Excellent pizza at Paesano, Glasgow

Mmmmm Pizza ....

We have recently been to Paesano Pizza (http://paesanopizza.co.uk) for Napolitan pizza on Miller Street, Glasgow.  All I can say is, Mmmmmm Pizza....

The restaurant is quite airy, a bit canteen like feel, yet not too cold in decor, providing very relaxing atomosphre. There are bags of pizza flours stuck up against the wall toward the back of the restaurant, beyond that you see chefs making pizzas.

According to them, their wood fired pizza ovens have been built by Gianni Acunto of Naples (http://www.acunto.it/en.html), who have been making traditional ovens for four generations. Their pizza is a hybrid yeast and sourdough proofed for over 48 hours and cooked at an intense heat of 500 degrees, resulting a moist, light, soft, digestible crust which is aromatic and delicious.

They also say that their mozzarella is fresh Fior di Latte from Teano in Campania, approximately 30 km northwest from Rome. Their creamy Mozzarella di Bufala is from Mondragone in Campania, the capital of buffalo mozzarella. They use only Strianese San Marzano tomatoes from Sarno in Campania that provides stronger, sweeter and less acidic tastes. Their extra virgin olive oil is from Lanciano in Abruzzo, and they only use Caputo "00" flour from Naples. According to an internet, the flour is made with high quality and elastic gluten that provides extraordinary taste, perfect for pizza making.

Wow .... just learning where all ingredients are coming from already transport me to Naples in my head!

So we consult with the menu ... This is the pizza restaurant and, apart from some selections of nibbles on the side, pizzas are all they do.

So, what shall we try ....?

They also had specials, which sound great ....

You notice that the price is good, the most expensive is £8 and the cheapest basic one (without cheese) is £5. 

My husband ordered a pizza with capers, olives and anchovies. I ordered pizza with artichoke, mushroom and sun blush tomatoes from the special menu and Maria spicy chorizo from the special too. Can't wait for our pizzas ....

While waiting for our pizzas, we were nibbling artichokes and sun blush tomatoes. I got to tell you. These are seriously good marinated artichokes and sun blush tomatoes ... big size chunks of artichokes. I can just eat these all day with nice vino. I love artichokes. 

Before we finished off artichokes, our pizzas already arrived!

This is Maria's spicy chorizo pizza. 

This is my husband's capers, olives and anchovies pizza ...

and this is my pizza with artichokes, mushrooms and sun blush tomatoes ... this pizza is phenomenal!

On each pizza, there were lots of toppings on top and underneath melted mozzarella. Cant' believe this is only £8!!

And, unless your pizza is already spicy, you should also drizzle this chilis oils on your pizza....

After the pizza, even though I was already more than full, I just wanted to try soft ice cream cone as I had seen ones on Instagram.

My husband kept explaining, repeatedly in fact, that I need to get the cone but I kept thinking soft ice cream as I could not understand why I had to pay extra  £2 just for a[n empty] cone on top of soft ice cream, so I ordered soft ice cream.  And look what happened....  I got soft ice cream, literally, hahaha.

And it was a huge heap ... had I ordered 'the cone' as my husband kept repeatedly saying, I would have had a soft ice cream with cone and would have been .50p cheaper. What was I thinking???

The heap was too big and I am afraid that I had to give up halfway through. Thinking about it now, I want the rest of the ice cream now ....

Anyway, after that, we [especially me] behaved like a tourist, taking picture of their Paesano neon sign on the wall and also went to the toilet for toilet check. [They passed.]

It was such a great pizza experience, my husband and I have gone back again for lunch today, hahaha.

We both ordered the special pizza with artichokes, mushrooms and sun blush tomatoes again and also ordered marinated olives to nibble whilst waiting for our pizzas.  Olives were really big and meaty!

We were impressed that our pizza came fairly quickly.

 The pizza was gorgeous as last time. It was such a big pizza but I even managed to eat 2/3 of mine.

We arrive there around one pm on Sunday afternoon and the place was quiet, however by the time we were leaving the place was getting busier. I heard that people cue to get in when it is busy. I can understand that.

I checked on internet - paesano means countryman, fellow Italian or friend, usually from the same neighbourhood, city or region.  Well, you come to this pizza place to be transported to Naples in your mind and be a Paesano for a few hours whilst eating their wonderful pizza!

That's all forks!

Lunch at Pizza Express

I have not been updating my blog since 10th October 2012. We have now decided not to get a puppy after all for the time being. So I have then started looking for a cat option as they are low maintenance. They can be left alone during the day and no need for going for a walk... I have been checking on internet looking for cats instead of updating my blog, and then discovered 'Maru', a Scottish Fold breed cat in Japan who has become very popular on You Tube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8uDuls5TyNE). I now want another Maru for our house, but the problem is that I am almost certain that I am allergic to cats. "Do you think I am really allergic to cats?" I asked my husband. He shrugged his shoulders. I am in denial. But buying a Scottish Fold is a huge undertaking as they are not cheap and if I suffer from allergy after all, we would not be able to keep it and that would be a shame for the cat. So, in the end having a cat is also put on hold. My older daughter Emily and her boyfriend Craig now own a kitten, named Bailey. Emily keeps sending me lots of photos of Bailey so for the time being I just looking at those photos instead of thinking of a Maru for me.

Bailey sitting on Emily's legs.

Since we were no longer pet hunting or going around pet shelters, our weekend is back to normal, going for lunch on Saturdays. This time we opted for lunch deal at Pizza Express. I have been getting emails from them all the time, giving me all kinds of deal to entice us to part our money. To be honest we have not been to Pizza Express for a while. We used to go there quite often, especially when girls were small. I remember we organised a birthday party there for my younger daughter, Maria when she was, I think, 8 or 10 years old. Maria and her friends got to make their own pizzas under the guidance of pizza chef and enjoyed their own hand-made pizzas. All then received certificates and mini chef's whites and hats.

Anyway, we decided to go for £12.99 three course meal deal per person.  For the starter, we chose Pizza Express famous dough balls with garlic butter. I also ordered Merlot Rose, which was very nice. I don't know much about wine but it was a gorgeous salmon pink colour with very refreshing taste. I really like that!

We then both had a plate of Classic Giardiniera pizza each. It has artichokes, mushrooms, red peppers, santos tomatoes, leeks, olives, garlic oil, tomatoes and pesto base. It was really delicious!

We then had cheese cake with mascapone cheese each. By then I was getting full. My husband said, "You don't need to finish if you don't want to." I said, "But it would go to waste." He said, "or it would go to your waist!". Very funny... I finished it all anyway.

 My husband then had cappuccino and I had macchiato.

£12.99 per person would be a good deal if you like to have 3 course meals but by the time you add a decent glass of wine and coffee, it's not really that cheap after all. But we did really enjoy our lunch and it was also nice to have lunch somewhere different for a change.

Now, all clean plate and everything I ate that day did go to my waist!!!

What you can eat in Sorrento, Italy

In just over 2 weeks time, my younger daughter Maria and her boyfriend are going to Sorrento, Italy for summer holiday. It was June 2005 when my husband and I went to Sorrento for holiday and have so many lovely memories - and of course the food!!!

(All photos are from our trip in June 2005 - I have no idea what they are all like if we go back these places now....)

In Sorrento, there are many good restaurants as you can imagine and off the main street, shops are selling lovely fresh fruits.  According to an internet information, hugh lemons growing in Sorrento, a size of American football, are called sfusato sorrentino and is good for making limoncello (lemon liquor).

Lemons are also painted ceramics vase, bottles and tiles ubiquitously and you see then when you are in Amalfi coast.

A shop in Positano, Amalfi coast.

One night, I had Spaghetti with clams - there were so many big clams in my spaghetti and you could taste the sea!  My husband had pizza (see the photo behind my spaghetti). I can't remember what were toppings but he really enjoyed it.

... and his pizza was made by this chef who kindly posed in front of camera for me!

Food was so delicious, we went back to the same restaurant again and I ordered another spaghetti clams and my husband had another big plate of pizza!

Obviously there are many pizzeria in Sorrento.  One evening we went to Pizzeria Aurora ( www.pizzeriaaurora.com) which is in the the main square, Piazza Tasso. 

We also tried other restaurants in Sorrento and also had Capri salad (mozzarella cheese, tomato and basils).  Well the mozzarella was nice and really creamy, tomatoes had so much flavour that they were no comparison to tomatoes you get in supermarket in UK.

During the day, you can also go to a small cafe or some patisserie off the main street for a nice cappuccino (although Italians do not drink this in the afternoon) or biscotti or both!

Being right by the coast, seafood is obviously excellent.  We loved the restaurant called Ristorante Bagni Delfino in Marina Grande (www.ristorantebagnidelfino.com). It is by the sea with sun-deck extending over the water. We had lovely lunch, away from the main town centre of Sorrento but still within walking distance, with wonderful views of the peninsula and mount Vesuvio.

My husband had Fritto Misto di Mare (mixed fried seafood).

and I had grilled king prawns or were they langoustine...? Anyway they were huge and really delicious!  I love to go back there and have these again!!!

During our holiday in Sorrento, we also had day trips to explore Amalfi coast.  We took public bus to get to Amalfi, took a boat back from Amalfi to Sorrento via Positano. 

In Amalfi, we found a lovely restaurant off the main square. We had clams and musseles with hand-made pasta. It was absolutely delicious.

On the way back to the centre of Amalfi from the restaurant, we found a snack bar. They were selling so much variety of cakes and they all looked really delicious.

We had an expresso and eclair with chocolate cream filling for dessert! 

We also went to island of Capri. We went to a restaurant called Ristorante Sollievo - just checking on internet, this is now Ristorante D'Amore. I have no idea if it's still owned by the same people or not...
Anyway I remember they had a photo of Keanu Reeves on the wall so guessed he must have dined there long time ago.

I had spaghetti with clams again!

The restaurant is a bit away from the town centre of Capri where many trendy and probably expensive restaurants are. I remember there was also a very good ice-cream / cake shop nearby.

Back to Sorrento again.  On our last night in Sorrento, we went to a restaurant called Ristorante Caruso (www.ristorantemuseocaruso.com) just off the main square.

It was a very lovely, romantic place, with full of pictures of the great tenor, Enrico Caruso, his friends and family and his life on the wall.  When we went there in 2005, they had tasting menu that came with many courses (can't remember how many) which was what we had then.

Risotto with mussels.

Langoustine ravioli

White fish (can't remember what type?) with bed of fennels

Dessert - sponge cake with liquor and fruits.

I love to go back there but I don't think they are still doing the tasting menu. Well, it was a lovely place to go for a finale of our lovely time spent in Sorrento.

Anyway, if none of these interests you, you can always have Italian ice cream. They are just tasty!
A local tour guide took us to this ice cream parlour on our first day and we kept going back to the same place every day for a treat.  We ate too much but there was always room for ice cream!!!

I hope my daughter and her boyfriend will have a lovely time in Sorrento.