Pizza

We waited an hour I guess , but there’s a street bar next door so it was an easy wait .
Great pizza, very good value , they don’t make it expensive . Big 35cm diam , great ingredients I guess but is it worth a wait ?

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The neopolitan food so far has been amazing and such great value .
Great city

^ It does look good...

Best pizza in the world is a ridiculous claim, but the most memorable pizza I've had was one i ordered to takeaway from a place called Patxi's in San Francisco which I ate in the pub next door with a beer. I was crashing with a mate of a mate who lived there and he suggested we go pepperoni and mushroom; I don't even like mushroom but I was a guest and I'd just arrived so didn't want to be a dick and went with it.

It was deep dish - i assumed deep pan in the US was just like a pizza hut or dominos, but this was a totally different game and it blew my mind. I tried to tell my host, it was the best pizza I'd ever had, but he didn't get the gravity of what I was trying to convey so I left it.

Context is probably relevant - I was cycle touring and so my hunger levels were off the the chart. I hadn't remembered the name of the place correctly either but I've just managed to google it - and apart from the toppings, this picture seems accurate to my recollection.

csb etc etc...

https://patxispizza.com/

I found that kind of thing happens often when you eat at 'junk' food place in the US. We're so used to crappy UK imitations (pizza hut, chipotle, bad American bbq places etc), that when you try the 'original'*, it's insanely better than you thought it could ever be.

*yeah I know, America didn't invent pizza, but deep pan etc etc.

When I first had sourdough bread in San Francisco in the late 80's it blew my mind.

Does anyone have a good deep-dish sourdough recipe? is it just more dough? I guess cooking in the over rather than the pan method.

Tbf to them they don’t claim it to be , but neopolitans claim to have the best in the world and this is always up there in their top places .. I like my dough a bit crisper but it was good .
After all it’s fast food .. the friends , ambiance, sunshine , how much beer etc All contribute to best pizza experience, I’m keen to try the antica Michele (?) but the queue is so long ( and there’s so much other good food ), but again they make no claims and only do 2 pizza .. margarita or marinare

I live in SF these days, and Patxi's is really good but there are ones that I think are a little bit better. IF you ever come back, I recommend Little Star Pizza in SF and then Zachary's in Oakland.

With the ikea tables sold out for the coming months, and ooni selling what are basic tables for an outrageous £200 a go, I've grabbed one of these from wayfair for £65. Just want a work surface to make the pizzas in the garden instead of running in and out the house, it's a bit unsociable.

Will report back if it is any good.

Nom nom nom

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So ... I'm a dummy and instead of putting in 3.5g of yeast I put in a whopping 6.5g ... was supposed to go in the fridge for 16-24h after kneading ... then some shaping.

Is it fucked?
Should I start again?

Its not necessarily fucked, you’ll just have more dough and maybe will taste more like yeast? You can always add more flour...

“Best pizza” in Oxford anyone?

Re the above trolley. For £65 would recommend. Decent working surface for making your pizzas, the cage drawers below also pretty handy for plates, ingredients, whatever.

Would it work for putting the ooni on it?

How big is an ooni? My minimo fits on it (going to buy a second one I think, one for oven, one for prep).

You’ll be fine but you may have to knock it back.

yeah it went nuts ... it was pretty yeasty but not bad!

Used the wessex mill pizza and pasta flour instead of the 00 I'd been using. Not a fan of the change, though, for me the dough felt a bit too crumbly. Was subtle, so not a disaster by any means. What I did wonder was whether a handful, say 1/6 or 2/6 of this stuff in with 00 might work.

I rate the strong bread and wholemeal stuff they do, for my sourdough, so had been quite interested to try this stuff. The Grocer was telling me that his punters go mad for it whenever he gets it in.

Dinner for two, but we couldn't decide on toppings. A different dough recipe, started with a biga thursday evening and shaped balls went in the fridge yesterday afternoon. Strange dough to work with, seemingly needing far more heat / time to brown. They went for over 2 minutes instead of the 1:30 I've been doing, and the dough still seemed a tad underdone. Can't comment on the stretching front myself, but got a hint frustration every time I picked up the next pizza for firing.

Toppings are: (starting left and going clockwise)

1. Chanterelles with peas and parsley
   
2. Anchovies with capers and a chopped chilli
   
3. Salami and arugala
   
4. Prosciutto and arugula
   
5. Margherita with fresh cherry tomatoes
   

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Today's leftovers, should make a decent lunch tomorrow. (I think my phone's camera is on its way out, no artsy filters.)

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Back fron Italy quarantine now and I learnt Pizza in Rome , huge contrast to Naples .
Way thinner and crispier , apparently they add olive oil to dough to stretch it thinner .
And no real crust at the edge ... eyes say neopolitan taste says roman.

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Thats a red card that is.

Used to have half kebab pizza and chips for lunch occasionally on Fridays at school. Think they even put scottish chippy sauce on too