Princess and the Pizza

Hi eaters!

I completely forgot what day of the week it was today. I blame that on work. But now that I know what day it is, I’m going to celebrate in style.... And what goes better with beer than pizza! 

Unfortunately the English don’t know a damn thing about pizza.Really, you would think that with them being closer to Italy than America, they would have the upper hand. And while I’m certainly not saying that American-style pizza is authentic, I am saying that I’ve been to Italy and the English aren’t any more authentic 

 Luckily, though, through my relentless searching for a quality slice, I found a couple of gems. 

 Da Mario is right around the corner from the Gloucester Road Tube stop and it’s not a secret that this was a favorite of Princess Diana and the boys. (FYI — “The boys” is what people over here call Harry and William.) 

 After splitting a bottle of wine over pizza with two of my lady friends, it might just be a favorite of mine.Between the three of us we ran the gamut of pizza varieties. 

 American Hot: Tomato sauce, pepperoni, sausage, mild green chilies, mozzarella, fresh basil 

 Mushroom pizza. Boscaiola: tomato sauce, sun dried tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, roasted sweet pepper, broccoli, fontana cheese, and fresh basil 

 And we had my usual, an “I want to get as close to a salad while still eating pizza” pizza.

Now, there were fork-and-knife pizzas. There was no hands or folding going on here. But it was so freaking tasty and the sauce was perfectly, naturally sweet that I let it go.

The other gem I found, the prettier gem, was sandys (by Marble Arch), which I found thanks to Living Social.

Note to everyone — Always sign up for Groupon/Living Social emails for any city you’re visiting or moving to. It is such a great way to (cheaply) do new things. 

 A glass of red to start and then my friend and I split two pizzas.

 Napoleon Bonaparte: tomato, gruyere, ham, mushrooms, olives. 

 Something with mushrooms and meat.

And something else with mushrooms and meat. This second one, though, was the winner in my book. 

 Sampieru Corsu: creme frea, gruyere, Corsican sausage, porcini mushrooms, oregano, truffle  oil. 

And since if we’d left at this point we would have only had to pay the service charge, we decided to split dessert. 

 Raspberry and white chocolate tarte. 

 Hands down, Sandy’s won. Not only were the topping combinations better, but I could pick up AND fold their pizza. 

That’s the first time that’s happened since I left America!That’s huge, folks.

Sorry, Princess Diana. Better luck next time. :)