor niggle - I am literally picking the tiniest faults ever because there are very few bad things you can say about this pizza. Franco Manca's business is pizza, and business is fucking delicious. 

'YOU'RE TEARING ME APART, PIZZA!!!' (it's ok I hate myself so you don't have to)

Pizza rating - 8/10

(I think Pizza East might have stolen my heart)

Franco Manca

52 Broadway Market, E8 4QJ

http://www.francomanca.co.uk

(vegan) pizza crumpet$$$

Ben reckons he invented these but he obviously didn't. Either way they are totally class and very easy to make when u need dat pizza fix.

Basically we toasted some crumpets and then we put that Tesco pizza sauce that I reviewed a while ago on them (as u can see me doing very skilfully below.)

This was all well and good. This pizza sauce is v reliable for all your homemade pizza needs, and it's pretty cheap also. However, the real star of this snack was the CHEESE. You may notice that the title of this post includes the word vegan and you may also notice that in the picture at the top of the post it looks very convincingly like actual cheese. Well my friends, let's talk about motherfucking Mozzarella Style Cheezly. It is literally the holy grail of vegan cheeses in that it actually MELTS and TASTES LIKE REAL CHEESE when it does so. It is also super easy to grate (Ben froze it beforehand which made doing so even easier but also sort of painful - our hands felt like they were gonna fall off after a bit because cold) and it sprinkled on the pizzas in nice satisfying clumps. This shit is awesome and also rly widely available (you can get it in most Holland and Barrett shops), so if you're so inclined you should totally give it a go because its production doesn't make any cows sad which is obviously a big plus. 

I am super stoked to use this cheese on other stuff (cheesy garlic bread and on top of pasta and inside burritos oh my!), and I am also super stoked to continue experimenting with various breads and pizza toppings (watch out for PIZZA BAGELS coming to a restinpizza post near u soon lol) because clearly, pizza is the dope shit and also my reason for living. Have a nice evening and eat yrself a pizza crumpet or five. 

lmao

Pizza rating: 7/10

Fundi Pizza @ The Library, Oxford - 6/5/14

I can be a complete idiot. Last week I burned sweetcorn, and I do that thing where I go "WHERE THE FUCK IS MY PHONE??" when my phone is in fact in my hand or pocket on average about twice a week. But perhaps my worst idiocy of all has been failing to notice that every Tuesday, some of the best pizza in the Oxford area is being cooked literally four minutes away from my house. For shame, me. 

The Library is a cool pub on the Cowley Road in Oxford, and once a week it plays host to Fundi Pizza, which is an operation consisting of one man and a wood oven in the beer garden. This is, I truly believe, how all of the most successful operations are run. 

I will cut to the chase here and say that this pizza is great. The fact that you can watch it being made is what proper food bloggers would probably call "a nice touch", and it's also really fast and really fresh. Whilst I'm usually all about a crispier base, this one was soft and comforting (like a nan or a dog or something equally as nice) and I dug that 100%, though the crust around the outside was still nice and crunchy, so the balance was rly good.

The toppings were equally as tasty. I chose a 'Fungi' pizza (margherita with mushrooms) with added olives, and my dear pal and pizza date Olivia chose capers, pepperoni and olives. We were both totally in2 our selections. The mozzarella tasted like it was of goooood quality, and the pizzas came with generous sprinklings of grated parmesan on top also which actually really added to the flavour. So far, so dope.

I also wanna add that this pizza cost me only six English pounds. Think of all the things which cost more than six pounds that are not as good as this pizza (spoiler alert: there are a LOT.) If you're in or around Oxford on a Tuesday evening then I would recommend that this is what you do for your dinner 'cause it's great, The Library is a really friendly place and watching your pizza get made is a cool novelty. 

Pizza rating: 8.5

The Library, 182 Cowley Road, OX4 1UE
www.thelibrarypuboxford.com
www.fundipizza.com

Pizza East, London - 4/5/14

As someone who is "into" pizza*, I have obviously heard a lot about Pizza East. As someone who does not live in The Centre of the Universe™(London, as people from London would have it) I had not gotten a chance to visit Pizza East until last Sunday. 

Pizza East have 3 branches around the city and I went to the Shoreditch one (the others are in Kentish Town and in Portobello Market, fyi). We got seated quickly right by the pizza counter which was dope because I got to watch the pizza chefs at work which, for an enthusiast such as myself (literally kill me),  was probably the best possible seating outcome.

boy, I lyk the way u roll that dough ;-)

okay okay sry. enough exposition, lemme get to the good bit. So we got two pizzas which u can see at the top. I opted for no cheese (didn't feel like it/solidarity with pretty much vegan boyfriend) on a pie which was otherwise topped with the most incredible crushed tomato 'sauce' (it wasn't really a sauce though, had a lil bit more texture which I was all about), sweet and spicy Calabrese peppers (they tasted how an orgasm feels and I am not even playing) and fresh basil. Ben's pizza, which you can see in the second picture in this post, had artichokes, pesto and sundried tomatoes on it. All of the toppings were clearly of great quality and made for very very delicious 'zas.

Benny G having a lovely time 

The Pizza East sauce is, as I've mentioned, really really tasty, but the star of the meal is without doubt that fresh dough crust, cooked in a wood oven. I am going to be real with you and just say that I need to have counselling about this pizza base. I am concerned that I will never find another crust like this and that is a real worry. Pizza East do the impossible and manage a very very thin base which is crispy on the bottom and soft on the top, making for a satisfying but not overly substantial crunch when you bite into it. I think I care deeply about this pizza crust. I want to ask it to run away to the country with me. *Hero by Enrique Iglesias plays as I imagine myself running through lush fields with this pizza in my arms*

Also yeah, before I forget, we also had this amazing garlic bread (see below.) It was really green and delicious looking but I still don't know what that topping was made from - if you can help then genuinely please get in touch because I want to try and replicate it. Either way, it was a really nice lil warm-up for the main event. We probably smelled rly bad after eating it though.

So yeah, Pizza East is really pretty excellent. You should go. I will probably go a lot more times. Cool? Cool.

Pizza rating - 9/10
(loses a solitary point just because I woulda liked an option to replace my cheese with another topping! Fussy I know but I can't be giving 10/10s out willy nilly)

Pizza East
56 Shoreditch High Street, E1 6JJ
www.pizzaeast.com

*I group myself in this category with a resigned, heavy heart. When you say you're "into" something it usually implies a) a weird interest and b) being way too interested in that interest - "oh yeah, Darren's really into painting Warhammer at Games Workshop and on the alternate Saturdays when he sees his kid he brings it with him." I am Darren, but with pizza.