Pizza?!

This week’s topics include pizza snobbery, wonder bread pizza dough, a wonderful visual just for you, a wine recommendation, and homemade chicken noodle soup in a matter of minutes. 

Pizza?  Methinks not.   So I had drafted a restaurant review for this week about a great little ristorante in Scottsdale, Arizona.  But, I had a meal that deserved a good rant and, frankly, I’ve got a hankerin’ for a good rant.   Lately I’ve had far too many rosy reviews and not enough ranting.  The good review will have to wait for a future blog. 

A couple days ago I find myself having lunch at Gordon Biersch in Las Vegas.  I’ve been to Gordon Biersch a number of times.  Moderately fresh ingredients, decent food, and decent beer.  Decent restaurant when you're on the road and not feeling adventuresome.

This time I order a pizza, and a basic one at that – roma tomatoes, mozzarella cheese, fresh basil, and maybe some garlic.  Done well, this is a fantastic pizza.  Done poorly, well… there’s no place to hide.

I bite into my pizza and immediately notice that the pizza is not fully cooked.  The dough’s not quite done and the toppings are not truly hot so that they all meld together.  I politely ask the waitress to have them throw it back in the oven for a few more minutes.

Are you *&^%$ kidding me?!  She brings it back and it’s better, but it quickly turns into a mush. Borderline disgusting.  It took some thought, but I finally figured out what was so wrong with this pizza. 

The foundation (literally) of good pizza is the dough.  It’s not bread dough that you roll out and throw in the oven.  It’s pizza dough and, in my ever so humble opinion, it’s the single most important ingredient to a pizza.  Slightly salty, very flavorful, and crispy from being cooked in a VERY hot oven so that it holds up to toppings.  You can’t just use any dough to make pizza.  If that’s your idea, grab a Boboli crust, make some wannabe Domino’s pizza at home, and enjoy it with a Bud Light.  

This dough was more like wonder bread that was rolled out in the shape of a pizza than actual pizza dough.  Better suited for a peanut butter and jelly sandwich than a pizza.  It had no flavor and it was simply too thick.  There was no way that it was going to get crisp, even though it was cooked in a ‘wood fired’ oven.  Yeah, right.  It’s a fancy oven with a big burner on the back end.

As it cooled, it resembled a bad pasta dish more than an alleged pizza.  It was particularly bad because this was a basic, rustic pizza.  It cries out for a dough that will help the fresh ingredients shine.  This dough did the opposite.  It drug some otherwise decent ingredients down with it.  I’ll eat almost anything, and I couldn’t eat more than a couple of slices.

The next time you’re in Gordon Biersch, order a good beer and steer away from the pizzas.  Order a burger.  The bun’s probably made from the ‘pizza dough’. 

Know a good pizza joint?  Email me or post a comment.  I’ll come review it. 

Random travel note.  So recently, I’m driving through a small town in Nevada.  Not what you would call a thriving metropolitan area.  Let’s just say that Wal-Mart in this town would provide some great photo opportunities.

I’m driving by this old liquor store and I see this guy get out of his old, beat up truck.  Fairly large man.  No shirt, no shoes, many tattoos, and heading into the liquor store.  Please to enjoy the visual.  

Wine suggestion – Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon Artemis.  For those of you who haven’t read Judgment of Paris, Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon is one of the wines that beat the French wines in the 1970’s.  Note I said Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars, not Stag’s Leap Winery.  The latter is a perfect good winery, but it is not the world beater winery.

Back to the suggestion.  Artemis is a mid-level Cab from this winery.  Our local Costco recently had a coupon for this wine that made it $36 per bottle.  A little on the pricey side, but I still wanted to try it.

This is truly a wine made by a wine maker who’s got some righteous wine kung fu.  Rich bouquet of flavors, yet no single one that truly jumps out.  Nice from the front of your palate to the back.  I think it’s similar to a good French Bordeaux.  Well worth that price.

What I have in my pantry that you should - Better than Bouillon (Chicken).  As you may have guessed by now, I go through a fair amount of chicken stock.  I use it for paella, soups, chicken and dumplings, sauces, etc.  I try to make my own whenever possible and freeze it, but that’ s not always possible.  

Better than Bouillon is a paste you buy in a jar and it makes very good stock in mere seconds.  You just put into a pot of boiling water and, VOILA, you have chicken stock.  Yes, I know it’s cheating, but not even the Wannabe Foodie can always have the amount of homemade chicken stock on hand that I need.  But, if you’re going to cheat, it’s still got to be good and Better than Bouillon is.

In addition to the uses mentioned above, I’ve even used Better than Bouillon to whip up some chicken noodle soup on the fly.  I made a couple quarts of stock and added leftover chicken, carrots, celery, pasta, and some garlic.  A little salt, a little pepper, a little simmer, and you’ve got a far better soup that you can buy in a can. 

Add it to your supplies. 

Happy cooking.

WF