On the field, the New Orleans Saints have won their last two games after opening the season with a loss to the defending Super Bowl Champs, but in the kitchen, aye carumba.
I feel I’ve been on a bit of a hot streak lately, so a lame entry into the Foogos pantheon was bound to happen. (I personally don’t think the Giants one was so great either, keeping the Curse of New York alive.) I’m just disappointed it was the Saints. For one, the fleur-de-lis is one of the coolest cultural images out there, and I don’t think my cheese and meatball “pizza” (it’s really an unrolled burrito) does it justice. Also, one of Foogos’ biggest supporters, my pal and co-worker Ninja Nick, is a diehard Saints fan. I’m not sure what he’s talking about half the time, but saying WHO DAT just sounds like fun.
Anyway, now that I’ve already painted a gloomy picture for you with that terrible segue, HEY, CHECK OUT THIS TOTALLY AWESOME ARTWORK!I don’t think this raw (pre-oven) version is all that bad actually. Cutting the stroke of the fleur-de-lis – TWICE! – out of Colby Jack and then from Provolone, was an awful, painstaking process I won’t soon look to replicate. (Are those cheese names proper nouns? Sometimes I capitalize them, sometimes not. At least I know half the time, I’m doing it correctly.) Those thin strips of cheese were obviously a bit fragile and finnicky, and coupled with an uneven, meaty surface (will that ever sound not funny?), there were a few times I thought to myself, Eff this.
I finally got it to a decent place and headed for the oven. Something was stuck way in the back, and I couldn’t slide the pizza tray all the way in. In a classically lazy/stupid move only someone like me would attempt, instead of trying to see what could possibly prevent the oven door form closing, I moved the tray to the highest rack, directly below the heat. The door shut, and I left for, I don’t know, MAYBE two minutes. I came back to this:
Looks like Hell, tastes like Heaven.
I still never bothered to see what was in the back of the oven. Next time I cook, I’ll holler WHO DAT?
TOMORROW: Updates on the Papa Shango Portrait