Delici O's pizza bases - 17/06/14 and 18/06/14

(Yeah I had pizza two days in a row. Only Jesus can judge me.)

Assembling pizzas with your own chosen ingredients is a pretty fun activity, so I did it a couple of times last week (also I was moving out of my uni house and had limited resources so I had to get rid of all my veg and cheese). I did so using Delici O's wholemeal pizza bases which I bought because they were on special in Tesco, but they actually turned out to be pretty good.

The sauce u see used here is that of my own recipe (passata/tomato puree/garlic/Italian herbs/stir), and the toppings are Mozzarella Style Cheezly (big up 2 this prince of vegan cheeses), mushrooms, green peppers and garlic oil which I concocted by squidging some garlic puree into a lil bit of olive oil. On one of the two occasions when I ate this pizza, I also added a chopped Linda McCartney sausage which gave proceedings a nice (fake) meaty texture:

The real point of this particular pizza post I guess is to talk about the Delici O's bases. Good news is that they are entirely vegan, and also they are very thin and crispy so if that's your bag then go forth and eat. I also like very much that you can get different variations of these bases - you can buy ones which have been made with either plain or wholemeal flour, and you can also buy mini ones which is cute. Slightly not so good news is that the texture was not my favourite - the outer crust in particular was crumbly in an almost pastry-like way. Don't get me wrong, it still tasted dope, but it was not a strictly pizza-y texture.

To be honest, pre-made pizza bases are never gonna be the holy grail just by their very nature (they don't have proper crusts, for one), but they do often make for a fun and satisfying lil meal. They're also pretty great if you have certain dietary stuff going on that regular pre-made pizzas don't cater for, because they mean that you can still have pizza, but just the way you want it, rather than having to compromise. Delici O's did the job for sure.

Pizza rating: 7/10

Pizza Artisan, Oxford - 11/06/14

"Some pizzas are born great. Others have greatness thrust upon them." 

- ancient proverb

It has now been a while since I ate from Oxford's elusive Pizza Artisan truck, but I still remain as impressed as I was when I took that fateful first bite. I'm going to cut to the chase: this is hands down the best pizza experience in Oxford, and it rivals every London hype pizza joint I've visited, like, ever. It's as good and as fresh as pizza I ate in New York. Yeah, I said it. 

This was my second Pizza Artisan experience: the first was on a rainy evening at some point during my first year of university. This one was markedly better, 'cause the weather was gorgeous and the service was hella quick. For those unfamiliar with the Pizza Artisan mythology (get out tbh), the set up is as follows:

Most evenings from 7pm, a big shiny silver food truck appears outside Christ Church college on St. Aldate's in Oxford. However, this is not yr usual university town kebab meat fare: this van is a purveyor of the finest pizza in the land, with a menu which defies its tiny size in order to compete with the very best around. Both veggie and meat options abound, and each pizza is lovingly crafted by hand inside the van, and set to bake in its specially installed pizza oven. Obviously, when you're eating pizza this fresh, it's going to taste pretty fucking sexy. 

Olivia's margherita

Accompanied by my pizza pal Olivia, I ordered a Shiva (roasted red peppers, olives, mushrooms, green chillies) without the cheese, and Olivia got a margherita which you can see above. All of the Pizza Artisan pizzas also come with a generous helping of salad leaves (rocket and spinach), and a drizzling with the oil of your choice - I had garlic, Olivia opted for olive.

Needless to say, these pizzas were d o p e. Made carefully to order, each pie is clearly a labour of love, even during busy periods. The toppings are of an incredibly high quality (check out those mozzarella globs!), and the base treads the perfect balance between soft and crispy. All of my vegetables were totally delicious, and there was also no shortage of sauce which I really appreciated, 'cause the Pizza Artisan sauce is delicious and I'd drink it like Coca Cola for realsies. 

I feel like, for this Pizza Artisan visit, the stars really aligned: our food was ready quickly, and we waited for it in the beaming sun; we also ate outside in the super cute surroundings of Christ Church Meadow, and the pizza tasted fresh and delicious. I can't really think of much else that I would want from a pizza visit, and so for that reason a restinpizza first is about to happen: 

Pizza rating 10/10

If you're in Oxford this summer, do yourself a favour and visit your new best mates at Pizza Artisan. You will thank me, I swear. 

P.S. - s/o to Danny for suggesting that I go to this place on the very day I was planning on going. Some spooky shit, hunty.

Pizza Artisan
Christ Church, St. Aldate's, Oxford
http://www.pizzaartisan.co.uk

The Rusty Bicycle, Oxford - 7/6/2014

I'm leaving Oxford for summer soon (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) so before I go away for a few months I'm trying to hit as many local pizza spots as possible. What it may lack in fun stuff and people who actually understand the real world, Oxford sure makes up for in good pizza places. 

The Rusty Bicycle which is a cool lil pub about 3 minutes from my house in East Oxford is no exception. I'm pretty sure they have only recently started doing pizza, but you probably wouldn't notice. Their menu is varied and affordable, and best of all, first on their list is a vegan pie with actual toppings (Franco Manca, take note u guys) - I had their "Vegan Mary" pizza, which has on it black olives, chopped garlic and fresh rocket, and it was delectable for realsies.

What I really liked about this pizza was the base. It's a sourdough crust, which I would usually not feel too sure about, but having given it a shot, I can confidently say that it really works (lol I sound like I'm on an infomercial for a hair loss product). It's super thin and crispy, and the slices held up well even though they looked like they wouldn't. The outside crusts were a little thicker compared to the inner base, and I was especially into how chewy they were because it meant that there was a sort of variety of textures which I was all about.    

Also also, I would like to invite you to look at the picture of this pizza and how huge it is, and then think about the fact that it only cost £6. The ingredients tasted like they were of nice quality, and I was really surprised at the size for the price. It was super good value and the pizzas with cheese and stuff were also pretty reasonably priced so I don't know maybe you should go get dinner at The Rusty Bicycle or something I mean I'm not trying to force you or anything but I just really do think it would be in your best interests. Also I think on most weekdays pizzas are half price at lunchtime (they do burgas and other bar food too!) So now you need no excuse. 

Pizza rating: 7.5/10

The Rusty Bicycle

28 Magdalen Road, OX4 1RB

http://www.therustybicycle.com

pitta pizza party - 5/6/2014

Sometimes in order to get people to read the stuff I write about dough with tomatoes on, I post the link to new blog entries on my Facebook. Last time I did this - for the pizza bagels post a few weeks ago - I was LITERALLY INUNDATED (four people commented) with suggestions for the next bread I should turn into a pizza. The victor was pitta bread, and as I was a pitta pizza novice until last night, my pals Hector and Lu came over to give me a hand in undertaking this complex transformation of mere bread to delicious meal. Essentially this was the pizza equivalent to the bit in She's All That when Evan Rachel Wood takes her glasses off, shedding her plain Jane exterior, and wears a tight dress in order 2 fulfil her destiny as a complete betty. Pitta pizza is also a betty.

So first of all we started by making some pizza sauce. Same ingredients as the ones for the sauce in the bagel post, except we added oregano too. It tasted good.

Then Hector, as the resident pitta pizza expert (his mum makes them for him when he goes home from uni in the holidays), performed the most crucial part of the operation - carefully slicing the pittas down the side so you end up with two flat bits per pitta, rather than two stubby halves like usual, say if you were putting the pitta in the toaster.

Hector was super stoked to be cutting some pitta bread. It is his calling.

Then we chopped some veg (I think we had mushrooms, peppers, red onion, black olives, courgettes, chillies and sundries tomatoes), spread the sauce over the pittas which were lined up on baking trays wrapped in foil, topped them (I just had veg, Hector and Lu also had torn mozzarella which seemed like a cool touch), and put them in the oven to bake for around ten minutes at about 160 degrees (my oven gets very hot very quickly though, so maybe adjust that for your own appliances). But not before I had the chance to take some incredibly obnoxious A Level Art-lookin' photos:

What I liked about pitta pizzas as opposed to the other breads I have experimented with in the past was that they give you room for lots of toppings, which is something that bagels and crumpets just cannot do. Also, their thinness is gr8 if you're about that crispy base life (I am), because as long as you cook them correctly in the oven (i.e. don't let them burn), they'll crisp up really nicely so that you get a p satisfying crunch when you bite into them. They are also surprisingly substantial, in that they're filling (we had these for dinner, but we did use Tesco's large pittas rather than regular sized ones) and also that they're real sturdy - as you can see they have quite a lot of toppings on them and they held up to that pressure well. I think pitta bread would do well on The Cube. When they came out of the oven, they looked like this:

which is, clearly, completely dope. 

So yeah, those are pitta pizzas, and they are probably the best bread I have Queer Eye For The Straight Guy'd so far. They taste great - the base is crispy and the toppings we used were all delicious and didn't make the bread soggy or droopy or anything. Making them was also a really fun thing to do with palz (shout out to Hector and Lucy for coming to help out) so I would recommend that u have a pitta pizza party of yr own sometime soon.

Pizza rating: 9/10

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