being catty - 5.29.09

Good afternoon, kids. Let’s begin with a brief history and geography lesson. Campania is a southern region of Italy, the laces of the boot if you will. It’s capital is Naples and Naples is famous for two things: Pizza and Grime, I mean, Crime. Authentic Neopolitan pizza, or pizza napoletana, is governed by the Associazone Verace Pizza Napoletana, the closest thing to a policing body in all of Italy. As I briefly mentioned last week, to be a certified producer of pizza napoletana there are several guidelines. In brief, you must use “the proper ingredients” (San Marzano tomatoes, fior de latte or bufala mozzarella, fresh basil and “00” flour) and the pizza must be cooked in wood-burning oven.


Having said all of this, it is only appropriate that a local pizzaiolo, Jay Jerrier, named his first pizza restaurant “Campania Pizza”. Campania has been deemed one of the best pizzerias in town by many different critics and publications. And I concur. Let’s get to the point here, kids are interested in pizza not geography. To start, Campania is BYO, which makes my husband as giddy as a schoolgirl. (Sorry, I just had to say it! And no, dear, no one thinks you are an alcoholic, just one cheap bastard.) Note: They have recently added a $5.00 corkage fee. The atmosphere at Campania is two-fold: the inside is awkward but almost humorous, thanks to wobbly tables and kitchy felt tomato-vine appliques hanging from the rafters. The patio is as enjoyable as the weather, and made more comfortable in the winter by the addition of a large fire pit.


As experienced diners at Campania, we know that splitting a salad and medium pizza is PLENTY of food for the both of us. But on this special occasion and for the purpose of my review, we splurged. To begin, we shared the Caprese salad ($10), the least spectular dish of the evening. The baby arugula was a pleasant foil to the creamy mozzarella and fresh olive oil, but the tomatoes, not quite in season, and the overly generous dousing of dried (!) oregano leaves left me disappointed. I had such high hopes for this salad.


Alas, our mains arrived. We were adventurous and ordered the “Doso” pizza blanco ($14) and Calzone Luciano ($12). At this point, I need to describe the issue of sizes. The pizzas come in two sizes, Medium and Large, the Medium is 12-14 inches while the Large is 18-20 inches. The Medium is perfect for two people to share or one person to have another meal of leftovers. We like leftovers.The “Doso” is described as “the Owner’s favorite”, cherry tomatoes, spicy olive oil, mozzarella, crushed red pepper and garlic. It was wonderful. Simple, quality ingredients that allow you to taste and appreciate the most painstaking process of pizza making, the dough and crust. Like a snowflake, each pizza is unique. From the intense heat of the wood fired oven, blistered in spots but delightfully chewy and thin throughout. The Calzone Luciano, all 16” of it, was the highlight of the meal. An oversized pocket of love: sweet ricotta, large pieces of ham, basil, more mozzarella and parmesan. We did not expect to like or even love this dish, for one thing I don’t even like ham and the SigO doesn’t like “bread”. By and large (large enough for 3 days of leftovers), Campania was a very good meal and value, try the pizzas, calzones and try another insalata.


As they say in Napoli, Ciao!


Campania Pizza and More, West Village
3800 McKinney Ave., Suite 150
Dallas, Texas
Phone: 214-780-0605

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being catty - 6.12.09

On Fridays, I sent out a weekly newsletter for the Techcon office, "A Collection of Plates". In this newsletter, I include one weekly restaurant impression. My new series has been pointedly titled to allude to my style of writing. I will be straight-forward, honest, and yes, of course, “catty”.

This is from last week's newsletter, June 12, 2009.





If you saw the bruise on my arm the past few weeks, you would rightfully conclude that I do not eat enough red meat. Before I moved to Dallas two years ago, I couldn’t remember the last time I had a hamburger. Gasp! Never had a burger in Dallas?! Being a born and bred Dallasite, the husband insisted that I eventually try the “great burgers of Dallas.” So we began the mission. Slowly but surely, I have had three half (and 1 set of minis) burgers in Dallas now.


Last Sunday, we decided to enjoy the beautiful day by lounging on Jake’s scenic patio with a good midday burger and fishbowl to share. I was pumped up and excited for my deviant dietary plans. But once we got there, I couldn’t do the fishbowl thing; it scared me. Who was I kidding? I can’t break ALL the rules at one time. Instead, we opt for watered down and weak margaritas on the rocks. Stick with the draft beers here. The peppy, sometimes pretty, but always friendly female staff are really quite enjoyable. Our sweet sixteen server, donning purple braces this week (I wanted to ask what color retainer she had chosen, but this might be crossing the line), highly recommended the new “fried pickle chips”. Before I could respond, the basket of spicy, crunchy pickle chips arrived with that ever present dipping sauce, ranch. If they had been just a smidge less greasy, they would have been perfect. But they were pretty darn good just as they were, seasoned with a touch of cayenne, crispy fried with a still cool pickle center. I felt a budding friendship with Jake.


Then for the burger. As usual, we split the “house” burger and the establishment’s most popular side item. We ordered the “Jake’s Burger” (double meat, cheese, lettuce, tomato and thousand island dressing) and their famous sweet potato fries. Jake’s burger patties fall under the “thin meat” category and up until this point, I had never formed an opinion on the patty predicament. Alas, the clouds parted and it was revealed to me: I prefer the “thick meat” burger mostly for the cooking temp. of the burger. I found the thin meat Jake’s Burger a little dry and overcooked. However, the poppyseed laden buttery bun and a heavy handed douse of dressing did an excellent job of masking this misstep. Perhaps, that’s why its the namesake burger. But I’ve saved the best for last, the sweet potato fries. They are crinkle cut, (I love that!) and just sprinkled with cinnamon sugar and bit of salt.


Jakes Old-Fashioned Hamburgers, Uptown
2702 McKinney Ave. #101
Dallas, Texas
Phone: 214-754-8001

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Non-Dairy Should be Scary.

memaw's chocolate frozen pie
(we anderson girls like to pretend this is a "lowfat" dessert)

1 pkg cream cheese or neufchatel, my "healthy" preference
1/2 c. sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
combine the above ingredients in a medium mixing bowl.

1/3 c. cocoa

1/2 c. milk

combine the two ingredients.
then add to the cream cheese mixture.

8 oz. cool whip, light ** See Update Below.

1 c. (or so) semi sweet chocolate chips

stir into the cocoa-cream cheese mixture.

pour into a chocolate cookie crust.* and freeze.

*You will have extra mixture, put the extra into a freezer- friendly container

freeze and enjoy as 'fool-proof ice cream'.

It's been at least three years since I've made this family favorite frozen pie. I can remember Mom, Ash and I serving up unusually large slices of this dessert "because it's lowww-fat." Ha. But seriously, I am now reminded why it has long held its place in the my favorites stack.And it's composed of such uber-processed ingredients. (What is Cool Whip? Non-dairy whipped topping seems oxymoronic.) Enjoy!

**UPDATE: My kitchen savvy sister, Ashley, has advised me that she still makes this dessert, too. However, she replaces the Cool Whip with homemade whipped cream! A bit more caloric, but in the long run much more healthy than HFCS and hydrogenated coconut oil, yum.

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