Delallo Pizza Sauce

Not often do I use pizza sauce. I've got a major hang-up about pizza sauces and tend to avoid it but the next recipe calls for a bunch of it.


I picked up three jars of this sauce because the ingredient statement (tomato puree [water, tomato paste], sugar, garlic, spices, pepper, salt, and onion powder) looks cleaner and fresher than most others without costing a ridiculous amount.


It looked really thick, which was promising.


And it smells good too. Turns out the taste is nice, slightly sweet but not crazy. Still doesn't have the kick sauce Vitale's puts on their pizzas but Delallo's sauce will work out well I think.


Delallo Pizzeria Style Pizza Sauce available in the pasta aisle at Ralph's for $2.19 a 14-oz jar.

Valentino's Pizza Special?

So I decide to look at Yelp and see if there's any new pizza joints around of interest. There's Valentino's Pizza which says it's been established since the mid-80's, though it looks like the location in my city is shiny and new.

Checking out the menu online, they have five Specialty pizzas, one of which is called "Special". Chances are that's the one closest to what I normally would get anyway, pepperoni, ham, mushrooms, onions, and green peppers.

Calling to place my order, I stated that I'd like to place an order for a pizza to pick up. She asked for my digits and then asked what I wanted. A large Special. She asked which one. I said the Specialty pizza they call The Special. She asked if that was just cheese or just pepperoni. I told her I didn't know, it was just The Special. "Well, we have a lot of specials going on right now."


Oookay. So I ordered a large with my standard "test" toppings. It's supposed to be ready in 10-15 minutes, so I'll mosey over. I hope my decision not to order Two Brothers won't bite me in the ass.


Arriving at the store, parking was a cinch even though the location is in a strip mall near a sushi place, a laundromat (with 99 cent top-loaders!), a Subway, etc. Walking in it seemed clean and was certainly bright, though I might have had the flashing lights of the casino-esque laundry etched onto my retinas. I was immediately received by the guy I'd guess was the owner*. Right away my pizza was brought out (was I the only one with a pizza to pick up?), I was rung up, and out the door.


The toppings are evenly dispersed; the crust is skinny except for the handle, which is crispy and chewy. It has that banh mi bread crisp happening, which is nice.


Unfortunately, there's something on this pizza that tastes weird. I don't think it's the crust...it's not the sparingly applied sauce. God, I think it's the parm I sprinkled on from the glassine pouch.


Yep, that must be it. My third slice doesn't have that taste.Well, it's not as dominant. What is that taste?


*I guessed this since he was immediately behind the counter munching on some sort of snack that requires spitting into ones hand. He greeted me but made no move to assist, relying on the girl who likely took my phone call. I was good with that.

Large 5-topping Valentino's pizza out the door for $15.11.

Rance's Stuffed Best Seller

So this place, Rance's Chicago Pizza, opened up a few months ago on the other side of town. Being a deep-dish place, I was intrigued and finally made the call, placing an order for pick-up.

Isn't it weird how I keep finding places that don't close their boxes all the way? There's Pizza D'Oro and Love Letter. This is the first that left the front flap open. Yanking that flap up, I found this.


It looks like a LOT of tomato action, but it is a deep dish and okay, so the sauce is on top. I can roll with that.


A slice pulled away from the other seven slices in what appeared to be a clean manner. And look, there's a little meshy stand-off under the pizza. Good for air circulation in soggy-crust prevention.


Look at that cheese


And good god, that's a lot of cheese with hardly any stuffing. Where's the stuff? Oh, it's slivers of spinach? The ratio of cheese to veg is about 500:1. Sodium is high, the crust flaky like a buttery-oily pie.


After 1.5 slices, I feel sort of sick. I wish the cheese:stuffing ratio was a little better.

Rance's Medium Stuffed Best Seller: $23.75 plus $1.25 toke makes $25.


2/11/13
I baked a slice in the oven at 350°F for about 10 minutes.


And I'm not ashamed to tell you that over the following days, consuming a slice here and another there, I sort of had a cheese, uh, blockage. One of those days there was a plate explosion in the oven which I'll cover another day. You know, when I decide to clean the oven for the second time.

Newman's Own Thin & Crispy Uncured Pepperoni Pizza

I have a weird love/hate relationship with frozen pizza. The amount of time spent in front of the freezer section debating on whether to get one was beginning to be a little lengthy.


Finally, with all that time invested, I figured I may as well just get one. And if I'm going to get one, I may as well try one that will at least benefit a charity.


The instructions are pretty standard for frozen pizza.


And there are even tips.


The pizza has enough uncured pepperoni to completely cover it, which is nice.


And the ingredients aren't even scary. They actually look pretty good.

The uncured pepperoni contain "no nitrate or nitrite added except which naturally occurs in sea salt and celery juice concentrate (pork and beef, sea salt, natural spices, evaporated cane juice, lactic acid starter culture, natural flavorings [including celery juice concentrate], oleoresin of paprika)".

The parsley bits add a little fresh-ish feeling.


Baked 10 minutes until the edges started to brown, I let the pizza stand on a cutting board and the crust went from floppy to crispy.




I'm impressed! This skinny little pizza is actually really tasty! The pepperoni is spicy, the sauce tangy, and the flat-bread-like crust crisp. It's not even exceptionally greasy. While there is supposed to be three servings in this pizza, I can honestly tell you that I polished off the majority all of it in one sitting.

My only complaint about this pizza is that there isn't enough sauce. I think I found my go-to frozen pizza.

Newman's Own Thin & Crispy Uncured Pepperoni Pizza in the frozen pizza section of Ralph's for $5.99.

Two Brothers Large Kimchi Bacon Pizza

Do I need to say anything more than Large Kimchi Bacon Pizza?


Completely swoon-worthy. This time I upgraded to a large from the medium I picked up last time. Yep, it's just for me. And none will be wasted.


Available at Two Brothers in Fountain Valley. $18.30 on a VISA.

Lamppost Pizza's The Whole Nine Yards

It's been a couple of months since I had pizza. Doing a Google search, I saw this small-ish chain had a store not too far away.

Placing my order on the phone for pick-up, I requested the Whole Nine Yards: Mozzarella cheese, pepperoni, ham, sausage, mushrooms, bacon, onion, bell peppers and olives. What's not to like about that?


Each slice is nice and tidy, while loaded full of clearly fresh vegetables (save for the black olives).


The onions and peppers offer a satisfying near-crunch and even the bacon bits are real, chewy and salty porky. The sausage was quite mild, the sauce not exceptional. The crust was fantastic.

I'll have to try another of their pies, I've already decided which one, and see if that one will hit it home for me. This particular one was good, but not what I'd consider outstanding and I'd hate to miss out on what could be an excellent offering there.

The big guy behind the counter asked if I had a Chargers card, whatever that is, or any coupons, then gave me a discount anyway.

Lamppost Pizza's 14" Whole Nine Yards, $22.19 OTD on the AmEx.

Two Brothers Kimchi Bacon Pizza

There's a place around the corner and up the road called Two Brother's Pizza. A former coworker told me about it a few years ago. They offer kimchi bacon pizza.


Did you catch that? It's kimchi bacon pizza!


This is more along the lines of what I'd expected from that other Korean pizza place. But this is the real deal. East meets west, bacon meets cabbage, spicy meets savory.


The crust is skinny and chewy, the toppings somewhat sparsely distributed. But let me tell you - major flavor explosion! Kimchi on pizza is absolute genius.

Medium Two Brother's Kimchi Bacon Pizza: $16.15 out the door.
 

I paid cash, doing what I can to keep the cash in the mom and pop's pockets, but FYI VISA and Mastercard are accepted with a $0.50 fee. Get there early, they close at 9 p.m., even on the weekends.

Doria's Original Haus of Pizza, Haus Special

Could it possibly be true that I've not ordered a pizza for dinner since March?! I refuse to believe it, there must be a mistake!

Being sick and having a desire to be comforted by ooey-gooey-ness, I dialed Doria's. I showed up on time and unlike last time, didn't have to dance around diners making their entrances or exits. The pizza was ready when I got there, which was a good thing as I was in my pajamas and not feeling great.

I went for a repeat of last time, another Haus Special, though I can't remember if it was medium or large. Considering how the slice sprawls across the plate as long as does (above), I'm leaning toward large. There's the ubiquitous box...

and a pie lacking in the ooey-gooey lava-like qualities I'd anticipated.

While it tasted alright, it didn't push my buttons like last time. I couldn't help but notice that the majority of the toppings were central to the pie and unlike last time, no oozing of lava-like cheese and sauce. I wonder if this indeed was a large and the same quantity of cheese and sauce just happened to be used on my medium pie last time. Not horrible, but not as pleasing as I'd expected.

And you know what, the pizza wasn't so hot that there was any risk of fogging the camera lens. Hmm. What's up with that?

$21.23 out the door on the AmEx including $2 tip.

Gina's Pizza House Special

I called Gina's Pizza to find out if they'd deliver to my end of town -- and yippee they do! Rodney and I tried Gina's once, but I think it was a slice after grocery shopping. And that's not really representative of what a pizza place can do, right?

About 45 minutes from ordering, my House Special from the pizza menu arrived in this box.

Looking at the House Special, I was sort of disappointed. The cheese doesn't even reach the crust edge. What's up with that?

Pulling a slice from the pie, I couldn't help but observe that the cheese wasn't ooey-gooey (as in it looked like it was once and had cooled before I received it) and there was no moisture in the box. Believe it or not, the crust was actually a little crusty as in crunchy. That was pleasantly surprising.

The sauce, a little tangy, was lacking. I found the pie to be leaning toward the dry side. The toppings, pepperoni, sausage, mushrooms, roasted red and green bell peppers and red onion, were applied sparingly. The fact the peppers were roasted was a definite plus, but they didn't stand out as awesomely delicious as the marinated peppers on Massimo's Special.

Would I do Gina's again? Maybe for the delivery option, but I won't be going out of my way to have it again. Judging by price alone, this pizza should rank as one of the best I've had, but that's not the case. It is better than the high-priced, super skinny, salty-as-hell zpizza.

Large, 16" House Special, $27.73. A $5 toke for the driver makes it $32.73.

Hottie's Pizza, Femme Fatale Revisited

After a day donating money to Native American's via slots and craps table, Mom and I figured pizza delivery from Hottie's would pay off.

It did!

Femme Fatale, 15" large, $20.85 plus $5 toke for the driver on the Mastercard. No Amex accepted here.

Hottie's Pizza, the Femme Fatale

While my brother asked yesterday if I wanted to take a plate home after Thanksgiving dinner (main course of Bacon-Wrapped Turkey!), I figured he, his roommate and my nephew would be able to kill the remaining turkey no problem, and since I was so stuffed, I declined.

What the friggidy frack was I thinking?

Tonight would be pizza delivery. From a place called Hottie's. Honestly, I was sort of skeptical about this place because of the name and the names of their pies. Blond Bombshell's, Call Girls, etc. But I'm not about judging a book by it's cover and was quite happy to find they would deliver to me.

I ordered the Femme Fatale, located under the Modern Beauty section of the pizza menu, because it comes with red sauce, mozzarella, sausage, pepperoni, Canadian bacon, roma tomatoes, onions, green bell peppers and black olives. Isn't that what makes the world go round?

My Femme Fatale showed up in this ubiquitous box.

And the pie was topped with all of the promised ingredients and came with little cups of cheese and crushed red pepper. I love that!


I pulled a slice from the pie and look, it's not all that soggy. And sort of thinnish.


The ingredient:ingredient ratios were good as well as the ingredient:cheese ratio. It reminded me a little bit of Al's New York Cafe #3 Combo.


Not too shabby. And they deliver!

Large (15") Femme Fatale, aka The Works, $20.84 + $5 toke for the driver (who I suspect also took my order based on her bubbly voice which contrasted starkly with the looks on her face) on the Visa.