Ted meets a "Boris" bike

The London tubes (underground) have been on strike for 3 days this week.  So what to do for transport  … like the other 2 million a day tube users who shouldn't be above ground, or on the road, let alone on a bicycle, I decided to use one of the London cycles (nick named Boris bikes) that are for hire all over the city.

How hard could it be .. I put my foot on the pedal to climb on-board and immediately and without any grace at all slipped off the pedal and face planted onto the very robust handlebars.  I came up with badly split and rapidly swelling lips and spitting out bits of one of my front teeth.

I had injured myself at zero miles an hour without even getting on a bike!!  I slunk off home thinking that the Doll will give me sympathy and patch me up. I got in the door and she looked at me and said “what happened to you, Homer Simpson lips?” A long silence followed … and then the Doll said “Hey Homer loves pizza so why don’t I take you out for pizza later.  It’s soft and you can put it in through one side of your face .. probably.”  How could I refuse such a romantic offer? So off we went to Franco Manca, my favourite pizza joint.

Actually Franco has several rustic little pizza joints in London.  He first started in Brixton market years ago where he imported a huge “Beast” of a pizza oven, that took about a year to tame.  They are capable of reaching temperatures of 500 degrees Celsius.  So it’s blast furnace pizza and man is it good .. and cheap.

There’s a specials board, as well as a few every changing other things to add to your chosen pizza topping.  This time there was sheep prosciutto and I asked the waiter what it was like.  He said “it’s the same as prosciutto made from porks, only it’s made from sheeps”.  Naturally I had to try some. Like everything at Franco Manca it didn’t make a big noise about itself, just went about being delicious and making you mentally plan when you’ll be back next … without Homer.

Anatolian Festival

 

Anatolia as I understand it is Asian Turkey extending to the borders of Russia, Iran and Iraq.  All a little confusing for those of us that aren't familiar with the region.  With a history that goes back thousands of years and a culture rich in tradition, this was what was celebrated at their 7th festival in London over the past week.  I caught up with a little at the end yesterday and joined the women who showed me how they make their traditional pizza. 

Hands on Pizza's

Last week a group of us were invited to PizzaExpress to be taught by the maestro himself, leading chef Antonio Romani, how to make pizza.

On the whole we didn't do too bad, although perhaps some of us might not look to a career as a pizza chef.
Our creations were based on the new spring menu. Very tasty they were too!

Fancy trying some yummy pizza yourself?

To go in the draw for a £10 voucher at any PizzaExpress restaurant simply answer the following question:
How many PizzaExpress restaurants are there in London:

1. 98
2. 82
3. 119
4. 105

Leave your answer in the comments or send an email to: aglimpseoflondon@gmail.com

The winner will be announced on Thursday. Good luck.