Personal Pizza

While Georgia, Carolyn and John were off foraying at the XPN festival this weekend, and Andy at home in Georgia, I spent the weekend at my parents' house in Jersey. My mother knows how to make some spectacularly delicious foods - I've never tasted anything like her homemade chicken soup and her veal marsala is tops - but in the last 5 years she's all but stopped cooking.... and my parents ALWAYS go out to dinner on the weekends anyway. I know this sounds like a complaint, but its not. If my parents instilled one thing in me it was a love of spending money on good food and going home for the weekend means free delicious dinners out. Rock.

Anywho - we spent all of Saturday in Atlantic City at the Borgata, which has some great restaurants. We tried for some last minute reservations, but to no avail. Luckily Wolfgang Puck's place has "front restaurant seating" known as the "Tavern," which lighter, cheaper fare. The Tavern menu includes the personal gourmet pizzas that are a part of Puck's trademark. And although I was initally going to go for some awesome looking gnocchi dish, I caved at the though of the prosciutto pizza with goat cheese or the smoked salmon with cream fraise and black caviar. My mom also tried a pizza and got a wild mushroom and ricotta one. I ended up going with the prosciutto, mostly because of the goat cheese, but the salmon one was a tad overpriced for me.

I had a great tuna tartar appetizer, and I'm not really a tuna fan. But the pizza WAS CRAP. Way too much cheese (the goat was on top of the mozzarella) and BORING flavors. I couldn't believe it. Not to mention it was kinda heavy, not at all light like I wanted it to be. I tried my mother's also - the mushrooms were oily and outweighed the flavor of the ricotta. I was totally disappointed. Especially at $15 a pop.. which would be fine if it tasted good. BOOOOOO on you Wolfgang Puck.

For much more excellent, and cheap, gourmet pizza, I recommend Jules Pizza in Doylestown. They've got you beat Puck, take a seat.