Pizza – Page 6

It's Greek to Me: Symposium Restaurant

August 14, 2009 by SacFoodies

I love Greek food. To me, there’s nothing better than a warm pita overflowing with gyro meat, tzatziki, cucumbers, feta and some kalamata olives on top. Yum.
Lucky for me, a close friend of mine just happens to be Greek and knows everything about the cuisine. So, when she asked me to try out Symposium, a Greek restaurant in Davis, with her as my guide, it was a no brainer.
I spent the entire afternoon wondering what I would order, pretending that I wasn’t going to fall back on my typical gyro entrée. Imagine my surprise when she nonchalantly mentioned in the car ride to the restaurant that Symposium has the best pizza in Davis! I was at a loss for words and, honestly, a little nervous. Pizza? Greek?
When I walked inside, I immediately noticed the restaurant’s full name: Symposium Restaurant & Pizza House. Once I saw the framed pictures of Bill Clinton and Arnold Schwarzenegger on the wall, I figured this place had to be pretty good.
The menu has a full selection of typical Greek dishes plus 26 gourmet pizzas – talk about a tough decision. After carefully looking over the menu while snacking on the delicious pizza dough bread rolls, we decided to split a Gyro Platter and the Spankotiropizza. The platter was simple but perfect with generous servings of gyro meat, cucumbers, tomatoes, homemade tzatziki and warm pita pockets.

As for the pizza, well, let’s just say the Italians have some serious competition! The combination of three Greek cheeses and Spinach on the homemade dough delivered a taste that was out of this world. While munching away, we couldn’t help but notice the surrounding tables’ pizza choices, each one looking like its own unique masterpiece. Somehow, I think we may have left the restaurant still hungry for more!

All in all, Symposium Restaurant & Pizza House knows how to remain true to classic Greek cuisine while also stepping over the culinary edge to make fantastic gourmet pizza equal to any Italian pizzeria.
Symposium Restaurant & Pizza House
1620 E 8th St
Davis, CA 95616
(530) 756-3850

Pizzicato in Portland, Please!

March 2, 2009 by SacFoodies

When you think back on the travel you’ve done over the years – that family vacation, the business trip that never ended, girls/guys weekend at the beach – what do you remember? Odds are, we all recall the food. Sometimes it’s even easier for me to remember what we ate than where we were!
On a recent trip to Oregon, I grabbed a bite with fellow SacFoodie Kim Bedwell and one of our Portland colleagues at a gourmet pizza restaurant that really hit the spot. Both the ingredients and the décor were the definition of fresh. I tried the pesto chicken pizza and a side salad, the perfect pre-airport combo.

It’s no secret that the SacFoodies like their pizza (need proof?) and Pizzicato certainly fits the bill.
There are few things I despise more than being a hungry out-of-towner without a clue where to dine. So if you find yourself looking for lunch in Portland, or one of their other locations, check out Pizzicato! In the meantime, you can visit them online at www.pizzicatopizza.com.
Any other Portland foodie suggestions? Share with us by leaving a comment below!

(Belated) Tightwad Tuesday: Super Bowl Style

January 21, 2009 by SacFoodies

Due to yesterday’s inauguration activities, we decided to delay our Tightwad Tuesday for today (yes, Wednesday, just go with it). With the Super Bowl right around the corner, we thought we’d kick-off a series of Super Bowl themed entries with the ultimate in Big Game budget dining.
What crowd-pleasing food is super easy on the budget? Pizza, of course! Now, pizza comes in a range of prices – and yes – I realize we all have our favorite pizza places (we can certainly get into that debate at a later date), but when it comes to making a pizza decision strictly by your wallet, take-and-bake simply can’t be beat.
Here’s my Tightwad Tuesday tip for Super Bowl Sunday, or any day, really: an extra large cheese pizza from Papa Murphy’s. If you’re like me, then you already have a few of their “$3 off an XL” coupons stashed in your junk drawer (they usually come attached to the baking instructions). After using the coupon, this is an amazing deal for the amount of pizza you’ll get – all for under $7. If my calculations are correct, this is only $1.75 a person for two generous slices. Okay, now here’s my biggest budget-stretching secret – put your own toppings on it! You can save a bundle by not “upgrading” the pizza to pepperoni or veggies, but by adding your own at home.
Here’s a Super Bowl promotion from another “Papa” – Papa John’s, (which, in the spirit of full disclosure, is one of our firm’s clients), is giving you a chance to win a large pizza for just 25 cents (not even take-and-bake can beat that price!). All you have to do is register, and if the Opening Kickoff of Super Bowl XLIII is returned for a touchdown, then you’ll get a Papa John’s pizza for a quarter. Not so bad!

10th Day of Christmas: My Day-After Christmas Dinner Disaster

December 16, 2007 by SacFoodies

As many of you know, Christmas and the holidays are a time for friends, family and food. My group of five friends and I have a close relationship: we’ve been friends for more than 10 years and have become as close as brothers. For that reason, two years ago, we decided to make our own day-after Christmas dinner, with just us guys.
There were some key differences between our meal and the traditional family sit-down. For example, football was the main attraction and we served Samuel Adams instead of wine. For our only side dish, we decided to stick to delicious Betty Crocker Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes (ready in just 20 minutes!). We also planned on serving turkey because none of us had ever cooked one before. And thanks to Sarah, Kris’s girlfriend, we had holiday decorations including a nice tablecloth and candles. She even set it all up before leaving us to cook.
Everyone arrived at Kris’s house around 1:00 – just in time for the game. We wanted to eat between 4-5, so we told Kris to put the turkey in the oven and we would worry about the rest later. At about 4:00, we started getting the mashed potatoes ready, and we told Kris to check the turkey. He took the bird out of the oven and started pushing the electronic thermometer into the turkey; he got about three inches in before he said he was having trouble.
Apparently Kris doesn’t cook meat very often because no one had passed on to him the important information that you need to defrost meat before you cook it. He just threw a completely frozen turkey in the oven! After about 15 minutes of laughing, we started wondering what else we could do. So we called Pizza Guys, and ordered three large pizzas.
So there we were, on our day-after Christmas dinner: six brothers, a nice Christmas table cloth, mashed potatoes, beer, and pepperoni pizza with the half frozen turkey still sitting on top of the oven. None of us had any complaints and we had a great time nonetheless.
This event showed me that while food is still my favorite part of holiday meals, sometimes the memories are just as good. Oh, and yes – we did light the candles.

Hole-in-the-Wall Foodie Finds are a Good Thing!

December 5, 2007 by SacFoodies

I traveled to New York for Thanksgiving again this year on behalf of our U.S. Potato Board client. Healthy MR. POTATO HEAD made his final run down Broadway in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. It was a bittersweet business trip as I had to say good-bye to our favorite spokespud but I also got to hang with potato industry members who were balloon handlers in the Parade. Getting to know the industry and their families is one of the great perks of my job.

I also dragged my family along, and following a week of fun in NYC, we headed upstate to Troy, NY to visit my grandmother and the rest of my mom’s family. There aren’t too many culinary hot spots in this old and charming college town, but my mom made sure we hit her three most memorable foodie finds. First, we had a traditional Friday night fish fry at Ted’s. A fish fry at Ted’s is a long and meaty piece of fried cod placed in a hot dog bun served with your choice of tartar sauce or Ted’s famous cocktail sauce (I preferred the tartar sauce and sans bun, but I’m not really a hot dog girl). We ordered sides of onion rings, fries and cole slaw. Far from healthy but delicious!

I know I just said I don’t love hot dogs, but our next stop was an exception. While cruising around showing the sites (there aren’t many) to my husband, we crossed the Hudson River into a town called Watervliet. Gus’s Hot Dogs is a true down-and-dirty hot dog stand. There is a walk-up window but it was too cold to slither down mini hot dogs outside. We walked inside and the six counter seats were packed, but one of the two booths were available. This was more of a mid-afternoon snack than a meal so we each ordered two hot dogs with “the works” – mustard, onions and chili sauce. The beauty of Gus’s is that the hot dogs are about a third of the size of a traditional hot dog. I can polish one in about four bites (my husband can do it in two, of course) and the works combination is truly a treat. We saw people with 10 or more hot dogs on their plates. The best is the pricing list posted on the wall.

Finally, we hit the Notty Pine, another Troy oldie-but-goodie that my parents used to frequent when they met in college over 30 years ago. We ordered the pizza which was served in a rectangular cookie sheet with a 1-inch lip. The crust was perfectly golden and the toppings were flavorful. The group was torn on our favorite. I enjoyed the pepperoni and sausage with a red sauce and others rallied behind the fresh tomato and basil with a white garlic sauce. Both were good and justify why “the Pine” has been open for so many years.

If you ever find yourself in Troy (why would you??), I’d recommend all three places. Tie and jacket not required.