Bad Pizza Day

Whatta pizza day! No class, met L at the 'rant at 8:30 and we drove out to Maspeth (the last big scary industrial section of Brooklyn, just low rise warehouses around industrial equipment, dirty canals, some streets not paved), which was a thrill simply because I've ridden my bike through many times over the years but never had any personal connection to the area. We went to a large food purveyor who specializes in Italian food, and we got the grand tour. They spent a few hours with us talking about our needs, and gave us plenty of samples. We toured their gelato classroom (because they sell a large line of pre-made mixes and equipment) and were invited to come back for classes. Huh. A few weeks ago my class did a tour of another food distributor, and we were treated well, but nothing like this. Money talks and BS walks. I feel like I just went from playing basic dungeons & dragons to being in the middle of an advanced game! It was a lot of fun, seeing all the Italian meats and cheeses in the refrigerated warehouse. We sampled a few little things, and we were on our way.

We got various Italian grilled vegetables, all pre-packed in air-tight containers in a vinegar solution. We tried them on our pizzas, and they were all uniformly crappy, all flavors muted to a very flat and boring vinegar flavor. The seafood salad was absolutely picked by the stuff. It made the pizza dance a little bit like salt would, but after being in the mouth for a few more seconds, kind of dominated and killed it. Oh well.

I spent the evening at my culinary school for a recreational class on Roman pizza with the chef who taught my pastry mod when I was in school for the arts program. It was a bit disappointing -- I thought we'd geek out on specifically Roman style things, but really it was a generic pizza class with a few different toppings thrown in (zucchini flowers, potato), but it turned into a free for all by the end and most people made margs or garbage pies. Between being exhausted from the day, feeling a bit out of place among the the very nice but inexperienced enthusiasts, and just wanting to go home and squeeze my wife, it wasn't the most fun ever.

One thing I did notice was the incredibly poor quality of the pies we were producing, and it made me think of why. One, the oven was electric, and the chef explained they had to keep the three decks at 450, or it would blow out the circuit -- thin pizza really should cook at a minimum of 550. Another, the dough -- it was too wet and hard to work with, a bit tricky for me, very hard for the new hands. That wet, you can't really get it thin. I would give credit for the high quality ingredients, but everyone was throwing too much on their pies and making a lot of sloppy messes. I made a simple potato-caramelized onion-sweet sausage thing, which I finished with small dollops of cold ricotta (L's technique) and it was ok, the crust just wasn't browned and didn't have the brown flavor.

I sampled a lot of people's pies looking for inspiration, and was only surprised by one, simply because it was the ugliest of the class, but also the best tasting. The dough was not stretched enough, so it was round but small and stood high. It looked like it had a lot of sauce and cheeses strewn on top without much thought. -sigh- I took a bite and....huh? Wots this? The crust was light and airy, and while it was chewier more than crisp, there was a bit of a contrast. The thicker crust held up to the topping, giving some balance. It tasted....good! I'd pay for this. It occurred to me, in talking with L, that the ideal for Sicilian pizza is 450 degrees, and this person in a roundabout way made a thick crust pizza -- he or she should have let is sit in the oven for another 10 minutes to make it sing, but it was still pretty good. -huh- I'm glad I went, I learned an important pizza lesson despite my snobbery!

BREAKFAST: 7:30am, good yogurt with agave, vanilla, raw cashews, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

AM SNACK: 11:30am, small piece of chocolate babka, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 3-4pm, equivalent of 2 slices with assorted seafood and vegetable toppings, 2 small sodas, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 9:30pm, assorted mini slices of student pizza, half glass of wine, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

EVENING SNACK: 11:15pm, small amount of Ben & Jerry's Ice cream, .25 bowl, hunger 4.5