BOP (Brick Oven Pizza)

Review by Contributing Writer John DeCampos

So times are tight at my job place right now and they're watching our hours pretty close, so the other day I was forced to take a half hour break. "And what did you decide to do with your mandatory break?" you ask...EAT PIZZA!! So I strolled on down to the nearest pizza parlor, a local fells point favorite known as B.O.P. which stands for Brick Oven Pizza. As I entered I was met with a 7 to 8 person line, I thought at the time that it should decrease quickly and decided to stick it out. The line took about 15 minutes, but I tried to soak in all the atmosphere B.O.P. had to offer. First off, the oven seems to be made out of metal not brick, however it was heated by a wood fire. Also they have a flat screen T.V. for you to watch while you wait though the lunch rush line that features screen after screen of their menu items. Okay, so I was close to the end of the line and I was planning on getting the lunch special which was a 8in 2 topping personal pan pizza, a soda and salad for $7. But as my allotted time whittled away, I found that I had to go with what was readily available. So i decided to get the lock and stock of the pizza industry, 2 slices of peperoni pizza. This ran me about $6 but I somehow managed to get 2 slices fresh out of the oven.  Okay, so the pizza itself was pretty much perfect: Now keep in mind this had no fancy toppings or specialty items, just pepperoni, cheese, sauce and crust. The crust was thin, a tad bit chewy, had a slight bit of crunch and was flavored nicely by the wood fire oven. My only complaint is that the crust didn't have the structural integrity to hold up during the classic "fold" maneuver. The cheese was stringy and flavorful, sauce had just the right amount of spice, and the pepperoni was ample and tasty. All in all a fine pizza indeed. The price was a little steep, but for 2 classically delicious slices of fresh oven pizza, it's hard to complain.

NEXT MEETING!

TUESDAY
NOVEMBER 18TH
7 PM


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King's Pizza

Date: November 11, 2008
Location: King's Pizza and Subs (907 W 36th St, Baltimore, MD 21211)
Attendance: Sara Seidman, Greglan Ward, Nicholas Often, Catherine W, and Chris
Pizza Eaten: large cheese pizza

We ordered a large cheese pizza that was extremely cheap. Seating was somewhat of a problem as we squeezed 5 people into a booth that would comfortably seat 4. Perhaps they should have some extra free standing chairs. When offered, Chris rejected the pizza saying "I already ate, no offence". Greglan said that "you can bite in normally and it's fine, but dip it in the sauce and it's better. This is pizza that relies on sauce". We all agreed that the pizza, although good on its own, tasted way better with the garlic sauce. Nicholas said that it was "absolutely delicious", while Catherine remarked that it was "better than lots of cheese pizzas I've had". We also all decided that the pizza, though doughy and a bit greasy, was something that we would definitely eat again. It was a nice break from the auction happening next door at
Woodward's.

Pizza to Go - "Deep Creek Lake" Part Two

We did it again. Everything was exactly the same except this time we refused to drink the blood water.

Pizza to Go - "Deep Creek Lake"

An unofficial BPC meeting took place on Friday, November 7th 2008 at approximately 8:00pm EST in Oakland/McHenry Maryland at "Pizza Ice Cream" (also known as "Sorellee's" but the former name is much easier to pronounce). BPC Secretary Emily "Slaughter", Travis Allen, Michael Freeland (who prefers to be called "Fag") and Dan Keech were in attendance. The following items were ingested: A large Pizza with half sausage half green peppers and olives, two orders of mozzarella sticks, a Pepsi, a Sierra Mist and two waters that tasted like blood. The Pizza was really really good, especially after a three and a half hour drive westward. "Pizza Ice Cream's" over all atmosphere was also quite pleasant, Freeland equated it to "a rich kid high school's cafe/hang out" he also expressed an interest in becoming the BPC treasurer. A liquor/convenience store called "Zip'eez" is attached to the restaurant. "Zip'eez" sells incredibly overpriced liquor and beer, both of which were purchased. Emily "accidentally" stole some candy, mistaking it for fun-sized Halloween treats.

The Frozen Pizza Chronicles - Tombstone Original 12" Supreme Pizza

Ahoy, welcome to the first post in an ongoing series entitled "The Frozen Pizza Chronicles." This is where we will address the ever-expanding community of frozen pizza lovers with in-depth reviews of that staple of the frozen-food isle. Although frozen pizza mostly sucks when compared to the real stuff, it is an important part of the diet of many people due to its extreme convenience and friendliness to the wallet. On to the review!

Tombstone pizza is a staple nationwide brand distributed by the Kraft corporation. Their pizzas are extremely budget-minded, definitely no "luxury pizzas" here. The pizza I ate this evening was on special at the Canton Safeway for $3 a piece (not 2 for $6 as the Safeway special jargon wishes you to believe). It was available in three flavors of "Original" style (Pepperoni, Supreme, and Extra Cheese) though a quick check on the Kraft website reveals almost 40 DIFFERENT VARIETIES of Tombstone pizza including a Supreme Taco Pizza!

Ingredients list is about as expected; The sausage is constructed from pork, "mechanically separated chicken," and TVP. Also, some quick math shows that a whole pizza (I ate the whole thing for a satisfying dinner) contains about 70 grams of fat! That is a lot of fuel for a cold winter night (but not quite as much as a Triple Whopper).

I cooked this pizza on 400F for 20 minutes as recommended, then another five minutes to get the recommended "golden brown" on the edges. My roommate Matt Brown gave me a Tombstone insider tip: Wait for the pizza's edges to start curling up towards the center...that's how you know it's done!

The pizza is aesthetically appealing and has a nice random scatter pattern to the toppings. It looks tasty and smells strongly of the sauce so prevalent in its flavor. The extra cooking time gave the crust an extreme brittleness and crunch. Right out of the oven, the pizza's crunch appealing but became a bit of a problem. After finishing the pizza, the roof of my mouth was slightly traumatized. It was not terrible but is definitely the pizza's major flaw. 

From experience, I know that less cooking time would have resulted in a weird moistness to the top part of the crust. I don't see any solution to the brittleness problem.

The tombstone supreme pizza has a good overall balance between the amount of sauce, cheese, and toppings. The flavor of the toppings is appropriate for this price range, pepperoni and sausage performed fine, but the veggies (onion, green and red bell pepper) should be sliced thicker to get more flavor. The sauce could use less salt.

THE GOODS

ECONOMY - 9/10 A 22.9 oz pizza for $3 is 13 cents per oz! Super cheap.

CRUST - 4/10 Poor, far too brittle when cooked to completion. Flavorless, but cooked uniformly.

TOPPPINGS - 6/10 Nice balance between sauce, toppings and cheese. Enough meat, but needed more veggies.

FLAVOR - 7/10 Decent flavor, not too greasy, ingredients fuse well but overly salty.

OVERALL SATISFACTION - 7/10 Good for the money. Nothing to write home about, but not bad either.

Comments welcome! Let us know how you feel about this pizza and what you think of the rating system. Also, anyone interested in reviewing a frozen pizza please send us an email and we'll work it on out. -AK

Welcome to A New World of Pizza

Welcome to the Baltimore Pizza Club.  Our goal is to promote the thoughful consumption of greatest food on Earth.  We strive to help you, the pizza consumer, make well-informed decisions in all places that your life intersects with pizza.  We truly love pizza from a deep place in our bodies.  We believe that Pizza is the most unifying food ever created; there is nothing on Earth as universally respected and revered as Pizza.  Please come to a Pizza Club meeting near you and feel free to email us with suggestions or comment on the articles.  My life = PIZZALIFE. I hope yours does too.

Sincerely,

Aran Keating

Baltimore Pizza Club President

Baltimore Pizza Club's First Meeting of the 08/09 Fiscal Year

Date: Saturday November 1st, 2008
Location: Iggie's Pizza (818 N Calvert Street, Baltimore, MD 21202)
Members in attendance: Aran Keating, Sara Seidman, Emily Slaughter
Featured Guest Speaker: Mike Apachella
Pizza Eaten: "Anatra" - Roasted Duck, Blue Cheese, Asparagus, Red Onions and Mozzerella. And "The Alice" - Pesto, Mozzarella, Fresh Tomato, Garlic, Spinach, Goat Cheese and Parmesan.
Other items injested: Water, San Pellegrino, Peroni, Honest Tea and Pignola cookies.

Minutes:

The meeting was called to order at approximately 7:30pm by Aran Keating. Aran then put forth the motion to nominate himself as President, Sara as Vice President and Emily as Secretary. The motion was unanimously passed. Mike was given the floor for his presentation, he expressed the need to prepare and the members took that opportunity to eat the Pizza.

The following comments were made, "This Pizza is hell of good", "Emily, it's too bad you don't eat meat because this duck Pizza is hell of good", "We should start the Baltimore Pizza Club". While Mike continued to prepare for his talk, the following observations were made: The couple next to us (who were dressed as "Joe the Plumber" and a "Generic Witch") were probably on their second date; the couple next to them ordered two large "Autunno" Pizzas (one with meat, one without) and while the members debated asking them for their "extra" Pizza they preceded to eat both of them, apparently they were really hungry; the guy who most likely co-owns Iggie's really likes to yell people's names when their Pizza is ready.

The meeting was adjourned at approximately 8:45pm. Mr. Apachella will presumably have his aforementioned speech prepared for the next meeting of The Baltimore Pizza Club.

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