my custom-pizza adventure
So... I guess I don't really have a question, just wondering what people's thoughts are on this.
I really like capers cooked on a pizza. That is, put on the pizza raw and then cooked with it, as a topping. The delicious saltiness and robust aroma and flavor. Awesome. Also love tomato slices on a pizza. But making a pizza myself would be tedious, and anytime I make any yeast raised bread it always tastes like the yeast. I don't know what bnakers and restaurants use, but that weird smell of yeast always permeates the bread I make - that smell you can smell when you open the package.
So last week, I got some tomatoes from south jersey from a farmer's market, so I knew they're actually red-picked tomatoes (you can actually see the guy's fields at this place). Then on Sunday, at like 4 PM, when I knew there would be few customers, I went there with some of my capers (the brand you buy matters - go for the salty kind, a lot of the fancier ones use more vinegar than salt, and it's more of a sour than salty flavor), tomato slices I sliced from the tomatoes I bought that I sliced with my mandolin, red onion slices I also sliced with my mandolin, and I didn't have to buy any italian sausage, I knew they would have it. So I had them make me a pizza with tomatoes, red onion, capers, and sausage.
The advantages were, again, the tediousness avoided. Also, they make really good pizza there. None of that yeast smell. And there was no one around and they make the pizzas sort of right in front of you, so I could tell them how much to put (which was only an issue because this place piles on the toppings - for some reason they don't have the sense to use less amounts when there are more varieties of toppings). Also, I didn't have to buy an entire package of sausages just to make one pizza.
So yeah... So is this a genius idea... or a tribute to ultimate gluttonousness?
And I wonder, can they technically do that according to health codes? It's not really an issue unless a restaurant makes it an issue if they want to follow the health code down to the T - but realistically no one's going to complain, and I doubt I'd end up going there the one time the health inspector wanted a pizza, too, and he'd like "catch" us. Hell he might not even care if he's not on the job. Anyway, luckily this is a small restaurant in a small Jersey town, run by some jersey Italians, so I guess they were like ay! why the hell not?
And oh yeah, I tipped the guy who made the pizza $5, since this was a special thing, and he listened to my comments when he was putting the toppings on (when I said that's enough for each ingredient). So it was a $15 pizza, plus $5 tip, makes it $20. I'm still eating the slices for my lunches at work.
