Rossopomodoro - an Italian tale in two halves Nov 2012

I got called out recently. Challenged by a restaurant PR keen to prove that not all Italian chain restaurants are the same. I must admit that I wasn't overly keen but it was such a charming invite that I succumbed with my usual provisos*.

Admittedly bowling up at 2.30 on a Friday afternoon wasn't a particularly fair start. Slap bang on a busy Covent Garden junction, they'd obviously been hammered by a long lunch rush and the staff were slightly on the back foot, if delightful, throughout.

Bread and olives were definitely not good. The slightly over dry ciabatta had obviously been sat toasted for a while, left over from the lunchtime rush, and a too liberal glug of oil pre-delivery made for a chewy and teeth squeaking start. Olives likewise we're nothing to write home about.

Porky meatballs to start were fine, though any subtlety in the meat was overpowered by a brash tomato sauce that shouted over the top of them. They were, to be fair, better than a Frito Misto bowl of calamari and courgette. While it was a hearty portion, after too much dry and cloyingly thick batter, quantity became part of the criticism. We soldiered on and finished it, though mainly as it was a late lunch and we were starving.

I have to confess to not being entirely well disposed to the food by the time the pizza arrived. Expectations suitably lowered, they were wonderfully and unexpectedly knocked into a different league by the pizza. I went for simplicity itself, a humble margherita, topped with a simple smear of fresh tomato, sweet mozzarella and a wisp of basil. The other one was a Carmelo, slightly overbearing smoked mozz - leaving both of us feeling like we'd just nipped out for a fag - and lovely, if too sweet, Neapolitan pork sausage. 

The toppings were secondary, it was the bases that were special. Really special. Chewy, toasty moreishness with a light char and the lightest sour tang. By dint of that, and the simplicity of it, the margherita is one of the best pizzas I've ever tasted in this country. It even edged ahead of my last visit to to Franco Manca, a real touch of Naples in the most unlikely of spots. 

So did it change my preconceptions of the Italian chain? Well not really. Other than that pizza, there wasn't anything here that would make me run back. That being said, I've got a new place for a quick pizza in central London, if I can get past the tourists. 

 
* When I get an email from a PR representing a restaurant that I think I'd enjoy, I tend to send something back along the lines of: "Thanks for the interest, I'd be happy to come along, on proviso that I can book in myself, eat anonymously and choose if, when and what I write anything about it." If it's a cut and paste email, I send a cut and paste response, if they've read and engaged with the blog and sent me a personal note, then I'll respond personally. I've never solicited an invite and I've turned a lot down (sorry Strada... I really wasn't interested in your new autumn menu tasting).

Another bite of Brixton Market - Feb 2012

As a little foodie cluster, Brixton Village has more than enough ethnic treats to satisfy even the most diverse of foodie. The main problem will be deciding what to go for. Personal highlights include the excellent Honest Burger, Franco Manca (the slew of other, newer openings have thankfully made seats here easier to come by) and Federation's excellent coffee. 

There's a pleasant mix developing between new and old Brixton. The newly opened food stalls complement the peacock finery of the African clothes stores and feel at home alongside the butchers and veg stalls elsewhere. A soundtrack of dub, reggae and itinerant street preacher permeates and there's thankfully little sign of the depressing corporate homogeneity that has neutered Spitalfields, Borough, Camden and the other markets. Brixton does it differently.

Mama Lam is another often mentioned treat, more an appeterif than a main meal, they do a selection of freshly made Chinese jiaozi or potsticker dumplings, a couple of other fried lovelies and intense, flavoursome noodle soups. The tiny outdoor tables are a trial in the winter so grab a place at the counter and watch their Chinese mama deftly roll and fill the little dough parcels, poached then crisped off over hot heat. Fillings include beef, pork and vegetables, five satisfying and fresh buns will set you back a few quid.

A rarer street food is served at Okan, big hearty pancakes from Osaka called Okonomiyaki. Hefty, hearty giant rosti cakes, made with a cabbage and noodle base held together with a sloppy batter, served with a variety of umami rich toppings and fillings. They taste better than they sound and the theatre of them being prepared on their sizzling short order grill is both evocative and famishing...

As well as the three or four places mentioned recently, there are a number of South American places I've subsequently noticed now on my list, a good looking Thai, jerk stalls (though I have my Peckham affinities here) and a selection of other bakeries, grills and goodies alongside non food related retailers old and new school. The continual evolution and ad hoc nature of the place will hopefully bring new places to the market to sink or swim based on satisfaction rather than longevity of lease or depth of corporate pocket.

The finished product

 Looking in at Mama Lam

And the resultant pot stickers

Franco Manca - Another slice of Brixton Market - Jan 2012

Occupying two shallow store spaces opposite each other on the pedestrian walk through Market Row, the chaotic crowds around Franco Manca get to you just before the smell does. luckily others are either busy keeping their new year's resolutions or have moved temporarily on to the gustatory delights elsewhere in Brixton Market and we slide (un)comfortably into the slim fit church pews outside ready to worship at the altar. On a cold January day we're slightly envious of the sweat slicked artisan operators slaving away at the dual wood fired ovens, one on either side.

Things are kept simple. You're only here for one thing after all. A choice of six pizzas on the menu plus a daily specials board. Paper menu, Ikea tumblers and cutlery in tins on the table.

Toppings are mainly meaty and our special, with soft creamy wild boar mortadella is no exception, the meat going well with roasted green peppers softened and sweet from the wood fired oven.
The pizza is a chewy sourdough, fresh from those ovens, served as it comes. Being picky, ours is slightly soggy in the centre from the tomato sauce (though possibly also my over generous application of chilli infused olive oil). The crust is superb, if you can then try to bring one of the naysayers who leaves it at the side of their plate, and steal theirs too.


                

The Real Man Pizza Company - One for goodfellas, not for tough guys... Dec 2011

"Home of the hottest pizza in the United Kingdom". I'd assumed that the 'Real Man' referred to the cojones needed by anyone sampling the aforementioned Diablo, but there's allegedly a Manx connection at this newish Farringdon pizzeria just down from the Eagle. The small island, better known for TT racing and tail-less cats hasn't on the surface anything significant to add to the pizza story, but the kitchen gamely attempt to inveigle the local queenies - a small, sweet scallop found in the waters off the island - into a couple of the dishes.

The special one, a tricked up margarita, delivers its kick though a ferociously spicy tomato sauce. It's sweeter than expected, with a residual heat that builds after initial impact. To be honest, it could have done with a modicum more texture. Chunks of spicy sausage or ham would have given a little welcome variation.

It's not an expensive meal, nor an overly salubrious location, though it works well for the local lunchtime and post work crowd of office workers and creatives who don't want to fight through the crowds of Exmouth Street Market.


Other pizza related reviews and links:
A brief history of pizza - "when the moon hits your eye, like a big pizza pie, that's the most popular fast food in the world..."
A tale of two pizzas - Reviews of Firezza and The Gowlett

When the moon hits your eye... know your pizza - Sept 2010

As A.A. Gill describes it, pizza is "the one truly international dish, the only edible thing that is understood in every language from Icelandic to Burmese, from Inuit to Tagalog. It has grown from its origin as a simple unleavened paste roasted crisp, with tomato, oil, rosemary and perhaps a little mozzarella, a food for the very, very poor, and become a frisbee that travelled around the world."

We're a long way away now from the simple flatbreads of our ancestors, and a good few hundred years on from the Naples chef who, so the legend goes, added mozzarella and basil to the tomato base and served up the pre-cursor of the modern dish to Queen Margherita of Savoy.
It's the Neapolitan style that is most common today, certainly in the UK. It's the 'traditional' crisp based but slightly chewy pizza favoured by outfits as diverse in quality as Franco Manca and Pizza Express. With the exception of aberrations such as Pizza Hut and Papa Johns, most places will go for a variant of the Neapolitan. Wood fired in a brick oven (for authenticity) it's even got its own organisation to control its origin, The Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana, a shadowy organisation dedicated to the protection and dissemination of the only 'true' pizza.

             "The pizze must have certain specific characteristics to be vera pizza Napoletana, or true Neapolitan pizza. The dough must be hand pressed with Italian flour and the precise amount of water. The tomatoes are always Italian, usually San Marzano style. And the mozzarella cheese (bufala Mozzarella) is that from water buffalo in the region between Napoli and Roma. These are the ingredients with practiced hands and the special high temperature wood burning oven that make authentic pizza Napoletana."                              Associazione Vera Pizza Napoletana

Not to be outdone, the Romans have two styles bearing their name. The Roman (or Lazio) style seen most often is served 'restaurant style' as a round with an ultra thin and crispy base, almost more a flatbread than a pizza. They also pioneered the pizza rustica or pizza al taglio, served in the working class suburbs of the city. Instead of being served in round pies, the thicker base is baked on metal trays and cut into paired squares, then quickly reheated to order. 


The humble, portable pie was an obvious foodstuff for the economic migrants into the States. Easy to recreate and most importantly cheap, it quickly spread through the ex-pat populations of New York and Chicago, both of whom lay claim to their own unique styles developed and finessed over generations. That being said, it might have stayed as a niche taste if transit around the world necessitated by World War II hadn't also hastened the spread of the pizza into the States. Odd to believe, but it didn't really enter the wider public consciousness until after the war.


Chicago style is deep pan, a Neapolitan base baked in a lipped pan to give a flan shape filled with toppings. New York style, popular in enclaves such as Brooklyn from the early 1900's, spread inward and upper class over the years and is now found on every street in the Five Boroughs and far beyond.  A thin crispy hand tossed pizza served from huge wheels with a few toppings. Served by the slice, eaten on the run. The famous Noo Yoik names such as Ray's Pizzeria, Grimaldi's, Lombardi's (one of the first, founded in 1905) and John's of Bleeker Street pull in the tourists, but nowadays vie with the more upmarket pizzerias for the local's dollar. The main variant served in legendary pie shops such as Brooklyn's Di Fara, Dominic and Artichoke Basille's in the East Village the Sicilian style. It's similar to the Roman al taglio, a thick doughy based square slathered in sauce, topped with pecorino and anchovies. 

We're just not going to mention Pizza Hut, alright?
Interesting pizza-based links:
American Pie: American Heritage - Hanna Miller
Pizza, pasta and red sauce: Italian or American? Donna R. Gabaccia, University of Minnesota
Pizza: A Global History - Carol F. Helstosky
A.A. Gill in The Sunday Times on Pizza East
The Association Verace Pizza Napoletana
New York Pizza - Is water the secret? - Sarah Gilbert

Melito - Sept 2010

SADLY MELITO IS NOW CLOSED - REPLACED BY CHAIN MEXICAN BENITO'S HAT

Where: Melito Pizza Bar, Great Castle Street, Oxford Circus

With who: most of my colleagues over the last few weeks
How much: pretty good value at £3.50ish for a couple of squares of pizza, pastas and salads for £4-£5


Another day, another new opening in the new food quarter north of Oxford Circus... We now have more restaurants and coffee shops than Soho has irritating media types in horn rimmed glasses. Sadly the latest, a lunchtime pizza joint, looked more mundane than most. 


Then you notice the menu, and it starts looking a little more interesting... five different pizzas, served al taglio (Roman street style*, chewy crust pizzas cooked and served from large rectangular trays) including a Salami Picante, an unusual Fennel & Parma Ham number and a Quatro Formaggi with Laverstoke Park buffalo mozzarella, gorgonzola, taleggio & ricotta. They've also got a couple of pasta dishes, soup and salads, but we're here for the pizza.


And it's not bad. Not bad at all... A little oily perhaps, but freshly cooked with no skimping on quality, pre-cooked and quickly oven heated on demand. The Fennel & Parma ham is particularly pleasing, with the caramelised fennel strips adding a pleasing aniseed note to the salty strips of Parma ham. Others try the pasta, with particular plaudits for the veal and pork meatballs, fragranced with sage, served with a well cooked macaroni. 


It's a very pleasing addition to the area, and for £6 with a couple of slices, salad and a drink, it's one of the cheaper local options for lunch. Worth trying for the price, the quality is what will keep you coming back.


*Irritatingly Roman street style or al taglio is not the same as plain Roman style. I'll do a post on it when I get to the bottom of what the differences are...


View Larger Map

Review of Vapiano - June 2010

Where: Vapiano, Oxford Circus
With whom: Various colleagues
How much?: A range of fresh pizza, pasta and salads, generally £8-£10 with drinks
Vapiano is an institution in the US, the Middle East and mainland Europe, and it appears we're a little slow to get the franchise. The first London outpost appears slightly belatedly in the scheme of things, there are already 35 in Germany and assorted other global outposts from Sweden to the UAE. 
It's a simple enough concept. You order a range of Italian food from different counters along the walls. The counters surround a central section of tables. You get given a buzzer that goes off when your food is ready for you to collect. So far so blah... 

The styling is clean and refreshing. It feels a little like an upmarket shopping centre food court, but in a good way. The staff are friendly, polite and unobtrusive (not surprising considering you do everything yourself). Sadly though the food is little better than alright. It's fresh certainly, something they highlight with the pots of basil sitting on every table and they don't start cooking or preparing until you arrive at the counter so everything is cooked to order. On the last visit I went for the Diavolo pizza, a spicy, less than authentic combination of Italian sausage, peppers and red onions. It was fine, though nothing special. The dough was fairly tasteless and the topping needed the additional zing of a spoon of chilli flakes. Another irritating niggle, I got it fast, but it hadn't been left in the oven for long enough (or more likely the oven was cooler than their timings were set for) and the dough was still a little too soft in the centre. 
It's a passible option (and better than most chain restaurants in central London) but we're not exactly short of upmarket pizza / pasta chains in this country,so I do struggle to see the differentiation between Vapiano and the more established Pizza Express, Ask or Strada chains. It doesn't strive for an authentic menu and other than being close to the office and big enough to guarantee a table I don't think that the 'innovation' of letting me collect my own pizza will be forcing me back for a repeat visit.

A Tale of Two Pizzas - Review of Firezza Pizza and The Gowlett - May 2010

Where: Firezza, Herne Hill (delivery) and The Gowlett, East Dulwich / Peckham(ish)
With whom: The good Doctor Vole, Nico Polo and Con-olog
How much?: Firezza - 15 notes for a pizza, coleslaw and garlic bread... easily enough for two. The Gowlett - £9 for the Chef's Special, others were £8 or £8.50

Firezza
You know those times when only a pizza will do? When you just want to sit in, crack open a bottle of wine and chow down on a good to honest, slice of succulent pie?

Well tonight was definitely that night.

Firezza make a great pizza. Wood fired Neapolitan pizza by the 12" pie or by the half metre. The recipes are broadly authentic, and they don't scrimp on the toppings. The chewy, freshly made crust is slightly charred in places, highlighting its uneven authenticity. The smokey heat from the chorizo and the plump red peppers weren't the most authentic pairing but they did me just fine. A little too damp towards the middle, the liquid in the sauce and from the peppers necessitated some serious folding action. Order online and get a lovely garlic bread thrown in.

The Gowlett 

We'd gone to Locale in East Dulwich, lured by the promise of canapes and free Mojitos... Their outside 'terrace' is little more than pavement, but pleasant enough. Brian, the owner / manager was certainly working the space, welcoming the natives and encouraging all to eat and drink. We grabbed some perfectly cooked arancini and possibly the saltiest tapenade I've ever sampled but it only really filled a corner. The queues were large enough to put us off staying, so we whizzed round to the Gowlett for some of their superb pizza.

Much is said around SE15 / SE22 about the wonders of the Gowlett. It's an unreconstructed boozer. Pool table in the corner, multiple dogs wandering round trying to half inch crisps, local 'characters' happily mingling with art students, t-shirts and haircuts that wouldn't feel out of place in Shoreditch. That kind of thing. I bumped into a random colleague there who proudly informed me that she had just moved to the road to be near the place... it inspires loyalty and reverence.
You also know that it's no ordinary pub pizza when people, hungry, booze filled exuberant people, are all very happy waiting AN HOUR for a few simple toppings on a dough base.

Crispier than I was expecting, the base was almost like a pitta bread around the edges. My Chef's Special came with a topping led by bacon and peppers and despite a (slightly) excessive char on the base was mighty tasty. Con-olog had their signature Gowlettini, a cheese heavy combination that comes with a lot, and I mean a large man's handful, of rocket over the top. A lazy-boy salad combo if you will. 

Overall 

To be honest, I prefer the pizza from Firezza. It's got more 'weight' to it, and the flavour is exceptional. If I'm sitting in of an evening inhaling a box set then nothing else will do. However, if you're looking for a great local pub, with torn up seating, and dogs, and well kept beers and a bloody good pizza to boot.. then you can't go wrong with the Gowlett. If they both continue to prosper I'll be a happy, though lardy, man.

Review of The Lansdowne Pub - Apr 2010

Where: The Lansdowne Pub, Primrose Hill
With whom: The Ginger Prince
How much?: starters around £7 or £8, mains £12 to £16 and an excellent looking pizza menu at £10 a pop


I turned up to find the The Ginger Prince sat in this 'reclaimed' backstreet boozer in one of London's smuggest of boroughs, peering over his NHS chic specs at a set of website visuals, firing orders at a junior creative down the phone. To be honest, I almost didn't find him, he fitted in that well. The marketing and media set seamlessly combine with off duty investment bankers and an [insert collective noun] of NY-LON mums, their offspring and small dogs. If there is a derivative formula for a gastropub it's this. 


Mismatched furniture, taken from old churches - check. 
Check shirted barstaff more used to talking a wine list than pouring a pint - check.
Menu, groaning with terroir, scrawled up on a chalkboard - check.
Offal - check 

So far, so meah.. but The Ginger Prince is a man of taste and refinement who craves authenticity, and he wouldn't drag me here without a bloody good reason (other than his g.f. working round the corner). It wasn't for the beers sadly... a handful of handpumps, Becks Vier and the over-common and over-chemical Staropramen greeted me - handy, as the slightly too cool for school barman failed to do so. Still, the pint was cold, and wet, and after a fraught day, much needed.


I manhandled him away from his screen and focussed attention on the menu. Sure it was gastro 101 but it looked good, with some hale and hearty choices. Big stews, roasted fish and a massive pork chop all featured. I started to channel Greg Wallace as I read through the menu. 

My dining companion went with the rib eye, fresh horseradish and obligatory goose fat thick chips. It wasn't as pink as ordered, but The Ginger Prince pronounced it succulent, satisfactory and well flavoured. 


I only had eyes for the pork belly... I'd been tempted by a pizza on arrival, but have been to the too excellent Firezza recently. Other than the pizza, it was a fairly simple choice. 

The hog arrived, served on a bed of frisee, roasted new potatoes, garlic and prunes. 


A portion to overface a weedy media exec, this was business pig. Solid layers of tasty meat sat staunchly under a crisp crackling, the fat mostly melted in. The frisee, heavily coated with a gutsy mustard dressing, was swiftly scarfed down with the crisp new potatoes, roasted in olive oil, soaking up the remainder of the dressing. Little from the prunes or the garlic - small, sad casualties of the dressing, they weren't needed. 


It was a rib sticking early evening treat. The right amount of busy (Tuesday night). 
It would be a great place to sit back with a paper and a pint of bitter after another trip through that menu on a quiet Sunday afternoon. But I reckon that you'll have to fight your way past Hugo, Sophie, Jemima and Tristan to get to the bar first...