Nørrebro Express Pizza, Copenhagen - 26/07/14

Copenhagen is not a city known for its pizza. It is a city of history, architecture, and unfairly beautiful people, but not necessarily of dough and tomatoes and (fake) cheese.

However, it is my mission in life - nay, my calling - to make every city a city of pizza; to seek out the very best pies, exposing them for the world to see (I am being very dramatic, but it is literally that important to me and also I love attention). So, with that in mind, I present Nørrebro's Express Pizza for your viewing pleasure.

I am going to drop a pretty big statement right now: Express Pizza do probably the best intentionally 'vegan' pizza I have ever tasted. Though they also make pies with meat - and for sure, meat eaters should 100% visit too - they use probably the best fake cheese and meat I have ever tasted. I had pepperoni and Ben had ham and we both agree that it was insanely dope. Their dough, and especially the crispy crusts, has a texture such as would convince you it's made by the hands of angels, but it is honestly the sauce that's the star of the show. 

I have an Italian grandma (luv u Nonna), and she used to make the world's greatest pasta sauce - I know I mostly speak in hyperbole but this one is the honest truth. Express Pizza's pizza sauce smells and tastes EXACTLY like that sauce. Ben will testify to the fact that I sat sniffing a slice of my pizza for about a full minute because it smelled so good, and so similar to my grandma's old time-y cooking.

That's why Express Pizza, and especially their vegan pizza, is so fucking great, you see. Because so often, vegan pizza isn't really considered to be authentic (and often, it doesn't really taste it), 'cause it uses different ingredients to the classix. But Express Pizza makes vegan pizza totally authentic - the friendly owner who gave us free Cokes, and their small, mom and pop style location, complete with photos of dark haired, mustachio'd musicians on the walls, definitely adds to that authenticity - and most importantly, it also just makes it completely delicious. Whoever said Copenhagen doesn't know pizza obviously just never went to Express Pizza. 

Pizza rating - 10/10

Express Pizza Nørrebro

Mimersgade 102, 2200 København

http://www.expresspizza.dk

update/////B E A C O N S F E S T I V A L 2 0 1 4

What's up every1, I have returned from Copenhagen like Jesus on the third day (except I was just on holiday and he was like, actually dead) - please expect lots of pizza posts about my visit to the Danish capital soon! I'm also gonna be posting a more general, not necessarily pizza-themed round up of (mostly unhealthy) vegan spots around the city,  a) because those things are useful, and b) because I ate a ton of delicious stuff that wasn't pizza so, again Christ-like, I'll be sharing that with u all soon. Get excited for some srs #content.

But let's put that aside for a bit. My main reason for posting on this sunny Monday morning is to talk a little bit about Beacons Festival 2014. Beacons is a cool ass music and arts festival, which is now in its third year at Heslaker Farm in Skipton, North Yorkshire. Beacons is specifically gr8 because it is, actually and properly, "not your usual festival" - on top of the music (Action Bronson! The Fall! Charli XCX! Way more other dope shit!) there's film screenings, crafts, art installations, and a friggin theatre tent. However, for me what is most exciting about Beacons is the fact that it will also host a full scale Street Food Festival, which I am delighted (that's the adjective people use when they make 'announcements' about stuff, right?) to be covering for restinpizza this weekend!

The reason I wanted to visit Beacons in the first place, and the reason I'm really excited to be writing about it for you all to read about, is because as a veggie, it's really rare to have as much food choice at a festival as Beacons is offering. The range of food that will be available this weekend is mad diverse - every buzzy cuisine you can think of right now, from pies to pan-Asian, Mexican to Middle Eastern, is covered by independent vendors (loads more plus points). They're even gonna have vegan ice cream. Heart eyes emoji.

I wanted to know what motivated the people behind the Beacons street food festival to make food such an important part of the ~Beacons experience~, and why they've chosen the food and vendors that they have, so I had me a lil chat with Ben Davy, who organised the food festival, and who's also a part of Leeds' Dough Boys Pizza (expect lots of coverage on these guys in the upcoming 'pizza my heart' zine and also probably some photos of me trying desperately to be their best mate in exchange for a free slice). Here is that chat, for your reading pleasure:

RIP: Considering that most festivals are content to serve up suspiciously grey-looking burgers, limp chips and a bottle of Coke for more than your annual salary, something different, such as what is being offered at Beacons, is pretty refreshing, right? 

Ben: For us the food offered at Beacons is just as important as the music. Food is what fuels people and good fuel is what you need if you're gonna be partying in a field for 3 days. For years festival food was renowned for being corporate, overpriced, below-average crap, but people just accepted it and parted ways with their money as they had no other choice. The recent rise in popularity of street food has changed all that. It's now possible to get high quality, healthy, interesting food for a really reasonable price and that is what we've brought to the festival this year.

How have you gone about finding vendors for this year's festival? Are you re-using old favourites, or have you mostly gone for new faces? Has there been a particular emphasis on using independent vendors?
We run the monthly indoor street food festival 'Belgrave Street Feast' in Leeds which has served as a great way to try out new vendors, so some have come through that. A lot of the traders I've met through working the street food circuit with Dough Boys Pizza, others we've tried at various events around the country. So there are a lot of new faces but we've mixed it up with a few old Beacons favourites who we've worked with every year, like the Skipton Pie & Mash guys who've become a Beacons institution.   

One thing I've noticed is that the range of cuisines on offer is incredibly diverse - this is so impressive for a three day festival! How important has securing this level of diversity been for you?
Diversity in food is hugely important for me and I think it says a lot about the personality of the festival. There are a few familiar offers in the mix like Reds BBQ, Diamond Dogs and Patty Smith's Burgers for when you need something safe, but then we've got vendors who will make you question everything like Dorshi, Bundobust and Street Fodder. There's literally something for everyone and that's why we're really proud of the lineup. 

I'm a veggie, and one of the things that made me want to get in touch with Beacons in the first place was the sheer amount of choice for veggies and vegans at the festival. It's so cool, especially when we're so often an afterthought. What do you think that offering so many veggie options brings to the festival?

Again the mix of veggie/vegan/meat offerings is just part of the package: it's diversity, it's interesting, it opens new doors to people. If you stick a paneer wrap from Manjit's Kitchen in the hand of a devout meat eater and make them eat it, there is no way they wouldn't cry tears of joy because it tastes great! Tasty food is tasty food, meat or no meat. I don't want people to think of veggie food as an after thought, or as anything less exciting than meat based food because it's not. IF IT'S GOOD IT'S GOOD      

Finally - where are you personally most looking forward to eating during the festival? Do you have any personal favourite vendors?
I'll probably be too busy making pizzas to eat but my top 5 picks would be... Cafe Moor, Yummy Yorkshire Ice Cream, Dorshi, Bundobust and Margo&Rita… but then again Fish& are ace, and Diamond Dogs… and Manjit's Kitchen and Mumma Schnitzel - DON'T MAKE ME CHOOSE!     

So yeah, if you need me this weekend I'll probably have a gobful of something delicious and won't be able to communicate with you properly, but all for good reason. I'll be posting over the weekend on restinpizza's NEW NEW NEW Twitter and Instagram feeds (@restinpizza666 for both!) with some updates about what I'm eating at Beacons 2014. You can check out their full roster of food vendors here. Peace out xoxo

photo ℅ http://greetingsfrombeacons.com

pizza my heart submissions update

hopefully this flyer explains everything in that last post a little more succinctly. again, if you'd like to contribute with anything at all, I'd l-u-r-v-e to hear from you so drop me an email!

pizza my heart - a rest in pizza zine

Hey everyone. Gonna take a break right now from the NON-STOP ENTERTAINMENT of reviews and talk to you about something else for a second.

I love writing restinpizza, and I hope that some of you enjoy reading it every so often. What I would really like to do more than anything is convert this lil blog of mine into an actual physical zine - 'pizza my heart' is essentially going to be the paper version of restinpizza, and whilst it might feature some content similar to that you see on the blog, it's also going to be a little more varied, with photography, interviews, illustration and lots of other cool stuff, hopefully with pizza contributions and points of view from people who aren't just me.

That is where you all come in - basically, if you think you have something cool to say about pizza or pizza-related topics, and would like your work to be featured in a dope-ass publication that you can hold in your hands, then please shoot me an email and your idea (no more than 200 words pls!) at restinpizza666@gmail.com - I would love to hear from you and collect the work of pizza aficionados in one tastefully designed place.

(if you think you'd like to submit or be involved, but aren't really sure what sort of direction you'd like to take, here are some ideas:

• a profile of the best pizza places in one city (written/photographic/whatever)
• recipes!  
• or you could just write about why you l-u-v pizza
• any sort of ~creative non-fiction~ 
• tbh, anything creative at all)

Please get in touch if you'd like to be involved; otherwise I'll be posting some sporadic updates about the zine, so pls keep an eye out! It should appear sometime in September. 

Thank u for reading, everyone; I will shut up now.

Lauren xoxo 

The Farm, Solihull - 19/7/2014

On Saturday I went for a ~meal~ for my stepdad's birthday at The Farm which is a v nice restaurant in Solihull. Solihull is basically Birmingham but the people who live there will vehemently deny this from inside their wannabe yummy mummy 4x4s on the way to taking Ellie-Mae to her violin lesson, whilst also telling Freddie to "shut the DS the fuck up I'm trying to make an eyebrow appointment". 

Ahem. Anyway so yeah. The Farm. This place is cool and the ambience is lovely and all, but I was not bowled over by their pizza, and as we all know, this is the most important test of any establishment. Ben and I had a pie with spring onion, olives and chillies on it, with added rocket and mushrooms to replace the mozzarella and anchovies we got rid of. The toppings were nice quality, but I did take issue with the chillies which were suuuper spicy and not very flavoursome. I really like spicy food but there just wasn't much else to compensate for the hotness. The sauce was just sauce really, and I actually wasn't hugely into the base, which had a texture which was too chewy for a dough as thin as it was. 

However, I'm not tryna hate because this is a cool place to eat and it's laid out really nicely, so definitely not all bad. Should you ever find yourself in Solihull (let me know so I can pray a rosary for your mortal soul) and stuck for somewhere pretty to eat, maybe you should visit The Farm.

The Inn at The Farm

Farmhouse Way, Solihull, B90 4EH

http://www.lovelypubs.co.uk/venues/the-inn-at-the-farm

recipe: PIZZADILLAS - 16/7/2014

Here is a pizzadilla what I made. Obviously it looks absolutely shit because all of the magic was happening inside (I forgot to take a picture of the magic before I put the second wrap on top because I was shitting myself about it burning sorry), but I assure you, these badboyz are dope. 

Before you do anything with actual cooking utensils, make sure you've a) grated lots of cheese (vegan or otherwise - I used Violife pizza cheese, but any grate-able cheese works), b) chopped up your veggies/whatever elses for the filling (I used red peppers and black olives), and c) made up a lil pizza sauce (passata/tomato puree/garlic/herbs), and perhaps added some extra kick due to the usually spicier-than-a-pizza nature of a quesadilla - I did so by using chilli powder, paprika, cumin and coriander. Alternatively, you could use a ready made pizza sauce, or even salsa from a jar. 

Once you have done that, start to warm up a frying pan and fuck a load of olive oil into it. Make sure both the pan and the oil are quite hot, and then put a tortilla inside it, flat. Wait until the tortilla starts puffing up a bit and little air bubbles start appearing, and then give it a flip over. Wait for the same thing to happen on the other side, and then flip it back to the original side. Then u must work quickly. 

Spread the pizza sauce, whichever you have chosen to use, onto the tortilla, like you would onto a pizza base. Then sprinkle most, but not all, of the cheese on, and crucially, wait for it to melt. It is rly important that the cheese melts for the next bit. 

The next bit is putting the veggies on top - if the cheese has melted, they have something to cling to rather than falling all over the place like me walking home after I've been out. Once you've put the veggies/whatever on top of the tortilla, sprinkle the remainder of the cheese on top of them. Then comes the difficult part. 

You can do this in one of two ways - if you have lots of time and ingredients, you can simply fold one side of the tortilla over the other and flip it over a couple of times with a fish slice, so that it toasts evenly. Then, repeat all of the above using another tortilla so that you end up with four little slices of pizzadilla, as per the picture. You can put the one you've made in the oven to stay warm (obvious, but protip all the same). Alternatively, if like me, you are a disorganised mess and need to be quick, you can simply place another tortilla on top of the one in the pan, and flip them over so that the new one also becomes crispy. Obviously this flip requires great accuracy and strength of will, but I believe that you can do it without much issue if I was able to, because I am properly useless. I used two fish slice-y type things and held them underneath the pizzadilla on either side, and then quickly flipped it over. Surprisingly, it didn't actually make much mess, and crisis was averted.

Once you've overcome that hurdle, stick it on a plate and eat it. I had mine with fake garlic mayo and a red pepper and olive salad and it was delicious. Go forth and pizzadilla. 

PS: sorry for the lack of photos in this post - kinda shitty when I'm trying to explain how to do something! If you'd like any more clarification of the recipe pls just leave a comment and I'll get back to you on it :3  

VEGAN TAKEAWAY PIZZA: Village Pizza, London - 9/7/2014 and Papa John's, Sheffield - 13/7/2014

When you are trying to eat vegan something that can be annoying is finding decent takeaway pizza. Takeaway pizza has always been a very important aspect of my life at the core of who I am, and I will not allow anything to change this.

Last week I was gross (great) and ate a lot of takeaway pizza. This is a post about that. The first pizza place I'll review will be London's VILLAGE PIZZA (the Old Kent Road branch). Village Pizza is one of London's premier vegan pizza suppliers, even doing pies with vegan cheese (the old classic Mozzarella-style Cheezly from what I can gather) and fake meat. We ordered two pizzas: one 16 inch (ridiculous) Pepe Peppers, consisting of Cheezly, fake pepperoni, jalapeños, sweetcorn and peppers, and one medium Spaniard - Cheezly, fake garlic sausage, black olives, fresh tomatoes and red onion. Here they are in all of their glory:

bby Spaniard

Pepe Peppers, total giant bastard

I wanna first of all give props to Village Pizza for thinking of vegans and making sure they too can get dope, artery blocking pizzas. It is important, in the interests of equal opportunities and so on, that this happens. The slightly bad news was that in both cases, the fake meat (the main draw other than the vegan cheese really) was sort of flavourless and not particularly nicely textured. I was not overly into it. The veg was all really tasty, though, and the pizza sauce was good in a pizza sauce way. However, the dough - special vegan dough also, but tbh I don't understand on any level why anyone is putting milk/eggs in pizza dough - was a little too soft for me, considering how thin it also was. Sad :(. The pizzas were also sort of cold when they arrived. In general, Village Pizza is not my favourite vegan pizza I have ever eaten, but their good intentions are admirable, and next time I'm in LDN I'm gonna be jonesing to try their Hickory BBQ 'za. 

A few days later, this time in Sheffield, we ordered more pizza because the World Cup was on. In a slightly excessive move, we ordered two Extra Extra Large pizzas (the Garden Party, which has the sort of standard list of veggie toppings, and the Hot Pepper Passion which was delicious and really fucking spicy due to chillies and jalapeños) and a small The Greek (more veggies, but slightly hotter due to added peperonata) because there was obviously not enough already. 

A downside to Papa John's is that they don't offer a vegan cheese option, but unlike their main competitor Domino's, Papa John's bases are 100% animal product-free (FYI, in general, their crust is very similar to Domino's - it's chunky and chewy and just really pleasingly bready but not too bready. For these reasons, I think it is really good). So, when the pizzas came, we just grated Cheezly over them, whacked them in the oven and took them out when they looked like this:

close-up of Hot Pepper Passion 'cause it looked dope/I couldn't get
decent photos of the others bc I was too eager to stuff pizza in every hole on my face

Though this might seem like a lot of effort to go to for a takeaway, it was actually pretty minimal and it ended up tasting gr8. Papa John's pizza sauce is on some classic New York pizza shit, and rly complimented both the dough and the veg. I can't praise the dough highly enough, and Cheezly, which featured again on this pizza, is always really good. 

Of the two vegan pizza takeaways, though it required a lil more effort, Papa John's definitely ended up being the better tasting option. Their pizzas made for a more satisfying slice (I would know, I think I ate about 10 and that is not an exaggeration), and there was some left over for dinner the next day. Dope as fuck. 

Village Pizza pizza rating: 6/10

Village Pizza

230 Old Kent Road, SE1 5UB

http://www.villagepizzauk.com

Papa John's pizza rating: 8/10

I'm not going to put an address because their are Papa John's branches everywhere

http://www.papajohns.co.uk