Pizza Update?

PERFECT! We had a party for 12 serving, Cioppino , great party, everyone brought a selection of clams, shrimp, crab, various fish. Now that is a great party, seldom experienced anywhere.

Timed out so.......If you want great pizza....learn to make it. As I suggested in the above post, there are great ways to make a fabulous dinner.....none being Mexican food. Should that be your choice....google and create the meal.....a great time will be had by all!

It's crazy how obsessed people are with pizza.  It's rather comforting and look how many threads have been started over it between the two boards...lots!  It's just so good!  A lot easier to digest than refried beans...that stuff can rip you up. lol Italian is my favorite. Don't get me wrong we've eaten Mexican food twice this week.

My curiosity is up and I'm going to try Perry's once and see what it's all about.  I've written or thought it before, we need to find someplace to send people when they can't come to my house. hehe

Unless Perry's uses the same mozzarella cheese that I do, it's not going to be as good so that makes me a little nervous about trying it but hope to be surprised.   He makes his own italian sausage does he?  

In the meantime...some pizza entertainment Italian-American style.

Chapalagringa wrote:Unless Perry's uses the same mozzarella cheese that I do, it's not going to be as good so that makes me a little nervous about trying it but hope to be surprised. He makes his own italian sausage does he?

I forgot to ask if he makes his own, Chapalagringa. If his mozzarella isn't as good as yours, please be sure to tell him where you get it.

I await your critique!

For all the people who do not make pizza at home, this is great information and the solution to the pizza problem.
For those who make pizza at home, they will have to agonize over the mozzarella selection or pass on going to Perry's.

Sometimes life can be so simple.

Who knew going out for a pizza could be controversial or traumatic?

Lady O, no one is traumatized.  It's like going to a pasta restaurant and being served packaged pasta or frozen ravioli reheated when you know what fresh pasta and raviolis tastes like.  Would you want to waste your money on something you know you could make better yourself? What about the sauce?  Some guy thinks his canned tomato sauce can hold a candle against a homemade homegrown tomato sauce?  Yet thousands of people pay for it all the time because they don't want to cook.   I bet I spent 8 hours in my kitchen today.  Yup, we fired up the wfo.  I started the sponge this morning before we left for Guadalajara.  Came home and shaped the balls, made the fresh tomato sauce, grated the cheese and patted out the other cheese, sliced a few veggies for those who need veggies while I waited for the oven to come up to temp.  Made everyone their pizzas, cleaned up the kitchen, sat down and around 8 pm little foot asks for more of their "cheese bread."  by then, I'm a little hungry again so out comes the stuff.  Of course the sauce, dough and oven is ready.  About 5 min later little foot says, "thank you mommy!"  Then the same thing happened around 10 p.m for the other 1/2 of the household.  

Do I bother trying Perry's or is it a waste my money?  For what?  So I can tell someone if it's any good or not?  My husband told me I can just tell people to try it, I've heard from others that it's good.  

Maybe more worth my time heading towards Zapotlanajo and do a little clothes shopping instead.  There's a place there that sells some really yummy breakfast tacos.

And besides all of that...meatballs are sounding really good. Who serves the best meatballs lakeside?

You don't make your own breakfast tacos?!?

I've had breakfast burritos but I've never heard of breakfast tacos or are you talking about tacos de barbacoa?

yup, tacos barbacoa and I don´t make those but they´re sure good!!

Usually tacos de sesos....to get you started off right for the day.  ....but really, menudo, might be more appropriate for the poster.
My family all go for chilaquiles....and molletes.

slainte39 wrote:

My family all go for chilaquiles....and molletes.

Those are my favorites but sometimes I get out voted and it's off to the tacos de barbacoa or menudo.

Back on topic:
Maybe I do not have as refined taste buds as Gringal. But as long as that means I do not have to build a brick oven and spend 8 hours in the kitchen when I want a slice of pizza, I am good with that. Instead, yesterday, I had a busy day and was tired. I went to Perry´s and had a delicious pizza, took a load off and enjoyed a fun conversation with Perry and TrueBrit who stopped by as we were there. I did not miss the 8 hours in the kitchen—and LOVED the pizza. However, I am pretty sure Gringal would not like it because he does not make it just the way she does and, therefore, it can not be any good.
To everyone else I would say, if you enjoy delicious, authentic pizza (and do not want to build a wood fire oven and spend 8 hours in your kitchen every time you want a slice) give Perry´s a try. FWIIW, I grew up on the east coast and lived in an Italian neighborhood eating my friends´ grandmothers’ and mothers´ pizzas. Each one was a little different in some way but all of them were delicious. Perry could make a pie alongside the best of them.
BTW, his "garage" (brick walls and boveda ceiling) is clean, nicely lit, and has a nicer ambiance than some buildings I have eaten in. Oh, and the plates were not paper.

Lady Otter Latté wrote: However, I am pretty sure Gringal would not like it because he does not make it just the way she does and, therefore, it can not be any good.

Gringal?

gringal will be so happy that she was mistaken for somebody who spends 8 hours in the kitchen barefoot.

[quote="Pedro"]gringal will be so happy that she was mistaken for somebody who spends 8 hours in the kitchen barefoot.[/quote]
Now there's a case of mistaken identity, big time.  ChapalaGringa is a devoted homemaker dedicated to chuch, family and pizza making.  
Gringal is a cantankerous poster who hasn't been on here for a long time.  Never makes anything except enhanced Costco pizza from the box of four frozen pies.  
Buen provecho, Chapalagringa. :lol!:

Lady O.L.: What have you been smoking? :roll:

too funny.  Thank you Gringal and Pedro for the nice compliments.  

Lady O you must have had some good times growing up!  Yum!
Every family has their way of making traditional dishes.  Even within my Hungarian side family can debate how the traditional dishes are made. lol  with or without tomatoes, with or without dumpings.  oh no we never use macaroni!  lolol

Wish I had been smoking something interesting Gringal! Chalk it up to no caffeine and a post made in a rush to get out the door. Hey, maybe I did it on purpose to get you to post again? Not buying that one? Okay. I am really sorry.
Chapalagringa, yes, good (and delicious) times growing up in an Italian neighborhood and as a young married woman living next door to an extended Italian family. In addition to pizza, Mama Riggi made ravioli, lasagna, spaghetti and meatballs, wedding cookies, bread, fried dough and some other things I can´t spell. She always made too much and invited us over or sent her grandkids over to my house with bowls full of wonderful things.

viajero wrote:

Lady Otter Latté wrote: However, I am pretty sure Gringal would not like it because he does not make it just the way she does and, therefore, it can not be any good.

Gringal?

Talk about waking the dead!  Is it the real version or a zombie one?    (or 40 years in the desert?)

Some posts sure disappear fast.

I guess I don't feel too bad about not trying Perry's today...I wanted to but I'm still trying to perfect my crust in the wfo.  It's not bad but there's so many things you can do to tweak it.  What I'm not getting is a very thin crust.  No matter how thin it's hand spun, practically with holes, it just sponges up.  I need more practice.  Now today, I took some of yesterday's dough and made a new batch with it, added something to it and it did come out with a crunch.  It has crunch and chew.  When you all eat your wfo pizzas out at a restaurant, is the outer portion kind of dry?  Obviously if it's baked in a greased pan you're going to have a crust with grease on the outside.  Not sure if you follow me but I'm not ready to have anyone but family over to practice on until I can figure out what I'm doing.  It wasn't as technical baking in the convection oven but this is fun learning new techniques.  I have no idea how the restaurants are making cracker crust aside from rolling it out. idk, will have to look it up.

So my question is....When you all eat your wfo pizzas out at a local restaurant, is the outer portion kind of dry or is it moist like a pan pizza?  Like Domino's.

Don't forget you are cooking @ 5000' above sea level

Jim W wrote:Don't forget you are cooking @ 5000' above sea level

no anchovies??

haha I guess we better add a log to the fire and bring it up to 820 degrees while baking the pizza? +20 degrees is for the high altitude bake. At these temps, I don't think 20 degrees will make or break the pizza. The lower the temps go only means it'll take longer. Even at 400 degees being the pizza is baked directly on the oven floor which is hot, it takes only 5 min. 700 degrees 2 min 800 degrees 1 min.

We ate at Hosteria Del Arte today...yes, we did.  And I ordered a pizza!
http://www.tripadvisor.com.mx/Restaurant_Review-g499405-d4363313-Reviews-Hosteria_del_Arte-Ajijic.html

I gotta tell ya, it was a lot of fun!  

A few weeks ago we stopped at the Oxxo next door and I went in and met the owner of Hosteria and told her my husband was building me a wfo.  She let me take a picture of theirs and told me we needed to come back and eat, they also served fresh pasta, which of course I mentioned that I also make.   Today, after church, I was able to get my way and we went over to try their pasta.  I was going to make pasta, prepared the garlic bread stick dough yesterday and then ran out of fresh parmesan cheese...who can have pasta w/out fresh parmesan?  Not going to Costco today to buy it.   When we got to the restaurant I just couldn't stand not trying their Margherita pizza while my husband ordered a pasta dish(Alfedo Sauce and said the sauce was very good but the pasta not as good as mine).  Being I'm such a case, they let me go back there and watch my pizza being made.  Our waiter was being trained on my pizza, which I wasn't too exited about but he was being well monitored by the Italian owner.  When he picked up the rolling pin I said you're not using that on my pizza! lolol yes I did. It was pretty funny.  The wife came over and repeated my directions that you need to use your fingers, which the Mexican waiter never did but that's ok, all in good fun and he never used the rolling pin!     

It was pretty fun when the wife told her husband that I had a wfo.  He was skeptical at first that it'd be anything near to as good as his until she showed him a picture of ours and then the fun really began and all the questions and answers.  He said it was a big one, a nice one and wished he would have done something my husband had done.  That made me feel pretty good since my husband built ours himself.  We chatted about everything from the make and bricks of the wfo, where to buy a torch lighter and how to use it, to tomatoes(never use canned! oh no I don't, never, never and attempting to grow my own), dirt ph, sauce, hydration, the mother sponge, dough mix and of course CHEESE!  

I know that the Italians put prosciutto on top after the pizza's been baked, I know that but I was leery to try until I knew it was cured and not just raw ham.  Of course it's cured and not a problem to eat right from the package but I've been leery so I cooked it on the pizza. When she saw a picture of my pizza, she said it looked really good but told me over and over again not to cook it on there, "we never do that, all across Italy NO ONE bakes it on"  haha(yes ma'm! ;) )  

They think that I need to go back to my original dough mix because the reason it sponged up the way it did was from it being the first bake in the new oven.  I've been adding some things to the dough trying to figure out what this crunch and chew people were writing about.  Soooo, I'm going to my original authentic mix this next weekend!  

To answer my question about how "greasy" the crust is?  Their crust was very similar to mine, I use a little less salt but it was almost the same.  Their sauce is good, they use more oregano than I do, I use more basil.  Their cheese did not taste like mine but she uses what I use for something else and knew exactly what it is and said it's very good.  They do use an imported Italian cheese but it didn't taste like what I use and I like mine better.  

I ate a few pieces of my pizza, my husband had a piece and I boxed the rest and had my daughter in law try it.  She said it was very good but mine is better.  Whether she is prejudice, idk.  I think mine is better but it's like the Italian owner said, every family, even every person, will have their own dough mix and it's theirs and I get that.  You have to practice until it's what you like.  You get the feel of the texture and we know climate effects the dough so some days it's drier, you add more water and some days it's more humid and you add less water.  That's exactly right.  I loved his tips about working quickly with each pizza crust.  It has to be done very quickly or the moisture drops to the bottom of the crust and then it'll stick to the bottom of the oven. So true.  I asked why he had a rolling pin?  He said for time sake in the restaurant.  When you have an order and need to make 5 pizzas quickly, it takes too much time to hand pat them out and I understand that.  There were actually several times this last week I grabbed for a roller and then resisted.  I rolled a crust once after I'd made pita bread earlier in the day and caught myself thinking, "WHAT ARE YOU DOING!"    

My review of Hosteria is definitely would go back there again but it's quite expensive for us.  Regarding someone's soggy pizza.  The owner said that it's putting too much greasy cheese on the pizza that causes that.  Mexican cheese isn't made like Italian cheese.  But we know that too much olive oil can do it too...my first pizza in the wfo the top fell off the olive oil dispenser and drenched my pizza with olive oil.  I did my best to sop it up with paper towels...you can imagine just how disappointed I was with my soggy pizza when the entire purpose of the wfo was to help get the perfect crust.  I didn't want a soggy cool middle.    

Here's some pictures of our lunch time there today:


My husband being shown the torch which is hidden but makes firing it up much faster:


This poor poor soul was stuck with the job of hand cranking the tomato sauce.  That's a hand crank tomato stainer, it takes out the seeds and skin.  I saw that and said my goodness, that's the direction I'm going but I want the Italian machine!!! Wow, he's doing all that work by hand?!?!  



This was my prosciutto(pro-shoe-toe) pizza I made myself on Friday.  I topped it with fresh basil but took the picture first.
 

Regarding Perry's...If he's only been making pizza 2 months...it just doesn't sound appealing to me to try, I've been working on this for several years.  Lets see what people think in a month about Perry's and maybe next month I'll venture out to try it but not promising anything. I'm really interested in Italian authenticity therefore the draw to the Italian place today.

Perry has been offering Pizza in Ajijic for a few months. He worked at a pizza shop in the stated for several years.
He just finished his Wood Fired Oven this summer.