Discovery Princess: Gigi's Pizzeria

Definitely my favorite dinner of the cruise - so far - was last night at Gigi's which is Deck 7 Midship.  This is an included restaurant open for lunch and dinner. 

 We ate here on embarkation day and decided we'd go back for two of our favorites: The rollata and the agnoletti.  Neither disappointed.  We also got the meat antipasto and a calzone with ham., Ricotta, mozzarella and ham.   

The antipasto had fresh arugula with a creamy balsamic along with thin sliced salami and mortadella.

The rollata was eggplant stuffed with perfectly cooked angel hair pasta, rolled up and baked. A twist on eggplant parmesan.

The calzone was a pocket of flavor!!   From the crispy crust, to the melding of the flavors of ham, ricotta, red sauce and just enough red onion!!

The real highlight is the agnoletti, which are essentially thin ravioli.  They tasted freshly made to me. But it was the savory veal filling and the creamy sage sauce that hits this one out of the park!!  If you only can order one thing, get these!!   We will definitely be back.

QUICK BITE: Pizza Hut's Detroit Pizza

I have heard of New York pizza.  I have heard of Sicilian style pizza.  Greek pizza.  And of course Chicago pizza. Never had I heard of Detroit pizza until I saw some ads from Pizza Hut.  What made this pie special?  

It turns out that Detroit pizza is similar to what I grew up calling Sicilian pizza. Thick crust with crisp edges cut into squares.   Could sometimes be a little oily.  But otherwise had the same structure as New York pizza.  Dough topped with sauce, cheese and then toppings.  Where Detroit pizza takes a turn is placement of the sauce.  Here the sauce is ladled on topped of cheese.  Chicago pizza also has sauce on top which is baked with the other ingredients. The sauce on the Detroit appeared to be added after the pizza was out of the oven and not cooked any further. 

So what was the verdict?   I loved the crispy edges and the somewhat doughy, chewy center.   The cheese had some good bite. Where it went a bit sideways was with the sauce and pepperoni.  The sauce would have been greatly improved by some time in the oven.  It still had a bit of raw tomato paste flavor.  And the pepperoni had been overcooked. It had curled and some pieces had an unpleasant burned flavor.   

Would I try it again?  Yes - but with different toppings - or maybe none.  The pizza I tried was called a Medium Double Pepperoni Detroit Style Pizza.  It was 12.99 here in Long Beach, California.

Lunch at Cabanas Pizza at El Dorado Royale

There are two sit down lunch options at El Dorado Royale.  There is La Isla which serves a Mexican influenced menu and there is La Cabana Pizza.  Thursday's lunch was at Cabana. The menu is pretty simple.  They offer a few different thick crust brick overn pizzas and then depending on the day they offer tacos or some other small bites. I heard from some other guests that they have a bacon wrapped hot dog but that wasn't in the menu for the day we ate. 

They were offering pork, chicken and beef tacos so we two of each to split between us.  

They were served with a slaw that had a dressing close to thousand island. The best taco was the pork.   I think I found where the flavor went from the pork belly at Santa Fe.  This pork was tense and juicy with a simple seasoning that didn't overpower.  When you added some slaw it provided a sweet crunch.  

We also ordered a mushroom pizza and a Mexican pizza.  

Both were very good but the Mexican was the star.  Delicious morsels of chorizo and cheese, surrounded by some pickled jalapenos on top of a pillowy yet crisp crust with just enough char from the brick oven.  And there is something about how eating pizza outside by a pool or ocean improves the flavor.  Maybe that is true with almost every food. The surroundings can definitely add to your enjoyment.