I recently saw this past summer's romantic comedy, Love Happens. While there were funny moments, this movie, starring Jennifer Aniston and Aaron Eckhart, had far more serious undertones than the previews would have led you to believe. Nonetheless, it was a great movie and, for personal reasons, really struck a chord with me.
Without giving too much away (and it won't), one of the "cute" themes that permeated throughout the movie was Aniston and Eckhart's shared affinity for big, multisyllabic words. This added to the great chemistry between the two.
While this one was not in the movie, I recently had to find just the right word to describe a new discovery in my repertoire of eateries. I thought of the usuals: Yum, Awesome, Amazing...but, none of those fit. Based on a recommendation, I recently headed to Las Colinas to Cavalli Pizza (3601 Regent Blvd, Ste. 115, Irving).
To call this a pizzeria is an understatement. You see, this restaurant holds a unique distinction. According to their website (www.cavallipizza.com), "Verace Pizza Napoletana (VPN) is what Neapolitans quite literally call the perfect pizza. Fearful that the traditional pizza would soon be lost to cheaper ingredients and faster methods, a group of faithful Neopolitans formed an association to preserve the authentic Neapolitan pizza. And so the Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana was born and with the support of the Italian government, a long list of exacting specifications was created to define this perfect pizza.
Now a rigorous certification process is required by any restaurant wishing to serve this delicious dish. There are only a handful of establishments in the entire United States that have earned this distinction and we are proud to announce that Cavalli Pizza is the first and only restaurant in the entire state of Texas to have this honor." Nearly all of their ingredients are imported directly from Italy. Even their oven was imported from Italy. Now that's Italian!
Their menu offers up many types of pizza, as well as, sandwiches, pasta dishes, salads and much more. All baked items are cooked in the authentic 900 degree wood-fired oven. My staple is always the Margherita pizza. However, I went with the Margherita Extra. This is made with, not just regular mozzarella, but, with what the menu calls, "Mozzerella di Bufala." The crust was flaky and thin, the sauce was fresh and subtle and the cheese and basil were the perfect dance partner to the rest of the ingredients. If the theory of Gestalt is applied here, the whole truly was greater than the sum of its parts.
Fortunately, Cavilli's offers up, not one, but, four different types of Nutella pizza as a "post-gorging" opportunity. Or, "dessert," as most of us call it. We went with the "La Nutella." Watching them put this piece of art together was like witnessing Van Gogh paint Starry Night. It starts with a thin layer of homemade dough, then, a healthy slathering of Nutella (chocolate hazelnut spread), dark chocolate and then, just to be sure that enough nutty flavor and crunch are present, a layer of fresh roasted Hazelnuts are added. This masterpiece is then topped with another thin pizza crust and popped in the oven. Now you have a pretty package and all in the world is right. Until you taste it and then, we are back to "finding just the right word."
So, what word would do Cavalli Pizza justice? I came up with one...ineffable. This is one of my favorites and so applicable at this moment. The dictionary defines "ineffable" as: 1) incapable of being expressed or described in words. 2) not to be spoken because of its sacredness. Many times after the first bite of a tasty dish, I'll say something poetic or articulate like, "Dude!" or "Wow!" But, not this time. The best way to describe the greatness of Cavalli's is a word which means not using words. This, perhaps, is the highest form of flattery.
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