This white pizza, from a pop up that happened to pop up at Coachella Valley Brewing while I was there for some beer, was named after a character on Breaking Bad, and he was also the dad on Malcolm in the Middle, a series I've actually watched. Instead of tomato sauce, the base is garlic olive oil, and the pizza also has spinach leaves with stems and roasted garlic, and it's topped with seasoned ricotta cheese. The crust was very thin and nicely charred, there was great garlic flavor, and the ricotta was a little fluffy. The spinach stems were a touch fibrous, and I loved that. This pop up is called Popping Off Pies, and I guess you'll have to go online to find them.
Location: Popping Off Pies at Coachella Valley Brewing, Thousand Palms, California. Date: July 30, 2022.
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I came across these fabulous pizzas, made in an olive wood fired pizza oven, at a winery in Sonoita, a tiny town in the southern highlands of Arizona. I took my brother and a friend of his, and I ordered the Mother's and the Brava for us to share. The Mother's was invented for Mother's Day, and it had ricotta cheese, preserved lemon, peas, garlic scapes (green stalks that grow from the garlic bulb), and fresh herbs (I identified oregano, dill, and basil). It was tangy and herbal and one of the best pizzas I've had! The Brava was inspired by the Spanish tapas dish Patatas Bravas. There was tomato, smoked paprika, Spanish chorizo, cheese, and potato. It was satisfying smokey goodness. The pizza crusts had blisters on them that is the sign of a hot oven. These pizzas would have been noteworthy anywhere, but the location boosted their noteworthiness even more.
Location: Pronghorn Pizza, 3248 Highway 82, Sonoita, Arizona. Date: May 10, 2022. About a year ago I took my vegetarian mother to Bambino's for their vegetarian pizza. After eating, she declared that it was the best pizza she'd ever had. I went back yesterday, with the intention of blogging it today, and it didn't disappoint; in fact, it was even better than I'd remembered. It was topped with artichoke hearts, black olives, red onion, chopped tomato and cherry tomato halves, crunchy green bell pepper, and mushroom. The toppings made the pizza juicy, and the crust had some nice char on it. I could taste some Italian seasoning, but not too much. They went easy on the salt, too. I ate in their outdoor dining area with mountain views.
Location: Bambino's, 69040 E Palm Canyon Dr #A, Cathedral City, California. Date: May 7, 2022. When my sister and I ate Russian food at Haus of Pizza, my sister said she had a hunch that their pizza would be good. We ended up there on Valentine's Day, and we each ordered a personal pizza. For toppings, I chose eggplant, basil, jalapeño, and anchovies. We were both blown away when our pizzas arrived in the shape of a heart. I was also blown away by the amount of toppings: there was a lot of peeled and well-cooked eggplant, enough jalapeño slices to make it really spicy, an entire can of anchovies (at least that's what it looked like), and so much fresh basil that I thought they'd smothered my pizza with lettuce (I removed some for the photo). It was spicy, salty, fishy, and juicy. What's not to love?
Location: Haus of Pizza, 72795 Highway 111, Palm Desert, California. Date: February 14, 2022. Spaghetti Carbonara, when properly made, is one of my favorite pasta dishes, so when I saw carbonara pizza on a menu, I took notice. I really wasn't expecting too much, but the pizza I got emulated the pasta dish really well. The pizza came with a crème fraiche sauce, speck (Italian bacon), asparagus pieces, an egg, mozzarella cheese, and black pepper. This place has a wood burning mosaic ceramic tile pizza oven, which means it works well and looks good. There was good char on the outer crust. You often see hot spots, but here the char was even all over. The pizza was very moist. The broken egg yolk was firm on top but still a little runny below, and the white of the egg had run over most of the pizza but it was nice and moist as a lot of it was covered in melted cheese. I could taste the egg, and the black pepper added a nice accent. There was some welcome crunch and freshness from the asparagus and some nice saltiness from the speck. The crust, even with the char, was soft and chewy like the al dente spaghetti would have been.
Location: Caffe Calabria, 3933 30th Street, San Diego, California. Date: July 17, 2021. I went to Kaiser Grille today to have the wild mushroom pizza, but it wasn't on the menu anymore. Since they have an almond wood fired pizza oven that gets to 900°F, I wasn't about to leave without trying a pizza, and I chose Frenchy's Pancetta Tart that had a base of gruyere cheese topped with caramelized red onion and chewy little pancetta cubes. The waiter grated parmesan cheese on top at the table. The thin layer of gruyere could hardly be seen on the hot pizza, but the taste was there. I could see more of the cheese as the pizza cooled. There was sweetness from the caramelized onion and saltiness from the pancetta, which is Italian bacon that isn't smoked, but it was the crust that really made this pizza noteworthy: it was thin and crispy with some chew in places, and it had major bubbles with perfect char. This may have been the best pizza crust I've ever had.
Location: Kaiser Grille, 205 S Palm Canyon, Palm Springs, California. Date: February 25, 2021. This 12 inch pizza came with homemade chipotle sauce, green onion, bacon bits, chicken pieces, tomato pieces, cilantro, red onion, pineapple bits, and mozzarella cheese. I figured that this was going to be a noteworthy pizza, but it turned out to be even better than I thought. It was spicy, and I could taste every ingredient. The star of this show, though, was the sweet and tart of the pineapple playing with the spicy heat of the chipotle sauce and accented with the herbal note of the fresh cilantro. I ordered this pizza with cauliflower crust, not because I have a problem with gluten, which I don't, but simply because it was offered and I'd never had it. Was it worth the extra cost? Not if you're not on a gluten free or high protein diet because I really couldn't tell that it wasn't a regular wheat crust. It was thin, crispy, and had some nice char on it. I thought I could detect an underlying note of cauliflower flavor, but it wasn't enough to influence the toppings. I ate outside in a heatwave (no indoor dining anymore for a while), but this pizza, along with a cold Mexican beer, got me to my happy place.
I met a fellow at a bar in Palm Springs who told me that Sam's in tiny Joshua Tree had the best Indian food, including Indian pizza. Then the pandemic came, and I figured I'd have to put off going to Sam's; however, I found out that they are open for take out, and so today I did the thirty minute drive to Joshua Tree and got me what they call Curry Pizza. You can choose from three sauces: basic curry, korma (basic curry with cream), and coconut korma (which uses coconut cream instead of dairy). There are also three different spice levels to choose from; I chose hot, but though spicy, it wasn't at all overwhelming. I placed my order by phone from the parking lot, but I had a hard time understanding the thick accent. I thought he said there was chicken tikka on the pizza, but it turns out that he was just telling me my options. I asked to add cilantro, and when I picked up the pizza, it turned out that cilantro was my only topping. The smell wafting into the parking lot from the little restaurant, which seems like it's connected to a liquor store, was amazing, and when I bit into the pizza, the korma sauce lit up my taste buds like no other pizza sauce ever has. There was plenty of mozzarella cheese and the cilantro topping was nice, but with this pizza it's all about the sauce.
Location: Sam's, 61380 29 Palms Hwy, Joshua Tree, California. Date: April 25, 2020. I met Chef Steven, who makes the sourdough pizza crust for Bill's Pizza, and he advised me to try the Elton John. This was a pizza he and the late Bill invented some time ago in Prescott, Arizona, while an Elton John song was playing; hence, the name. It's a vegetarian pizza with garlic infused olive oil sauce, marinated artichoke hearts, fresh tomatoes, cooked spinach, red onion, and four cheeses plus feta. This pizza is tangy from the marinated artichoke quarters as well as from the feta cheese, the tomato, and even a bit from the sourdough crust. The sourness cuts through the olive oil and the four cheese blend to give a refreshing taste to the pizza. The red onion was used judiciously and it was very mild. As I was paying my bill, an Elton John song played over the restaurant's speaker system. Perfect!
Location: Bill's Pizza, 119 Indian Canyon Drive South, Palm Springs, California. Date: March 1, 2020. This is a pizza with spicy Asian sauce, mozzarella, pulled pork, pineapple, red onion, and jalapeño pepper. Mine had thin crust with some nice char. The pulled pork was not soaked in BBQ sauce so I could taste undisguised pork flavor. I could taste soy sauce in the Asian sauce that was used instead of tomato sauce. There was extra spiciness from the jalapeño, besides what was in the sauce, and sweetness from the pineapple. This juicy pizza had saltiness, sweetness, spiciness, and a touch of sour. The char on the crust accented the jalapeño pepper, and the soy sauce accented the pineapple. I'm not sure they could make a better luau pizza in Hawaii itself. This is a noteworthy and kicked up version of the typical Hawaiian pizza of Canadian bacon and pineapple.
Location: The Pint House Bar & Grill, 265 S Main Street, Yuma, Arizona. Date: January 18, 2020. |
AuthorChef Roland has been a legal resident of seven countries and has travelled in over thirty, documenting food along the way. He currently resides in the desert in Southern California. Categories
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