Showing posts with label Pizza. Show all posts

At first glance,  Upland  confused the ever-loving shit out of me.  What the fuck is a California inspired Italian menu? Does the food take...

At first glance, Upland confused the ever-loving shit out of me.  What the fuck is a California inspired Italian menu? Does the food take its time to hit your table and carry a medical marijuana card? New York inspired Italian food falls into the group of old school red sauce, or so I, understand. Upland had me intrigued, not only because of a combination of food I never knew about but more so for the Chef Justin Smillie, formerly of II Buco Alimentari a.k.a the panty dropper. 
Upland is located in the Flat Iron district, tucked into a building off the corner of Park Avenue South. The restaurant has a nice comfortable vibe to it, I kind of felt like I was at home, except I was wearing pants. We were ushered over to the bar, where I had a hard time trying to get a bartenders attention. I think I had a better chance of losing to Floyd Mayweather in a spelling bee. After what felt like forever, I finally got to order a drink, but of course two seconds after I did, our table was ready. 
I wasn't really happy with the service at the bar, but I forgot all about it, after they sat us down in a booth. I love booths! It's like a vacation for your ass. Another way upland impressed me is through their complimentary breadbasket. We now live in an era where bread is extra, I can understand why, but even prisoners get bread and water for free. A few glances through the menu and this is what we got: 

Burrata ($19) Trout caviar, crispy leeks, arbequina olive oil. I'd give a hand job to Guy Fieri to be eating this right now. The trout roe gave the creamy burrata this nice natural taste of saltiness, along with crispiness from the leeks. I wasn't getting much of the olive oil, but either way this dish is a winner. 

Beef Tartar ($16) Black trumpet mushrooms, puffed faro, anchovy, egg yolk. The puffed faro and egg yolk was a nice touch, but I think the flavor notes from what I believe was mustard seeds, was just a little too much for me. The dish is good, but the single flavor profile of mustard seed or whatever the fuck it was, didn't do it for me 

Pear Pizza ($18) Stracciatella, pecan pesto, arugula, balsamic. I take my pizza seriously. I'm not one of those assholes who say "pizza is good, even when it's bad". Those people should be shot beaten with a rusty rake and then throw into a bathtub full of lemon juice. Upland's pizza though, is good. Well, the dough was good. The pear-pesto-balsamic wasn't doing it for me. 

Pappardelle ($22) Spicy sausage ragu, kale, Parmigiano. This dish is why I fucks  with Chef Smillie. The pappardelle was ridiculously fresh and super tender. The spicy sausage ragu had a fuckton of flavor with a nice little heat that danced on your tongue like a Brazilian stripper on a Saturday night. Order this dish, fuck it, and order two at the same time. 

Okay, so now I get California Inspired Italian food is. It's rustic italian but a lot lighter, and less cursing. Justin Smillie is completely killing it in the kitchen but not killing your wallet. Our bill came to $160 with a few drinks plus the tip. If you're looking for good food, a place that will get you laid on the first night or just an inexpensive night out in Manhattan, hit up Upland, A.S.A.P 

Upland 
345 Park Avenue South, New York 

The Best Places to Eat Pizza in Southern Brooklyn You know that feeling you get, when you're interested in someone, and that wave of n...

The Best Places to Eat Pizza in Southern Brooklyn

You know that feeling you get, when you're interested in someone, and that wave of nervous excitement crashes over you, when you see them? That's how I feel when I see pizza. To me, pizza is the perfect food. It's quick, it's cheap, and you can write a blog post, about your favorite pizza joints while eating it.

There are many sides to New York City's pizza scene. One one hand, you have pizza joints with $100,000 hand-built wood fired pizza ovens. The pizza is hand stretched by a Pizzaiola who tops the pizza with the freshest ingredients. On the other hand, you have the $1 slice joints, which use the crappiest ingredients, and techniques to form a slice of slop. Depending on our situation, both are good and hit the spot. But to me, the heart and sole of New York City's pizza scene is the local slice joint. That little spot on your block that you hit up everytime you're craving a great slice. These are mine: 

Delmar: Located in Sheepshead Bay, Delmar has been slinging the same classic New York city slice, since I could remember. After hurricane Sandy, I was worried they would never re-open. But after a few months they did,  with a new interior but still serving up their perfect old school NYC slice. 1668 Sheepshead Bay Road, Brooklyn NY 
Brooklyn Pizza NYC Pizza New York City


Pizza Wagon: When I was high school,  I wanted to be a chef.  The only high school at the time with a culinary program was in Bay Ridge, an hour bus ride from my house. So before I'd make my trek back home I would stop off here for a their regular and square slice, and do a little flirting with the bimbos from the surrounding all-girls catholic schools. 8610 5th avenue, Brooklyn NY 


Espresso Pizza: This place is new in my rotation. I actually came here on a whim. A few years back when Robert Sietsema was still writing for the Village Voice he did a little write-up about this place. Once again, he nailed it. The slice took me back to the late 90's.How the fuck is this guy never wrong? 9403 5th Avenue, Brooklyn NY

Difara: I mean,  come on. Do I really need to explain this to you? 1424 Avenue J, Brooklyn NY



La Casa Bella: What can I say about La Casa Bella. I am here at least once a week, and I've been eating their pizza since the mid 90's. What sets La Casa Bella apart from everyone else is their Alla Vodka slice. A Crispy dough layered with thick, creamy, tomato-ey vodka sauce, topped with a blanket of fresh mozzarella,  sprinkled with parsely,  basil, and the crust is sprinkled with sesame seeds. The layers of great flavors makes this,  in my opinion, the best vodka slice in Brooklyn. 2579 Cropsey Avenue, Brooklyn NY


Knapp Pizza 2: This place serves up a great grandma slice. A perfectly thin crust topped with fresh mozzarella, a ridiculously good tomato and garlic heavy sauce and sprinkled with olive oil and fresh basil. 261 Avenue X, Brooklyn NY


J & V: The Sicilian slice or better known as the square slice is what this place does best. Their slice is thick with a crispy bottom. The inside is fluffy, topped with the perfect amount of sauce and cheese. 6322 18th avenue, Brooklyn 


Totonno's: Even though this isn't a slice joint,  I wouldn't have respected myself if I didn't add this place to my list. Totonno's is the pride and joy of my neighborhood. The charcoal pizza oven has been pumping out perfect pies since the early 1900's. Actually they have only been pumping out pies for the past twenty years. When the original owner was alive,  he would only make enough dough for 50 pies. If you were pie 51,  guess what? You were assed out and if you talked back,  he would chase you out the store with a baseball bat. 1524 Neptune Avenue, Brooklyn NY


And lastly, my favorite spot for pizza is my kitchen.  It's kind of a funny story how I got into making pizza, I was drunk. I wanted pizza, it was 3am, so pretty much I was beat. In a fit of drunken, pizzaless rage, I took matters into my own hands and bought a stone, peel, and cutter on eBay for $30 at 3am. This assured me I would never go pizzaless again. 

Something that started out with me just wanting pizza when I was drunk flourished into another beast. I became infatuated with pizza, I mean like, reading Slice & Pizza making forums at 4am on a wednesday night, infatuated. Today, I have my own dough recipe, my own sauce recipe, and in the midst of figuring out how to make my own cheese curds to stretch out fresh mozzarella. 
Sound Bwoy Burreill: San Marzano, fresh mozzarella, spicy capicola, sweet sopressata, pecorino romano, red onion, olive oil 

Triple OG: San Marzano, dry mozzarella, grana padano, pecorino romano, olive oil, sea salt,basil. 


Have you ever come home at 430 in the morning, drunk and said to yourself “I need a pizza stone"? Well, I have. Most people get drunk...



Have you ever come home at 430 in the morning, drunk and said to yourself “I need a pizza stone"? Well, I have. Most people get drunk and get laid, I’m buying pizza stones. But I figured the pizza stone would get me laid anyway so fuck it. I picked up  a stone, peel and pizza cutter on eBay for $30 and fell a sleep on my couch. I’m no Dom Difara but this could be “ teach a man to fish “ situation. I invited over a few unsuspecting friends to test my pizza making skills and these were the results.


My local pizza joint hooked me up with some of their dough. For $10 I cranked out 8 small pies. 

I made a simple tomato sauce ($5). Garlic, onions, salt, pepper, and some red wine and I let that fucker cook for 3 hours on low heat


No Vodka was harmed in the making of this sauce




I picked up some nice imported prosciutto ($5 for a 1/4 pound ) and fresh mozzarella ($6 for a pound ) from this Italian specialty store

I'm not going to lie to you. It took me about 2 hours and 3 glasses of wine to try and figure out how to get the dough to look like this.

The first test pie. I put my oven onto 525 degrees. Once my oven hit 525 I let the pizza oven sit in there for twenty minutes. I topped it with my simple tomato sauce, cheese, salt, pepper, olive oil, parmigiano reggiano and then I threw the fucker in there.
The results. I took this with my iPhone cause I was to retarded to remember to take it with my SLR 
Alla vodka sauce, Prosciutto, cheese, pepper and olive oil.

Tomato sauce, Pepperoni, parmigiano reggiano, pepper, olive oil  
Vodka Sauce, Prosciutto, Pepperoni, Olive oil
And with that being said, I leave you with this song.