Delirio Culinario (Luxembourg)

I was on my way back to Newport from the Christmas holidays, which I'd spent in Slovakia. It was one of the warmest ends of the year in the recent history and so the Christmas lacked the white touch from the songs and fairy tales. In fact, it was quite the opposite. In Vazec, the village where my grandma lives, the temperatures reached beyond 13 degrees, the sun was shining and there was even a story of a man who found a blooming flower in the forest. Yet it's the same village where me and my sister used to build igloos and snow shelters in the early winter, in the beautiful unique atmosphere where snow and cold makes everything peaceful (not that it's busy other times in Vazec), as if covered with a duvet provided by mother nature.

But coming back from my poetic mood, this (as many recent) year was quite different, with at least an interesting inversion that also had its magic.

Me and my father on Marianska hora. Above the clouds - 14 degrees, below the clouds, 0.

All the same, the snow finally came on 4th of January, just when I was about to set off for the two day journey "home". One reason why this took so long was that the post (as well as pre) Christmas time is very busy and expensive, but also that Bratislava-Newport is not exactly a frequent direct flight link (who knows why).

But the main reason was that I planned a stop in Luxembourg, to visit two friends - the old-school pizza hunter and korbič Lubo who's raking and shovelling Euros in the EIB bank and the next Einstein from AIMS, Cyrille, who's currently studying the financial shovels and rakes at the university. Since I'd like this blog to have an educative touch, I provide a picture of the tools Lubo and Cyrille use.

As you can see clearly from the picture, the rake at the left is more suitable for investments at Bachelier markets. The other is better for pizzas.

If Newport is difficult to reach from Bratislava, it does not get much better for Luxembourg. Fortunately, rome2rio and similar websites make impossible possible these days, and so I managed to get off in Luxembourg only after 24 hours of travelling, including a bus to Vienna, one hour walk for interchange, a bus to Munich, midnight change for another bus to Saarbrucken, failed attempt at hitch-hiking and a car share to Luxembourg.

There, it took another couple of trains and I soon greeted Cyrille in the small village of Dudelange, at the outskirts of Luxembourg. He was the first person from AIMS I've seen since I left, and so it was really nice to bring back the memories, or practice the snap-fingers-handshake.

We later caught up with Lubo in the city centre, and although Luxembourg is not a place famous for pizzas, it would simply be shame not to put it on my pizza hunt map while being there. Plus we were hungry.

We aimed for the place called Delirio Culinario, one that I'd found on the internet when searching for the best pizzeria in Luxembourg. The name sounds Italian, the reviews on Trip Advisor were excellent - a guaranteed gem and successful pizza hunt, right? And "delirio", hm, that sounds like an authentic Napoli car-honk stressy-messy hustle-bustle cucina! Well, not exactly.

There's more ingredients to a great pizza hunt, and I think the one that I missed the most was one often underestimated - the atmosphere. Here, the light was dim, music low, waiters extremely professional and polite. Yeah, that's all great and Delirio did nothing wrong in this respect. But for me, it was simply too posh and if I took off points for atmosphere in my pizzeria in Cardiff as it seemed a bit too "normal", it looks like a wild jungle with Tarzans compared to Delirio. True, it was a quite evening in Luxembourg, but I just missed some liveliness.

On the other hand, I must commend on the professionalism of the waiters who could serve and do their work quite "invisibly", i.e. without much disturbance, which might suit some customers (especially, I believe, those that Delirio aims for), although I like more relaxed atmosphere with an occasional joke.

Back to the previous hand, the pizzas took a bit long to prepare, considering the restaurant was almost empty. But having been in a similar situation myself, I understand that on a quiet evening it's pointless to keep more chefs, and a single chef will simply take a bit longer to do the work.

Sorrentina

After the roughly 20 minutes of waiting, the pizzas arrived and it was clear straight away our hunger will lose the game - they were definitely bigger then standard pizzas. On the other hand, it was also clear they were not in a wood-fired oven, as the texture of the crust was not one that would make you jump with excitement and write poems about it (I mean, I don't do that in case you're wondering). But then, the restaurant did not say so.

Mine was Sorrentina, a quite salty and spicy pizza with anchovies, capres and fresh peppers, among others. Again, it was my choice, but it was bit of a fight to eat the whole pie and I thought I'd be breathing fire at the end. At one point I simply no longer felt what I eat, a bit similar experience as with the blue-cheese pizza I've had in 2013 in Slovakia.

4 Stagioni

Lubo opted for 4 Stagioni and we advised Cyrille on Siciliana, with aubergines, capres, parmesan and (funnily) also breadcrumbs. We all agreed, however, that the crust was a bit too dry, sauce was nothing special (again, no poems) and overall, the pizzas were somewhere in the grey average (and that's including Cyrille, who's only had experience with supermarket pizzas so far!).

Siciliana

All in all - what's to say. Delirio is a high quality restaurant with a professional staff and, I'm sure, a very good cuisine. But if you want a mind blowing pizza, you'd have to go elsewhere, or order Sorrentina with triple fresh peppers (but then get ready, it will really literally blow your mind away).

Visiting Luxembourg however paid off and I am really happy I've seen you guys and that you're doing well.

Handshake aaand.. snap!

Dough - 6
Ingredients - 9
Sauce - 6
Atmosphere - 4
Service - 8