Primo Amore, again! (Bratislava, Slovakia)

It's been more then two years now since I visited Primo Amore on that memorable July day when I discovered Maurizio, the pizza that I positively liked the most since I've started this pizza quest. During this two year gap, however, I've hunted for a perfect pizza in 10 other countries (!) and I couldn't help that creeping feeling of doubt slowly entering my conscience like a snake preparing to snatch its prey at the late autumn dusk in the middle of Sahara's oasis full of lush vegetation.. I mean, I simply got doubts.

And thus on 18th of October, I decided to use my brief visit back home in Bratislava to make a second visit to Primo Amore. I came back for a couple of days to pick up many things I did not want to buy in UK, and of course, to see my family and friends :-) . Although not pizza related, I must mention the interesting journey via Kosice, that really wound up great. First the surprisingly pleasant WizzAir flight from Bristol (mostly thanks to the crew) which landed something past one AM. Then a few hours nap on the sack chairs at Kosice's small, but really nice and cozy airport. A strange ride with EasyTaxi to the station at 4:30 AM (the only thing the driver said was "hrrggh"), and, finally, amazing RegioJet train from Kosice to Bratislava. All of this was low-cost and including airport transfers to/from Bristol, the return journey was just something over 100 euros. Very well worth it.

But let's get back to the pizza hunt. Me, mum and dad went for a stroll and I tried to paint them the picture of a perfect, real Italian pizza waiting for them that evening. My dad responded in his typical way - he said he likes the frozen one from Kaufland baked in a micro with strips of extra bacon. Coming from Zahorie (literally "over the hills"), he decided to call it Real-Over-The-Hill-Pizza :-) Mum was trying to show more enthusiasm, but in the end her mum instinct would prevail and she'd start asking things like if I would like to take some tomatoes with me back to Cardiff. Well, you won't change your parents I guess :-)

When we came to Primo Amore, however, it dawned on me - it's Sunday! It's easy to lose track of time, especially now when I work irregularly and weekends tend to be my busiest work days. Thus we strolled a bit more and went home to get some real-over-the-hill pizza. It was good, I must say :), but we still agreed to come back the next day for lunch.

I booked a table for half past noon and when I came, mum was already there. We ordered two pizzas. Maurizio (with the amazing mushrooms. Hmm, I am not sure of the English translations of "Dubáky" mushrooms, but its referred to as "summer cep", see wikipedia), of course, plus a Margherita with extra parmigiano, which was part of the lunch menu. Dad came a short while after and then... moment of suspense... tramtadadaaa! The pizzas!!! (am I weird?)

I was really curious about Maurizio and went for a slice straight away. And it was.. great! But was it the best? Not sure any more, it was definitely not the same "victory" feeling I had in July 2013. One reason was probably that there was not so many mushrooms this time (neither parmigiano), and thus the pizza lacked the intense aroma which charmed me the first time. Further, I've noticed the sauce, which was great too, but I now remember having better, e.g. in Stockholm, or in the Real Italian Pizza Company, where I currently work. On the other hand, I still loved the dough and the crust, and the combination of the tasty and quality toppings. All in all, I am sure this is amongst the best pizzas I've had, and if I had to choose one, I perhaps would point my finger at Maurizio...

Maurizio on the bottom.

However, the best pizza is still probably waiting somewhere out there, and might be the combination of what I've seen and tasted so far. I really loved the crunchy crust in Dough Roller in US, the rich sauce in Birkastan's in Stockholm or the unique shape of the pizzas, as well as the atmosphere in Berlin's Pomodorino. But then, that's the beauty of hunting for the best pizza, you always get to find something new, experience a new favourite taste, or simply have an great time with your co-hunters.

Like I did this time. Thanks, mum and dad :-)


PS:
Dough - 10
Ingredients - 9 (1 point less for slightly smaller quantity)
Sauce - 8
Atmosphere - 8
Service - 9

Real Italian Pizza Company (Cardiff, UK)

I was playing on the street again, this time at a corner of small church in central Cardiff. The rugby was on that time, or about to start, or something like that, and I decided to use that hustling-bustling time to earn some money through busking on one of the first days of our stay in UK. The weather was nice and sunny, and I was about to write "exceptionally nice", when I realized it's been like this for almost a month now, since we came. Perhaps the "lousy UK weather" is just a myth? Or we're just lucky?

Cardiff Central, on a nice autumn evening

Don't know, but I was definitely lucky on that day. Not with street playing, which went pretty bad and I felt more like practising then really playing. But with something else. Earlier that day, I had printed some CVs to hand out. It was for some time I was pondering getting a job in a pizza place, as making pizza has been my hobby for years now, intensified after the summer of 2012 in US. So I made two versions of my CV - an IT, and a pizza version :-) .

It worked! :-P

I printed ten from each but before handing them out, I did the mentioned street playing. When I finished, I packed all the stuff and took off, but straight away, I noticed this place next to which I was playing. It seemed to be under construction and the name said "Real Italian Pizza Company" . Hmm... Why not?

There were several people working on the terrace, apparently finishing off the details for a nearing opening day. I approached the closest person, who, funnily enough, turned out to be the HR manager just talking with the owner. We talked briefly, I passed over one of the CVs and as if heavens wanted it that way, Richard (the HR manager) called me an hour later: "come tomorrow 12 o'clock".

And so I became a "pizza chef", although I still feel a bit too honoured being called like that. However, doing something you like is important and making pizzas has always been fun for me. And they say, the most important ingredient of a pizza is the pizzaiolo's passion for it :-)

I soon discovered that my experience from US is great, but nowhere near "enough" and I will still have loads to learn. First of all, RIPC (as I will abbreviate) is on a whole different level then the seasonal businesses I worked for in Ocean City. Most importantly, one can feel here, that the restaurant aims to provide nothing short of the best possible. Ingredients? All fresh. Spaces? All clean. The pizza is a slightly bit burned? Make a new one. And every customer, every order is important, no cutting corners, just extra something in the cases when time permits.

For me, as an employee, one big plus is the people around me. It seems that it's not only the vision of the owners to do the best job, but also those who work here. Even more importantly, the management seems to understand the importance of their employees and their happiness, an appreciated contrast with the "I'll show you who's the boss" type of attitude I met with in US.

All in all, working at RIPC is fun and even when I find a job I want in IT, I want to keep this one. After all, what can be better then take the "pala" and making beautiful pizzas in wood-fired "forno" after hours of sitting in front of a PC? :-)


But this is a pizza hunt, so let's jump into it a bit more. I have a pizza there every time, so to choose a concrete occasion, we can go for the time when Tinka came to pick me up from work. I won't be very critical, however. It does not get much better then this, I believe, and plus, you know.. I made the pizza that time :-P .

It was a colder day, and she was spending it handing out CVs around Cardiff, thus she came in quite frozen. We sat down in front of the counter, behind which two wood-fired ovens were giving a nice warm feeling to the modern interiors. I've made a Margherita with spinach and chicken and went to change quickly. Tinka and the pizza waited, although as a customer, you'd enjoy it virtually straight out of the oven. So how is it?

We ate the pizza too quickly and so decided to make a picture with the cheesecake instead :-)

The crust is normally crispy but soft on the inside, and tastes great on its own. It is much thicker then the middle, but not as much and bubbly as with Napoli pizzas. As I heard, this is basically the standard with "classic" Italian pizzas, which are not super thin, as some people would think. The role of the crust is not just to provide an enjoyable plain pizza taste, or give a nice look to the pie, but also to keep the boiling sauce and ingredients in place while in the oven! I learned this the hard way after some of my early pizzas with too-little crust spilled some of their "content" into the oven, while rotating them inside :-) Anyway, the crust is simply great, mostly owing to the beautiful wood-fired ovens, which (when properly baked) adds it a nice dark shade and char, especially on the bottom.


The pizzas are first topped with sauce and grated mozzarella, followed by the rest of the ingredients. The sauce and cheese are great and tasty too, as good as it can get in UK, I believe. As for cheese, however, I heard from my Italian colleagues, the very best pizzas in Italy would have pieces of fresh, high-moisture mozzarella instead of the grated "solid" blocks, but obviously this is only possible when you don't need to import them. Plus the price in such cases would most probably sky-rocket too. All the same, you can still make an order to replace the "normal" (yet very good) mozzarella with Mozzarella Di Bufala to achieve a similar effect.

The ingredients, as mentioned already, are all fresh, meaning e.g. that the chicken was marinated and cooked on place, rather then imported ready-to-use in frozen bags. Similar for mixed peppers, mushrooms and basically everything else that can be prepared locally. This is one major thing that puts the restaurant on a higher level, and what makes the price really justified. Doing things the proper way simply takes time, effort and extra people, but pays off in long term on good reputation and stable clientèle.

There's about 30 pizzas to choose from and it took me some time to remember all of them (ok, let's be honest, I still don't know everything), plus there are pastas, salads, many starters, deserts or a beautifully arranged plate with antipasto. Actually everything is beautifully arranged and in a honest portion, as otherwise the head cook Paula would give us a "I-kill-you" scowl and say "Hey, amore, make it nice", or "Did you pay for the cheese? Put more!" :-)

Paola and me

Chocolate fudge cake with ice cream

RIPC is really real Italian. And that's not a tongue twister, that's a fact. It's also a honest, friendly and not really expensive place, considering UK standards and the fact it's in the middle of Cardiff. Yet, it's a place I would most likely not visit just by strolling around. And that's perhaps the only thing I could put on the "could be improved" side. The place is newly opened and has a modern air. The pizzas are valuing traditions and Italian standards. If therefore I miss something, it's bit more homely or cozy atmosphere and a touch of originality. I guess it comes down to personal preferences - I can imagine Italians feel home here straight away :-) . But then, if you visit Brussel's Posto al Sole, or Berlin's Pomodorino, and experience their unique atmosphere, you'd understand what I mean.


But anyway, that's a very small wrinkle, plus it's certain the place will build it's own popularity and clientèle by simply doing what people come there for - the real, Italian, quality and tasty pizzas. And the work and passion of those running the place adds one more, the most vital ingredient. I can only be grateful I was given a chance to be part of that. Thanks!

Dough - 10
Ingredients - 10
Sauce - 9
Atmosphere - 8
Service - 10

Restaurant Bryggjan (Akureyri, Iceland)

It was the end of January and I was sweating in a short sleeve T-shirt on a scorching sun, hot and humid air around me never giving me a break. Now it was beginning of August and there we were - walking on meters of snow, 4 or 5 layers proving just enough for the freezing temperatures around us. No - I did not make a mistake exchanging the dates. This year, I simply took some of the winter, and swapped it with some of the summer. The early summer was in Ghana, and the late winter in Iceland.

Typical early August

Juro (always introducing himself as "Juro, like the currency") was silently walking next to me when he suddenly said: "when we come back, we'll go for a Big mac!". We were walking through the ridge between Eyjafjallajokull and Myrdalsjokull, two glaciers in the south of Iceland, almost at the end of our 120km four day journey. Not even Juro's awesome cooking skills or a phenomenal chocolate from Kaufland could make us stop thinking about the warm civilization with some hot tasty Mac Donnalds burger. We are however two intelligent guys and know that's not good for our health. So eventually, we went for all-you-can-eat pizzas and french fries.

But let us rewind back again a bit. We decided to go to Iceland after an awesome trip to Lofoten islands last year, which surprised us with 25 degrees and a shining sun, although it's located behind the polar circle. Longing for similar experience and a nice tan, we chose (almost) three weeks on Iceland. The planning ended with the purchase of the plane tickets and some latent agreement to do everything as low-cost as possible, although not as much as the guy Juro told me about (who would come to a restaurant, sit next to a stranger, observe her eating and halfway through would say "excuse me madame, is that sausage already free?")

Rygge airport and a friendly welcome from Norway

The journey to Iceland itself was fun already, and for me, it started at midnight on 28th of July, with a ride in Polskibus to Katowice, from where I hitched a ride to Krakow airport. We met there with Juro and took a flight to Oslo Rygge. Then hitchhiking to Oslo, night spent at Martin's place, some morning shopping for amazing Devold thermo underwear (the main reason we survived the trip), train to the airport and finally the flight to Reykjavik. Hmm, "finally" - I must say I was a bit unwilling to leave the nice and shiny 25 degrees in Oslo for the cold and rain forecasted at our destination, especially since I was quite sick and cold that time. But eventually, on 30th of July, we observed the rainy desert as our flight descended down on Keflavik airport. 

Peter told us that "the weather changes quickly on Iceland. If you don't like it, just wait half an hour, and it will change... To worse!" . Haha! Hmm.. Oh.

But it was not so bad and fortunately for us, it often worked in the reverse direction. And we decided to take advantage of our plans, i.e. no plans at all, to make the next step in the direction of good weather. 

Queue to Dunkin Donuts in Reykjavik, one month after its opening. It was raining

Icelandic air, I think for about 5e

Our first stop was planned, however. In Reykjavik we spent a night at Peto's place, which I really appreciated as it helped to put me to a better shape, while Juro made a map of things worth to see. We started with obligatory Golden circle on a beautiful day and a great luck with hitchhiking. Touristy stuff and not too much fun (fun fun fun, Friday, Friday... It was really Friday btw) but this was just to warm up and since the forecast looked good, we decided to continue straight away with the Laugavegur - the most iconic and scenic hike on Iceland.

Funny buses for off-road journeys, e.g. to Landmannalaugar

Our daily bread - kind of high protein thick joghurt

The incredible changes in the scenery, wading through ice-cold rivers and making friends with fellow travelers makes it surely the highlight of our trip, and one of the best hikes I've ever done.

 

We did it, however, in two days instead of the usual four, which means we almost cried when we got finally to Thorsmork, close to midnight already. All broken, we decided to stay one more day in the camping's kitchen just chilling out, eating, using wi-fi and talking to fellow hikers. It almost got to the point that we made the kitchen our home, gradually taking over most of the space and power plugs.

On the way to Skogar

Part of Myrdalsjokull

Is it just enough, or just too much?

Mee

Our destination in Skogar

Fully recharged, we continued the following day over the mountain ridge to Skogar, which included the Big Mac part from the beginning of this post. This was almost equally nice as the Laugavegur trek, especially the last few kilometers of the descent to Skogar, where we saw so many extremely beautifully spectacular waterfalls that we almost got some eye damage.

Beautiful and funny waterfall

The most beautiful and amazing waterfall

 

Really nice waterfall

Waterfall

Big waterfall

Great waterfall

After four days of hiking, we aimed to Vik, where we enjoyed a couple of days at Zuzka's place, who's a relative of our friend in Slovakia. Zuzka stays with an Icelandic guy Danny, who was not only very friendly, but also quite skillful with all kinds of machinery and heavy trucks he kept in the garage. Being a guy to-go-to in Vik and in the area in general, he's now helping out with his gear for filming on the glaciers, or even appears in some videos himself. I also liked his attitude to "summer", as they call the 10 degrees, strong wind and occasional rain around here - he'd simply put on a short shirt and respond to our confused looks with "what? It's summer".

With Zuzka and her shop, after we did the horrible thing, destroyed vegetation and put the balcony in place

Danny also built a small wooden balcony for a souvenir shop that Zuzka runs here. We offered to help out putting it in place and spent a few hours shoveling the grass in front of the shop. Suddenly a car came to the parking lot and its crew went straight for the shop. A women leading the group asked me what are we doing. In a good will to satisfy the curiosity of a friendly customer, I half happily and half proudly replied "we're building a small balcony here". 

Juro, doing the horrible thing

Ice-cold look penetrated my soul, however. "Do you have permission to do this?!" She said and went on with even more brutal look and words "destroying vegetation is a horrible thing". I must say, at that moment, I was feeling as someone who's just maliciously cut down the last standing tree of Iceland. Luckily, that was not the case and Danny eventually handled the situation, but at times, I still wake up from my dreams..

Danny's trucks in Vik

The unplanned plans came in handy again when we met three Spanish senoritas who aimed north of the country for few days. Hunting for good weather and things to see, it was our goal to get there and fortunately, when we asked them they replied with friendly "vamos". Thus we squeezed in a small Ford Focus for 600 kilometers and two rainy days, though at least we were warm together at the back seats. We slept sweetly most of the journey, happy to find shelter in the car and woke up often only for the numerous stops at numerous sites, mostly waterfalls. It all kind of blended together and at some points we found ourselves numbly getting out of the car, unaware of where we are, just following the three pairs of Spanish footsteps in front of us, wondering why are waterfalls so popular and how will they look from the different side. We dreamed about waterfalls, they even pushed the heavy "balcony" incident of our minds and we often woke up screaming "more waterfalls! More!" in the middle of the night.

Our three Spanish senoritas friends

Godafoss - a very emmm, nice and big waterfall!

Warm, but stinky - reminds me of the dressing room for our sports class on high school

The weather got magically better and so did Juro's health, thus after saying good bye to our Spanish friends, we decided to do another hike, from Detifoss to Asbyrgi - a nice, 30-something km, fairly flat trail. Needless to say, there were many waterfalls on the way but fortunately, also other sights made the hike one to remember.

Icelandic Preikestolen?

There's a bird camping in the middle

Asbyrgi - huge depression in the shape of a horseshoe. Legend has it that the horse of Odin stamped down here

Ending up at the very north, we had now something over 4 days to get down to Reykjavik and thus we took it slow. As the weather was truly nice these days, there was no need to hunt for it. But other hunt was on the horizon - before the Detifoss-Asbyrgi hike, we were also in Akureyri and we asked a local girl where is the Bryggjan restaurant. As it turned out, she was the waitress there and few days later, she greeted us at 11:30 as the first customers of the lunch buffet.

Yes, all-you-can-eat pizzas, the first pizza-hunt of this kind, and on Iceland! I didn't eat since previous day's dinner (very non-trivial for me) and so when the pizzas came, I jumped up on them.

Yep, we know what's healthy

Hm, if I could sum it up with few adjectives, it would be "quite tasty and honest super cheesy semi American delivery pizza". Lets go one by one. Super cheesy. Oh yes, the main reason I was full after ten (small) slices was the amount of cheese. It might have formed almost half of the pizza volume and it simply was a bit too much. That is why I say "honest", but also only "quite" tasty. Another minus goes for the sauce, which tasted bit too much like tomatoes - I mean, that's a good basis, but not really the complete pizza sauce. Finally, the crust was thick, but rather weak and soft, thus the "delivery", and "semi American".

From the above, it sounds like not the best of pizzas, and unfortunately, it's true I expected more, given the reviews I had seen. However, there's a chance the non-buffet pizza is different, while the buffet-one is simply designed to make people full as quickly as possible. I did not investigate this (but got myself full).

All the same, Bryggjan is a very cozy and nice place, with trendy decorations and a friendly staff. And the all-you-can-eat for something like 11 euros was a very good deal anyway. It certainly did the job and after two hours, we slowly shuffled away to get our first beer in Iceland and enjoy it on the nearest piece of grass we could find.

That might feel like the end of the day, but was far from it! We were to meet Milka, Andrej, Marika and Tomas, who had a car and were heading to Grettislaug - a nice hot pot not so far away. We managed to hitch three rides to Saudarkrokur and then hopped on their Dacia Duster for the final off-road bit. Following was a lengthy decision how/if to enter/pay for the hot pot and the camping, that mostly we, people from post-communist countries, excel in. The decision materialized, finally, and soon we all sat in one of the pools - the less hot one, although still too hot to stay in for long. Me and Juro tried also a dip in the cold sea, while Marika and Tomas contemplated the probability of getting eaten there by a shark.

Milka, trying out playground in the camping

Juro, after he tried out playground in the camping

The next morning, we went for a hike, mainly to see some more waterfalls (haha). Steep mountains rising almost from the sea and a beautiful day made us feel for a day like we did on Lofoten islands last year.

There was only couple of days left now, and so we moved in direction of Reykjavik, to have bit of a back-up time. Few easily hitched rides, and few hours of pseudo-camping at the airport.

And that was it. Iceland is truly unique and beautiful country. But it can also be very rough and uninviting. Getting down there with no car and only backpacks for almost three weeks might not always pay off. Words from some Czech people we met on Lofoten islands were ringing in my ears before the trip: "it was raining for three weeks". And not only rain it is, cold and wind can add up to this and make for truly hellish conditions, especially for hitchhiking and camping. It worked out well for us. Perhaps too well, and I was a bit sad we did not get some heavy rain and wind battering us for once, just to get the whole proper Icelandic experience :-P

But I think I'll live with that :-)

PS:
Dough - 5
Ingredients - 5
Sauce - 4
Atmosphere - 8
Service - 9