Pizza Anyone?

I finally remembered the US chain we always went to,

south of the border, in Bellingham WA...

We enjoyed the menu variety, the service, and the pizzas were great!

Anthony's Coal Fired is my favorite, it's a little chain a few miles from my house. The slices are huge, the pizza is AMAZING, and even though it looks charred, it doesn't taste burnt. The best pizza out there, by far, even though it's a little pricey.

I finally remembered the US chain we always went to,

south of the border, in Bellingham WA...

Shakey's was the first pizza I ever ate back when I was a wee lad.

Been a while, but my vote goes to ...

PIZZA HUT, ONLY because of how it works in

it's overseas Asian chains. Which are basically RESTAURANTS, with seating

and menus, and awesome food things to choose from. Their menus are to die for.

And we did, from week to week, LOL. Back in the TPR 2012 China Tour.

TPR 2012 China Tour. And I forget the city this was taken, in.

My favorites are Chicago Uno's and Ledo pizza (mostly a Maryland chain). I used work for both Papa John's and Domino's for a while, occasionally I still order PJ's but after two years at Domino's, I learned to never eat their food ever again.

Gino's East gets my vote

Shocking Discovery!!!

Just found this on the net:

The History of Hawaiian Pizza ~ Despite its tropical name, Hawaiian pizza is actually a Canadian creation. The pineapple-laden pie is the brainchild of retired cook, Sam Panopoulos, who first served pineapple on pizza at Satellite Restaurant in Chatham, Ont.

For the whole story --- http://www.foodnetwork.ca/shows/great-canadian-cookbook/blog/the-history-of-hawaiian-pizza/

The History of Hawaiian Pizza ~ Despite its tropical name, Hawaiian pizza is actually a Canadian creation. The pineapple-laden pie is the brainchild of retired cook, Sam Panopoulos, who first served pineapple on pizza at Satellite Restaurant in Chatham, Ont.

For the country that created poutine and maple syrup, I'm surprised Canada was the place where this abomination was made.

Bump, OLE' !

Wow! Talk about an update! This is how I celebrated Cinco de Mayo today. By eating at our local Pizzeria, LOL!

Which is right across the street, from where we live. I hadn't been there since it first opened ..... 9 years ago???

Pizza was great, hot and perfectly gooey. The lager tap beer was fine, too. I might come back again, heh.

https://viateverepizzeria.com/

As per Covid Rules, Vancouver is going crazy with outdoor, patio seating. No indoors at this time.

View from my table. That's our house, first one you can see there. With the rainbow flag on top.

Le Menu. I went with their signature pizza ..... the Margherita. And a beer.

How things looked before The Arrival of ......

The Margherita. Looks marvelous. And ..... "The first cut is the deepest." (o;

Almost gone. And I did indeed, eat it all up! Oink Ole'!

How I really wanted my beer to be, mixed, "The Mexico Way"!

At a park, during the TPR Mexico Tour, 2013.

I've never seen pizza sliced with Scissors

They don't have pizza rollers up North. They have to improvise.

Actually, before she brought the pizza out, she asked me if I wanted it cut, or to "cut it myself?"

I decided to cut it myself, expecting a "pizza cutter wheel" ..... and I got the scissors. And it worked great!

Face it, Bill, you're a hipster.

^ Thanks!

I think.

Way too hot (lately) here, for a slice of hot pizza. Yuk.

Not to be biased, but my favorite pizza provider would be myself!  Sometimes I do more traditional pizzas, and other times crazy flavor combinations... I love to play around with the styles/regions such as thin crust, NY style, Chicago Deep Dish, Detroit, Neapolitan, etc...  I will make different doughs and sauces for the various pizza styles, as well as playing around with cooking methods (wood fired, oven or even one of my smokers) and ingredients to get the flavor I am after. 

We make pizzas every weekend, these were the most recent ones. Made a Margherita and Detroit style. Two different crusts, scratch made sauce of course. 

First up was a Margherita style pizza... Overnight fermented sourdough crust topped with sauce, whole fresh mozzarella cheese and a light shredding of parmesan reggiano. And of course, plenty of fresh Basil from the garden and a light drizzle of extra virgin olive oil. Was heavenly! Yeah, it's a lot of basil, but that is just how I like it! Yum. 

Next up was our Detroit-Style pizza...Whole different crust recipe of course, spread into a 9x13" pan coated in olive oil. Topped the crust directly with Provolone/Mozzarella mix, fresh Asiago and then topped with freshly cut pepperoni and green peppers. Crust was covered in fresh mozzarella cubes to crust/char around the edges and the three signature lines of sauce added on top. As well as some more fresh basil. This one was so good, we are remaking it again this weekend but subbing out the pepperoni for scratch made Italian sausage and likely some onion thrown in. 

Well, the /best/ pizza is Cesari's, because if you're getting it, you're at Knoebels!

Putting location aside, the best I've ever had was the Sicilian pizza from Pizza Boy II in Queens NY.  It's been too long, and nothing's beaten it since.

These poll options are a joke, right?

^ Yeah well, you have to remember when he posted this all, right yes? No? Eh.... Shakey's Pizza in Bellingham, WA Forever! 

So, it's been several weeks since "My Very First" visit to https://viateverepizzeria.com back in May.

Since then, I've been back to the place five times! Each visit a different pizza. I did skip one, but will explain that later.

This was again the Margharita pizza, but with salami added. This was also my first introduction to "the chile oil" on the table. Great pizza! I am definitely a meat eating kind of guy, lol.

The next visit (usually on the Wednesday, when they open at 4pm) I went with the Marinara, which is a pretty basic kind of pizza. But instead of a tomato 'sauce' they used crushed tomatoes on this one. I felt that made all the difference. They also threw in some garlic cloves and oregano, which was a nice touch. And I still got a kick out of getting slices with the pair of scissors! I still used a knife and fork to enjoy each slice. No "rolling" at this point for me, heh. And they switched it up, from a little one server metallic cup, to a good sized bottle of Chile Oil! Good choice.

Sat looking the other way up Victoria Dr.

Three things, the crust .... and that's it for a Marinara!

Noted.

I did enjoy the crushed tomatoes part of it.

Now I can slather on as much chile oil as I want to, bwa - ha - ha!

The following Wednesday, it was this pizza totally blanketed in Arugula! The prosciutto was nice, cooked in the pizza. I enjoyed having just more than a couple of 'things' on my pizza.

The bottle of chile oil awaits, too.

So the rest of it must be ...under the arugula?

It was good. I would order this one again.

Hmmm. I really think their Flag of Italy could use a replacement flag?

After this one, there was "the one with anchovies in it." I am only a fan of these fishies if they are (usually) in a paste, and used for creating one of those Caesar Salads, hmm yes? Whatever the case, I did enjoy it, but the anchovies here and there made for a jarring, very salty, taste in my mouth. I would not order this one again. But I liked the taste novelty of it all.

Looking out front, from our porch. Great sunny day, it was.

The view of Victoria Dr. from this chair.

Fuzzy, but readable. Note: anchovies. And basil.

Utensils of choice.

Looks beautiful, even with the anchovies in there.

And lastly, just eaten this past Wednesday, was a real fave of mine, now. With funghi, too!

Note that I skipped the VESUVIO pizza. Too much spicy meats for myself. Piccante = HOT! So I skipped it.

Yum right?!! Again all the meat cooked in the pizza. As well ....Chile Oil!

A no-brainer to eat it all up, hmm? And....there it is. Five more visits to our local pizzeria, Neopolitan style.

I just really don't like the scissors thing.

it just doesn't seem "sanitary" to me. . and yes, i know, the scissors are specifically for the pizza cutting. . I still don't like it. 
(cut the damn pizza in the kitchen and bring it to me sliced).

otherwise tho, the pizzas all look great.

What I enjoyed about the scissors, is that I could cut these enormous slices... or just an itty bitty one, to test the chile oil on.

I suspect that the take out pizza orders and delivery ones are sliced, unless asked not to, otherwise.

P.S. They do ask you at the table if you'd want it sliced, or "do it yourself" etc? But for myself, I have now been there so often, they just bring the scissors over, along with the small plate and utensils. Which I appreciate them remembering.

Yesterday, I had what is simply the most expensive pizza on the menu .... $22 Cdn. Which is what? Twelve bucks in U.S. money?

But it had artichokes, black olives, salami, mushrooms and a couple of other things to make it a really loaded pizza, lol!

And I enjoyed it so much, I decided to finally save a piece for David, since he kept bugging me to do so.

Been over a year since I cut the middle out of the rhododendrons, finally exposing our front porch.

What they wrap the utensils and napkin in.

The Capricciosa. And "fior di latte" is Italian for "milky fresh mozzarella."

And ecco qui! So beautiful, I hate to cut it up. But this is what $22 Cdn. gets you.

Down to the last slice....

Which is saved for David. And he loved it, of course. Next visit: An olive oil-based pizza!

"A Pizza Epiphany"

I went back for my usual Wednesday pizza meal. Came out of it, with a great respect for Olive Oil-Based pizzas!

It's the truth, I have never had a pizza without a tomato sauce base on it. Till Wednesday. And it was awesome! Of course, all the toppings made it extra special, too. Certainly worth repeating, eventually. For now, I have four more of these styles of pizza to enjoy. With a good Pilsner or lager beer, too.

Not every day you see a fire truck, lights blazing, in front of your house.

Couldn't see much activity, until I walked past it, up to the pizza place.

Turns out "something was happening" across from us. No ambulance showing up, tho. Then, the truck took off. Fini.

Hmmm. Which side to choose, this visit? I went with the table on the right.

This week's choice was the Filetto. And next week's pizza is below it. "Four Cheeses." Future yum.

A nice draught Pilsner beer, with a "sidecar" of water.

View of our house. Check.

View of Victoria Drive, looking south. Check.

Oops! Nearly forgot to get a shot of this great pizza! I realize that this one still has tomato on it. Just not as it's base.

All finished! And looking forward to more of this kind of pizza in the coming weeks.

Hmmm. "And then there was the last pizza I had....."

This one had four cheeses, and I paid extra for adding leaves of Basil .

Well, to be honest, I wasn't taken with this one. The fact that it was basically the flatest pizza I had seen from this pizza place...

I think I am still missing tomatoes on any part of a pizza, be it the base, or as a topping.

But I am still going to continue weekly with a few more olive-based pizzas to go. I want to try all they have in this place.

And compare what I've had, etc. http://viateverepizzeria.com/

And it was a touch windy and cool outside, so I sat inside for the first time, in a long while.

They put me in the corner of the place.

To my left, part of the Victoria-William St. 'intersection'.

Looking out in front of me. Not much to be able to see, compared to being outside.

The Four Cheese pizza. With Basil added, a$ extra.

I could count the basil leaves on this. I just thought there'd be more of them. The white blobs were the Riicotta. It tasted alright.

Nearly finished, with a last slice to take to David. Total with tip = $33.53 Cdn.

"Will that be a white or red pizza?"

In the last two weeks, I got to try the same pizza, with two different bases: plain white and tomato red. And guess what? I actually preferred this pizza without the red tomato sauce on it. Surprised me! It tasted (the red) like the tomato sauce was "in the way" of the sausage meat and broccoli rabe. The white base allowed the flavours to shine through, better than with a red base, I felt.

Here's the photos from both visits...

Wednesday, Sept. 22

The Salsiccia e rapini pizza .... with the white base.

Which reminds me. Garbage Day tomorrow.

Still hanging on by a (sort of) "single thread.

Looks just beyootiful!

Definitely a good one, IMhO.

And, David gets his slice, when I get home

Wednesday, Sept. 29

Slightly wet outside, today.

Same pizza. With the red base this time.

Happily, the Mill St. Organic Lager was back.

Surprisingly, I liked the pizza with the white base better, instead of the red.

I did finish it all though, save for a slice to take home to David.

But for now ... White > Red.