Talking Sweet About Nothing

B.O.P. what is wrong with you? You've got everything going for you. When I look at you I see the perfect set up. I see a cute, independent pizza parlor with a wood-fired oven. I see you making my pizza right in front of me and then gingerly sliding it into the brick oven. I see a great menu with a few decent specialty pizzas, and a build-your-own option with just about any topping one might want. I see Dr Pepper on tap. Holy crap! I mean, look at all of the Best Of Baltimore awards on their walls. Look at all of the autographed celebrity photos. Surely this is supposed to be pretty great pizza, right?

OK, so obviously I was disappointed, but before I tell you why, let me fill you in with some background. When I've eaten at B.O.P. in the past, I've always just ordered a slice or two. Here's the catch...like I said, they have a killer topping menu, but when you order a single slice, they just pull a slice off of a pre-cooked plain cheese pie, drop the toppings on and then reheat it in the oven. This just doesn't work that well. Nothing is baked-in, the toppings get warm, but immediately fall off when you eat it because the cheese was pre-cooked and doesn't hold anything together. And it tastes like an over-done cheese pizza, with some toppings thrown on as an afterthought. As a comparison, Fortunato's and Pasta Mista have all of their available by-the-slice pies on the counter, and yes, they reheat them, but what you see is what you get. It sounds nit-picky, but you can taste the difference.

So going in I had a little baggage, but I was determined to set it aside. I knew I could get over this by ordering a whole pie, made fresh. Better yet, I'd order two. I got the Margherita Lisa and the Greek Pizza, both from their specialty menu. "Specialty" in my mind means they must make these better than anything else, right? So I took my Dr Pepper and I sat down right in front of the counter to wait. I love being able to watch your pizza being made. It's just fun. Especially when they put it in the oven. Man, I was getting excited.

By the time the pizzas arrived, I was running short on time. I had to make it back to Fletchers to see Karmella's Game, but I didn't want to just box it up and leave. If I were to truly give B.O.P. a fair chance at redemption, I would have to eat a few slices hot out of the oven. Sorry friends. So I popped the first box; the Greek Pizza. Let me tell you, the toppings were pretty great. You can't go wrong with olives, onions, fresh tomatoes (only b/c there's no sauce, natch) bell peppers, and crumbled feta. But the crust was sorely lacking. Even though I had ordered a 10" pie, the crust was so flimsy that it couldn't support itself. It's not that the toppings were overloaded. Visually, this was a well-balanced pie and should have been near perfection. The crust just wasn't a team player. As I got to the end-crust I savored a few bites with no toppings, just to get a taste for the bread itself. I couldn't taste anything. The texture and consistency, like the toppings, were fantastic, light and puffy, but there was no flavor at all.

Next up, the Margherita. As I opened the box I was shocked to see a small puddles of water near the mozz. This was unmistakable and definitely not olive oil. So you can probably guess the state of this crust. Soggy, limp, whatever you want to call it, eating this was a mess. The toppings on my second slice slid off completely as I was pulling it out of the box, leaving me holding a sagging, tasteless piece of bread. As I ate my toppings with a fork I realized the cheese was pretty good, and the sauce was pretty good, but without a decent crust, there's nothing to support this pizza, literally or figuratively.

B.O.P., we need to talk. I think we should see other people. I've opened my eyes, and I've moved on. You see, I met this really great pizza in Fells Point. Her name is Little Italy Pizzeria. I wish you nothing but the best, and perhaps we'll see each other around. Maybe things will change and...who knows?

A friend of mine at work informed me that my blog is blocked by our network filter. Check out the reason for restriction:

One thing that Katie and I have become more aware of this year is eating locally. For a while we've been concerned about what is in our food (pesticides, growth hormones, antibiotics, etc.) but we've recently become aware of where food is grown and how much it costs (the cost of travel and the loss of local, independent farmers) to get food to the grocery store.

One of my favorite things we've done is to join a CSA. CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture and is basically a group of people who buy into a local farm, or in our case, a group of farms. We commit to a subscription fee and every week we get to go to the farm and pick up a supply of fruits, vegetables, and occasionally dairy products. All of it is grown locally without the use of chemical fertilizers. A lot of it is grown on this one particular farm, but they have also joined with other local farmers to add variety to our pick up.

The season began in May with asparagus, strawberries, and other early harvest vegetables and ended this week with squash, apples, pears, etc. We've had 26 weeks of local, organic produce filling our kitchen and it's awesome. It's basically a surprise each week when we go to the farm and an unexpected benefit is that it is forcing us to cook many things we may never have bought on our own. This year saw the first time that I have ever eaten beets, turnips, parsnips, and a few others that I can't remember.

Here's a picture of this week's pick-up:


From left to right: fresh milled bread, tomatoes, beets, brussels sprouts, broccoli, pears, red apples, green apples, Romanesco broccoli, carrots, turnips, and red cabbage. (the onions and butternut squash are left over from last week)

This is pretty typical of the amount of food we get each week, and we're pretty good about using it all just in time for the next weeks' pick-up. I'm going to miss it for the next few months. I'll miss going to the farm every Wednesday and I'll definitely miss the fresh produce. I'm very excited to be a part of this CSA, though. I'm proud to support local, independent farmers and I love eating healthy foods grown in a responsible, sustainable way. I can't wait for next spring.

The acronym found on the backs of the shirts of employees at Pasta Mista says it all: V.I.P., Very Italian Pizza. They have a counter displaying over a dozen specialty pizzas for sale by the slice and some of these look mind-blowingly delicious. They didn't have a Margherita on the menu, but I could see they offered all of the toppings and they were happy to make one up for me. I ordered a 14", but I swear to god it was at least 16" across. Holy schnikees, it was great pizza. The crust was perfectly thin, sturdy, and delicious. It had a perfect amount of sauce and delicious, fresh mozzarella. I overhead somebody comment about the "grease" on top...that's olive oil bitch! A true Neapolitan pizza has a swirl of olive oil on the top. And in my experience, only the take outs seem to have a problem with grease, and that's usually because they're using too much sub-par cheese.

p.s. They also have a full Italian menu (including gnocchi!) Katie got an excellent tortellini. Not too shabby!