One difference that continues to fascinate me between eating in Germany and the United States are the delivery places here. In the US, we usually ordered delivery from our favorite Chinese restaurant or pizza parlor, where they specialized in one kind of food or at least one food from one region. In Germany, however, (or at least in Stuttgart) this is not the case. Delivery places seem to specialize in "delivery food", meaning anything from Asian noodles to Mexican tacos (or so they claim).
I remember the first time we tried to order pizza in Stuttgart. We had just moved into our apartment, and our kitchen was yet to be delivered from IKEA. (Yes, you have to supply your own kitchen -- sink, fridge, oven, etc. -- when you move into a German apartment.) We decided to try a pizza place that we saw advertised on our street called Sky Pizza. To our surprise, Sky Pizza served not only pizza, but also American burgers, German maultaschen and schnitzel, "International" fish and chips and chicken wings, Mexican tacos and quesadillas, Indian curries, Chinese noodle and rice dishes, and even beer and wine. We were obviously very excited. Who wouldn't want quesadillas and chicken masala all in one meal?
Sadly, none of it was very good. The tacos were soggy, the curry was mediocre, and the pizza was even just so-so. If there's one thing that I've learned from traveling and eating, it's often that the more items on a menu, the more the quality of each item begins to suffer.
What's more, it seemed that most delivery places followed this model, so that it became hard for us to just find a Chinese place (still haven't) and a good pizza service (may have). There is, of course, the ever-popular Joey's Pizza in Germany, but I personally find the crust of their pizzas to be rather flat and chewy. Perhaps I'm picky after living for a year in upstate New York with fantastic New York-style pizza crust, but I don't work as hard as I do to eat bad food when there's a choice. Here's where this post comes in.
This past week I went back to work at school full time, and so it's been hard for me to adjust from summer hours (none) to school hours (9-12 hour weekdays plus Sundays), which also explains my week-long absence from blogging (apologies). One night I came home exhausted, changed into my "house clothes" (sweat pants and an old t-shirt), and refused to move from the couch to get dinner. That's when my husband and I agreed to order pizza from Angelo's.
Unlike most pizza delivery services in the area, Angelo's specializes mostly in Italian food (I should note there are a few "Balkan" dishes on the menu and, maybe not surprisingly for Germany, chicken wings). This may explain why the crust on their pizza is so good; it has the right amount of crispy flatness on the bottom and doughy pillow around the edges. My favorite pizza is probably their Pizza Parma with mozzarella and parmesan cheeses topped with sliced parma ham and a heap of fresh arugula. Now Angelo's Pizza Parma isn't as good as the Pizza Parma at some area restaurants I've been to, like La Piazza or La Bruschetta, but it's the best delivery version that I've found by far and comes pretty close.
On my lazy/exhausted night this past week, Matt and I decided to try a new flavor and share one of their square "family" size pizzas. We ordered the Pizza Diavolo with salami, red peppers, and spicy green peppers. The peppers definitely packed more of a punch than I'd expected, though I enjoyed having something spicy for a change. Still, the salami wasn't really my favorite. It reminded me of a very meaty sliced beef sausage, and lacked the marbled fat and dryness that I think I was expecting. I also couldn't tell if the red peppers were roasted and thus from a jar or if they were fresh and somehow sautéed to sweet softness (I'm going to go with the former). I do like jarred peppers, but I would have preferred them fresh. So the Pizza Diavolo is not my favorite, but the crispy, doughy crust still maked ordering from Angelo's worth it.
As a side note, they make a fantastic Peperonata al Forno, which is a dish with chopped vegetables, like eggplant, peppers, onions, and zucchini, in a tomato sauce and baked with cheese. The dish may not look like much from the picture, but it sure was tasty! I was craving this vegetable-packed dish for weeks after eating it for the first time. I highly recommend you try it alongside your pizza if you choose to try Angelo's.
Since I find good delivery food to be rather important for young, workaholics like myself, I'll continue to blog about decent delivery foods as the year progresses. How about you: Have you found a good pizza delivery service in Stuttgart? Any other good delivery services I should try?