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Oh, I have plans. Big plans this summer. Not only am I recapping a select number of Farscape episodes at Television Without Pity (Or, as sobell and I like to call it, not Farscaping, Farscapping), but I also have additional, exciting work at KQED as we gear up for the new season of Check Please, Bay Area. Most importantly, though, I have some hopeful plans for this site. To begin with, I want to start a Pizza "Blog." Now, I put that term in quotes because, technically, The Grub Report is not a blog. It's website, a mini-site, or, as Sars would like to revive, a "vade mecum". Orignially, it was all going to be about Pizzetta 211, my favorite pizza place in San Francisco. I had big plans to chronicle each and every crusty concoction eaten (I swear on my knife, we've never had the same pie twice) and what we thought of it. Sadly, Pizzetta 211 was not very obliging today because they can't do take-out on the weekends. Enter my newest pizza obsession: Pizzeria Delfina. Two pies and a Green Goddessed romaine salad later and I am just so very content in mouth, stomach, and mind. Just so you know, this makes twice in four days. I was on a catering job Thursday and Friday (more on that later) and my boss, Lunch Lady, scored us Delfina pizza for lunch. Guys? That pizza was so ridiculously amazing that I couldn't live with myself until the Evil Dr. Mathra had a chance to experience this particular slice of pizza heaven for himself. I made sure we got the exact same pies: one of the weekly specials, a white pie topped with Treviso and two perfectly cracked eggs, and a Delfina Pizzeria staple, the Clam Pie.
Delfina's crust is chewy and crispy with a slight, but satisfying, sourness. Nice and thin where the toppings rest, the crust is comfortingly thick and bulbous on the "handle" of the pie. Not so chewy that you squeeze it all out of shape when you mow down on your slice of choice but not so hard that you break a tooth chomping into it.
Now, it has been my experience that most clam pizzas get a damp shell waved over them and call it a day, but the cherrystone chunks on the Delfina Clam Pie were so large, I initially thought they were unlisted pieces of chunky sausage. Furthermore, these mollusks were chewy without being tough and they infused the tomato, oregano, and hot peppers meld with a tangy brininess -- it was like eating a slice of sea. I'm not the biggest fan of combining seafood with cheese, so the pin-like shavings of Pecorino were, in my opinion, not necessary, but it's not like the addition of cheese ruined the pizza. Had it been a moister cheese like fontina or mozzarella, it would have been unbearable, but the dry and salty Pecorino was a good choice with the clams.
The white pie with Treviso (variety of radicchio from Treviso, Italy) and egg was, of course, a masterpiece. Because the pizza was strategically slashed, the the golden yolk to ran in rich rivulets over the shaved Treviso. The bitter chicory, made even more bitter from getting crisped in the oven, was sensuously offset by the lovely fat of the soft-cooked egg. Both pizzas were absolute winners.
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