Best Tasting pizza in Japan, take 2!

We hit my favorite spot again this time. It is a truly hidden gem: Hakone Bakery.
It is located inside Odawara station and hard to find if you are looking for a pizza - there is no signs.

They have an oven and there are some Italian training, but what is important is how pizza taste.

My kids say it taste like home - like our pizza. But may be it taste even better - I love juicy tomato souse they use. It is very sweet and they put just enough salt - most Japanese pizzerias are shy on this and it make pizza taste a bit blunt. Not here. It is a total celebration of juicy sweet and salty goodness with heavenly crust and toppings. I think this is a pizza made with love.

This time we tries Margerita and Fungy - Japanese variety. Both were TOTALY awesome.

Same guy cooked for us. It is like we eat here yesterday but two years fly by. If you are in Hakone (enjoy hot springs) and go back via Shinkansen - try this amazing pie.

Most terrible pizza in Japan

This is not a secret of course. The golden medal for most shitty pie goes to... TA-DA!

*Shakey's*

We hit this place in Ikebukuro in Tokyo just for LOLs and to show it to kids.

Place is cheap and you can staff your belly well there - it is a buffet.

Bon Appétit!

But as pizza goes ... they has their own special kind that hard to describe but it taste and looks very different from pizza D.O.C :)

They go wild with topings and desert pizza they make is crazy ;)

So, do not come here for real pizza :) but if you would like to pig out and see Japanese school girls (mostly chubby kind - no wonder) and business men staffing their faces - this is the place to be during lunch break. 

How to roast green coffee like a boss - without a real roaster

OK, so my old Hot Top coffee roaster is broken again - need to replace motherboard or control panel. Do not have enough time now to debug and find what part is broken and what I need to order but I need coffee every day. Yes, I know, it is lame to buy it in store. But I run out of coffee and was to tired to go shopping :) so I did it like a boss.

I used my pop corn popper and camp stove to keep smoke outside. My pizza oven made a sturdy base. You need to crank fire up and put like 1/3 of coffee. Turn handle all the time, look and listen. You can easily hear first and second crack and color easy to see when you open lid. If you stop turning handle you can quickly burn some beans - try to be careful for uniform roast . Stop like 20 seconds in second crack or some thing you like :)
Put coffee out to cool down and keep agitating it with spoon or something .

Mmmmm... Freshly roasted beans taste and smell so gooooood!

Btw, I get my green beans from awesome SweetMarias online store ;)

http://www.sweetmarias.com/

Pizza party - hottest day of the year 2012!

Pizza party somewhere in exotic Japan :)

Shriracha pizza

Love hot?!

Replace tomato sauce with a Red Rooster Sauce.
I call it Parvez pizza but you can also call it The Oatmeal pizza as Mathew did a lot of propaganda to make this sauce famous :$

Hint : if you love extra hot, add extra Shriracha after pie cooked and sprinkle with Ghost pepper: it will make a Four Horseman pizza ;)

I will make one when guests from Texas office will visit :)

First pizza of 2012 season

Weather was really nice today so kids asked for Easter Pizza party/egg hunt.

Oven is kinda cold after winter, but we started to turn out some pies!

Pizza from Trader's Joe fresh ready to use dough.

I wanted to try Traider's Joe pizza dough for a while. Today I got it. Dough itself is very nice. While home oven even cranked to 550F can not compare to real pizza oven, I try. I have baked stones and had to spread pizza back as dough can be stretched much more - I should be doing few smaller pizzas but I was in hurry. Let's see!

Pizza Factory Fun

There is a game for pizaolas in training!

Chicago style pie (fake pizza) in Frenont

If if like deep dish - come and try it :-)

How to salt grill tai for Japanese new year without pizza oven?

1. Rub salt
2. Let it be for 30 minutes
3. Wash it off
4. Put in salt, rub salt in flippers
5. Cross cut side
6. Broil for like 10-15 minutes till ready
7. Make sure you do not over cool!
8. Eat meat - remove salty skin
9. Use bones for soup stock next morning!