Julia Child and Texas Pizza.

I've been reading "Julie and Julia," by Julie Powell. I never did get to see the movie they made of this book (starring Meryl Streep and Amy Adams) but I found the book at the local thrift shop. Of course, for just fifty cents, I couldn't leave the book there. Plus, the picture of Meryl Streep (all done up to look like Julia Child) that's on the cover of the book is just priceless.

It's a great story, based on the true-to-life cooking blog of Julie Powell. I couldn't imagine taking a cookbook and trying to make every single recipe-- and if I did happen to lose my mind one day and decide to do that, I wouldn't pick one of Julia Child's cookbooks. It would be just too overwhelming, all those French recipes with the ingredients that you have to search high and low for. (I have a hard enough time here trying to find a good brand of ricotta cheese.)

When Julia Child had her cooking program on the PBS channel years ago, I watched every show... even the re-runs which I'd seen over and over again. Julia Child was a magician in that kitchen of hers.... everything looked so rich and so delicious, but on the way to the completed recipe, Julia would invariably drop a spoon or set a towel on fire or whack a carving knife down so hard on that cutting board of hers that bowls would start dancing on the counter. I just loved to watch her cook, knowing full well that I wouldn't ever try one of her recipes.

So this book is a delight to read... and as Julie goes through the endless list of Julia's recipes in "Mastering the Art of French Cooking," her language goes from school-girl proper to truck-driver trash, especially when the crepes stick to the pan or the brown sugar burns on the lamb cubes.

The Texas Pizza..... we drove into College Station this evening..... just to have a pizza dinner at the Hullabaloo Diner. We usually go there for lunch when we're up in College Station, but we've been wanting to try their pizza (advertised as Best in Texas). The omelets at Hullabaloo are out-of-this-world delicious, the fluffiest omelets I've ever tasted anywhere...... so we thought they had a good chance at making a good pizza-- especially since they have honest-to-goodness pizza ovens back in their kitchen. We thought it would be worth the drive.... so off we went.

My husband had high hopes...... he wanted us each to order our own pizza. When we suggested that to the waiter, he said their pizzas were "huge, 15 inches wide, 8 slices each." He walked away to give us time to come to our senses. I told my husband that one pizza would be more than enough, and anyway-- what if we didn't like the pizza? Then we'd be stuck with two of them. ("Do the chickens eat pizza?" Probably, as long as there weren't any mushrooms on it.)

We ordered just one....... half of it with meatballs and bacon and sausage (my husband's half, needless to say)....... and the other half with peppers and onions and spinach (guess whose half that was). The waiter told us their pizzas were made with provolone. "What? No mozzarella?" You can get that as an extra topping, said he. Fine. That's what I did. "Who makes pizza without mozzarella?" (That's like NYC without the Rockettes.)

When the waiter brought the pizza to the table, it looked delicious. Looked just like a NY pizza, with a thin crust, little air bubbles along the edges, the sauce smelled home-made, and the toppings were very very generous. Every inch of my husband's half was covered with meat, and my half of the pizza had dozens of thin slices of onions and peppers on top of a green layer of fresh spinach. One bite... two bites.... three bites..... delicious, each and every bite. Not quite the taste of NYC pizza dough, but darn close. And the provolone was actually very good... a little unexpected taste there along with the mozzarella.

As we were enjoying the pizza (my husband telling me that we should have ordered two so we'd have more left-overs to take home) the cook came out of the kitchen and walked over to our table-- he wanted to know how we liked the pizza. We told him it was delicious..... told him we'd been there many times for lunch.... and we had made a special trip there just for the pizza (which is only served after 5:00 because they don't have the pizza ovens turned on during the breakfast and lunch hours). We got to-go boxes and brought half of our separate pizza halves home with us.

On the way home, we got to talking about the best pizzas we've had in Texas. By far, the best is Star Pizza in downtown Houston. They make both NY-style and Chicago deep-dish. I like their crust because they give you the option of a whole wheat crust instead of the regular white-flour crust. (Every time I say that, my husband raises his fist in the air and says "White Flour!!") I realize that authentic NY pizza doesn't come with a whole wheat crust, but give me a break here-- I'm trying to stay as healthy as possible. My husband and I both grew up in NY, so we know what a real pizza should taste like, and we've been to Chicago for authentic deep-dish pizza from Lou Malnati's, so I think we're qualified to give an educated opinion on 'real' pizza. (The chain pizza places, who will remain nameless here, don't even come close to honest-to-goodness pizza.)

The pizza at Hullaballo was indeed delicious. The vegetables were fresh (they actually tasted just-picked, as do the veggies they put into their omelets)..... the meat (if you're into eating dead warm-blooded animals) was plentiful and the only complaint from my husband was that the sausages were a bit on the spicy side. We'll definitely go back there another night when we're in the mood for pizza. The Hullabaloo Diner is a fun place to go, no matter what you order. The Diner itself is one of those vintage aluminum railroad-type diners that they moved from NY and plopped down into the middle of this tiny town called Wellborn. Pink and black tiles all over the inside of the diner (true 1950s colors in the tile-world).... 45-records hung up all over the walls.... and besides all of that, Guy Fierri of "Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives" has eaten there and said their food was 'out of bounds.'

They usually play 1950s 'oldies' music at Hullabaloo.... it fits right in with the theme of the Diner. We went there one time for a late lunch and there were only two other people besides us waiting to order lunch. Instead of the usual 1950s rock-n-roll music, they had a radio tuned into a local country-western station. Somehow, all that guitar-thumping and twang-y singing just didn't go with the Yankee-style 1950s decor of that old diner. But even with those country-western songs blaring out from behind the counter, the omelets and biscuits were still the best we've ever had. Yeeee-haaaawwww.

Julia Child made an omelet once on her cooking show..... poured the beaten eggs into that pan of hers, added in all the chopped and sauted vegetables, sprinkled in an ungodly amount of grated cheese...... and then folded the omelet in half by quickly pulling the pan towards her, and then slid the omelet from the skillet to the plate without using a spatula. I think that was also the day when her kitchen towel got caught by the flame of the stove and started to burn. Without missing a beat, she hit the towel with the bottom of the skillet to stamp out the flames and then used a pair of tongs to lift the smoking towel from the counter-top to the kitchen sink. And didn't they take Julia Child's entire kitchen and re-construct it in the Smithsonian? I seem to remember reading that somewhere along the way.