aizzk

[aizzk]

Wednesday 22nd of october, 2024

Valeria - Le Clan des Mamma

20, Pl. Forum des Cardeurs, 13100 Aix en Provence

Let me introduce you to one of the best pizzas I've ever had in France.

I was travelling to Aix en Provence to get tattooed and I thought it could be a good idea to find what that city had to offer in terms of pizza. I was looking for trattorias and I stimbled upon a couple of them that looked really nice. My choice eventually was based on the menu, more precisely in the lack of basil on the ingredients list of this pizza since I don't find it enjoyable.

Contrary to last time, today was sunny and quite hot. I even managed to regret a bit my outfit as I decided to sit in the terrasse and the sun was on me during the whole experience.

I went with a Regina with no mushrooms. That is usually my experience since not many places have Prociuttos written on their menus, which is fine by me (as long as they don't get it wrong afterwards hehe).

Do I need to say anything about the looks of the pizza ? It's pretty and looks hella apetising. The smell was also doing its part and I wasted no time tasting what I now think is one of the best pizza experiences I've had for a decent amount of time.

Tomato sauce : excellent. Not too overpowering but had a decent amount of umami. The mozzarella was so stringy at first. It definitely enhances the experience. The dough was thin but the border were quite thick. And the ham topped the whole of it very nicely. I don't know how to explain it but this is the type of texture in ham that I like, when the surface is more on the rough side instead of slippery-ish.

That ham was also initially covered in different aromatics and which deepened the overall flavor with a little something else without taking away the ham's flavor. I definitely enjoyed this nice touch.

I finished the whole thing, although I should add that it wasn't without some difficulties. The borders where so thick ! It was like eating a whole baguette in one sitting.

If I were to be picky, I would say that I could've gone with a bit less ham. Aside from that, I have no critiques whatsoever. It was a great experience, from the customer service to the last bite of pizza.

I paid 14,50€ for the pizza and also got a dessert afterwards. I think it deserves to have this price for the quality and quantity you get.

Also, kudos to the chicken water jug because it's lovely !

I'm happy to have eaten there and I hope I'll get another reason to come back here to explore the city more purposefully and eat another pizza. Would definitely recommend.

This was #2 of my pizza tasting/referencing adventure. See you !

[aizzk]

Sunday, 6th of october 2024

Pizzeria Sicilia

20 Rue du Pila St Gély, 34000 Montpellier

I was hoping to start the pizza testing/referencing series with a more positive post but I guess next time will do the job !

I've been wanting to go to this pizzeria for around a year now. I was curious since the name is written in italian and I wondered if their tomato sauce was italian as well. I like it better than french tomato sauce base but it's hard to find in France (i might get into this topic eventually but not now)

It was a cloudy sunday, one of those where you just wanna say warm and cozy inside as autumn settles in. I'm still kinda hoping for a couple of summer-ish weeks, wishful thinking from my part.

Getting back to our main topic, the place felt nice and homey, the perfect refugee for this weather. Lots of people had the same idea as the restaurant was packed.

We got the menu and I was pleasantly surprised as I found "Prosciutto" as one of the pizzas they had to offer. I usually need to order another type of pizza and ask them to remove a couple of ingredients at most. However, I also noticed the ingredients listed were "fromage, jambon blanc, olives". When compared to the traditional Margherita, the latter was made of "fior di latte, olives". This raised the following question : what type of cheese is "fromage" ?

And lo and behold, it was emmental.

Emmental !

I was a bit disappointed by it, to be honest.

The thing is that emmental has a very strong flavor. I felt like it completely overpowered the other ingredients and it led me to not finishing the pizza (I got the rest of it to go) as I couldn't taste anything other than it. I was overwhelmed by emmental.

Aside from that, the other ingredients were good. The ham was finely sliced and I think the tomato sauce was soft but flavorful at the same time. The pizza base (the dough) was thin but held the ingredients without falling apart.

I had the opportunity to taste the mozzarella from another pizza and I am thinking about giving this place another shot asking for mozzarella instead of "fromage" (aka emmental).

I paid 13 euros for it, water was free. I would expect to pay a bit more if I change ingredients next time I go since I believe mozzarella is more expensive than emmental.

Voilà, it wasn't what I anticipated but there might be room to find a pizza that I like better.

This was #1 of my tasting/referencing ham and cheese pizzas. See you !