Perfect Pizza in Paris

The best decision I may have made on Friday was to go to Andiamo’s restaurant for pizza. Deciding on pizza was easy for me, but selection of the place was a bit of a challenge. I was intrigued by the “Speed Rabbit Pizza” place, but decided a delivery pizza place wouldn't offer the charm of a Paris restaurants.

At Andiamo’s, I sat outdoors enjoying the cooler Paris weather and began with a Kir Royal, a favorite drink of mine a few years ago and definitely Parisian.

I was intrigued by the Principassa. From my French, I thought understood that it had olives and cheese. It also included salade roquefort, which I assumes was some sort of a salad with Roquefort cheese. Although it seemed a little odd to have a salad on your pizza, in a country where it is popular to have a fried egg on your pizza it didn’t seem out of the question. It also had jambon de Parma. I knew jambon is ham, but didn't know how the “de Parma” changed the meaning. I decided I would ask and I would ask in French. (I knew I needed to start speaking French, despite my limited vocabulary.) In my best French I inquired “what is this” and pointed to the “jambon de Parma,” The waiter replied that it was “ham, very nice.” Okay so I didn’t learn a lot but I tried. I ordered the pizza.

Shortly thereafter, I am brought a tiny dish of black and green olives. One of the points made in a book I just finished reading about France was that French women say in shape despite three meals a day (two consisting of 4 courses) by exercising portion control. She says for example they have one olive as an appetizer. Okay, so another opportunity to try and be French. I try but can’t quite do it – I think I had four of each kind of olive. They were small. And, if we are looking at the glass, or in this case, bowl half full, I did leave about a third in the bowl. Perhaps I am getting the hang of this French thing.

Then the pizza comes. At first I am disappointed that it is not cut. Then I remember another lesson from my book – nothing is to be eaten with your fingers. In a country where you are not supposed to eat with your fingers, it would make no sense to cut your pizza in pieces. You’d have to cut into bite size pieces anyway. So I begin the struggle to cut my pizza. I do wonder, however, if the Speed Rabbit Pizza cuts its pizza into slices. If the French are beginning to adopt the American idea of food to go, perhaps eating with your fingers is coming to France as well.

Back to my pizza. This pizza was phenomenal, but very different than others I’ve had in that it had no sauce. Directly on top of the thin crust was a layer of cheese. In the center, what I thought was going to be some sort of salad was actually a bed of greens, perhaps rocket leaves. It had very thinly sliced ham, not pieces, large, thin slices. Similarly, it included large, thin slices of Parmesan cheese. The taste was unbelievable. I loved it. The ham had wonderful flavor (it was “very nice”) and when you had a bite with cheese, ham and rocket – ahh!

Half way through the meal, I remembered the olives. They weren’t served on the pizza but as my appetizer. I hadn’t expected that from the description – they were listed as just one of the items on my pizza. Interesting!

As I ate the pizza, I started to struggle. I knew I shouldn’t eat the whole thing – it was the size of a large plate. If I was going to eat like the French, I was going to have to start eating small portions, but it was so good. I lost the struggle and ate every last piece. It may have been the best pizza I have ever had. I think the French attention to using only the perfect ingredients resulted in this great pizza.

[I am now in Sancerre, a most beautiful and charming place. I will blog about it soon.]

PS -- Jambon de Parma is literally ham from Parma (in Italy) but really is a type of ham like we have Smithfield ham in Virginia.