week 28: zigolinis pizza bar

what? 

i have to keep up with restaurant challenge during my schnitzel month?

apparently so, say's my boss {me}

i'm really going gaga over this napoletana pizza business. 

it's making me obsessive.

like,

i need to try all of them.

and then i want to somehow assemble a meal with one pizza from each of the top contenders and judge which one is the best.

but if my food memory serves me correctly,

zigolinis 

has the best crust. 

it's the first crust on a napoletana pie where the middle wasn't soggy

{i was beginning to accept that as a casualty, you know, like separated mustard goo}

it's like pillsbury doughboy all up in that shit,

that's how doughy it is.

the first time i went

-i went two times in a week-

i ordered the margherita

which was like dough-overload.

i was all

where's the rest of the cheese, luigi? 

{yes, the pizza dude's name is luigi and he a-comes from a-italia}

lesson learned,

i returned and got 

pesto

with mozzarella

and

can i have tomaters on that?

much better balance of dough to friends

and luigi yelled at me when i tried to put parmesan on it.

like, what?

 is pesto + parmesan faux pas or something?

evs.

it was delicious and i gobbled it up and didn't have any room for dessert but got it anyways

#storyofmylife

get this:

nutella pizza

same doughboy crust,

nutella,

marshmallows

sugar overload.

i coulda done without the marshmallows and more nutella.

but,

in life,

there's never enough nutella.

if there's a better napoletana crust out there,

i'm going to find it.

but i think it's going to be pretttty difficult.

till then,

i'll just eat a schnitzel.

...24 mi amores!

xoxo

yeh

zigolinis pizza bar is at 46th and 9th

week 23: fornino

i tried.

i really tried

to stay in that hot williamsburg bar

packed like a sardine

{a sweaty sardine}

standing on my tippy toes

to get a glimpse of the u.s. vs england world cup game...

but in the end

it was that empty, air-conditioned, talked-about pizza bar

fornino

that won the rights to my saturday afternoon.

{also, do you know how frustrating it is to start cheering for the team that just scored because half of the bar is cheering--only to find out that you are indeed cheering for the wrong team?}

anyways,

it's fact that probably one of the best times to get into a restaurant that you've been wanting to try but that you haven't wanted to wait for is during some huge sports event.

which is reason why the italian gentlemen in the corner and the sad looking williamsburger waitresses were the only other people in the restaurant.

{as roars explode from the watering hole across bedford...}

i sat in comfort as i perused the menu.

too big and mushroom-filled.

so i got the margherita classica

{see blackberry picture above}

and,

ok,

not that it didn't suck,

but i mean,

the last three pizzas in new york that i ate were from

roberta's

motorino

and kesté.

{snob snob, i am a snob}

don't pounce on me 

-the flavors were gorgeous-

fresh basil grown in their garden

strong badass tomato sauce

and mozzarella that,while it did have the tendency to slide off all in one bite,was pretty darn good.

my beef was with the crust.

that, too, had a beautiful taste

but the texture just could not compete for its life with the other neapolitan pies in this citayy.

i appreciated the burnt-ness on the bottom,

but the dryness? 

no no.

either way,

i'm glad i discovered a new trick for getting into otherwise crowded restaurants:

talking about,

momofuku during the world series,

locanda verde during the super bowl?

...29 to go, sillies!

fornino is on bedford and north 7th in williamsburg, brooklyn

week 21: roberta's

it's true what they say about 

brooklyn.

the men have wicked beards,

everyone rides bikes,

and the best places are easy to miss.

some don't even have a sign...

{pretentious? or awesome? pretawesome, methinks}

anyways, 

i do this thing where if someone offers me a gig 

in a part of new york that i've yet to explore,

even if it's the triangle part to bruckner 7 with the youth community volunteer orchestra of bedford-stuyvesant incorporated,

i'ma take it.

just so i can discover places like

roberta's

in bushwick.

and when bushwick residences and friends

mika & frankie

lead me to this place, and almost walked right by,

i wasn't so sure...

until, upon entering,

i saw this beautiful thing!

the oven

not the dude bending over.

{you wouldn't believe how much sass i got for taking this picture though...}

also beautiful were the pizzas coming out of the oven.

so much so that when given the choice to wait an hour and a half

or to freeze our bums off in the garden seating,

the choice was obvious...

and utterly worth it.

vegan frank got the 

rosso

tomato, oregano & garlic

mika

margherita

that rolls off the tongue, don't it?

and i, with my newly formed love of pineapple pizza, 

devoured the

dakine

tomato, mozzarella, ricotta, cotto, jalapenos & pineapple

{whoever thought of that combination is genius, by the way... 

sweet, spicy, and cheese? yes, please}

with dough slightly crispier

than kesté's,

and local fresh toppings,

this may just be another reason to venture out to brooklyn again...

and p.s. is anybody else obsessed with this neapolitan pizza obsession?

31 more restaurants, people!

xoxo

yeh

roberta's is located at 261 moore st in brooklayyn

mon-fri 12pm-12am

sat-sun 11am-12am

billz & coins only

home for the weekend!

to play a recital

and 

eat some pizza

and to recall that in some places in the world,

pizza is actually cut into squares

{?!?!?!}

does somebody want to explain to me the reasoning behind this?

other than,

1. so that the cheese can slide off reeeeeally easily

and 

2. so that eating just one more piece is so easy to do that you eat the whole pizza without even knowing it

thankfully,

the stupidity of square cut pizza in this region

is balanced out by the genius of

 deep dish.

{with my current accessory of choice, the green pepper}

and how about some caramelized crust with your slice?

#whychicagoansarefatsos

wish me luck in my recital/digestion, everybody!

xoxo

yeh

tonight's pizza was from pequod's in morton grove, il

{pequod's has another location in lincoln park}

m-sat 11am-2am

sun 11am-12am