First, there's Otto Pizza off Westbourne Grove offering Cornmeal crust pizzas with a variety of toppings so wide, in combinations so unusual yet so sensible, you could probably happily eat here every day for a year and consider it fresh and new (though your arteries and growing girth may suggest otherwise). They dare to put things like a red lentil kofte (yeah we're not sure what that is either), BBQ Pork and a home-made pork and fennel sausage onto their deliciously crispy cornmeal bases.... and it's exciting. Frankly, we're sick of the 'authentic Italian' experience where we get a few blobs of buffalo mozzarella topped with cherry tomatoes and freshly torn basil leaf. Where's the invention in that? If everything was 'authentic' and 'traditional', RoFAboutTown would never venture further than our mother's house with her array of Malaysian cooking. Although even then our diet would have to be changed to match that of our ancestors which would possibly include eating toads, rats, squirrels and other vermin we used to terrify ourselves with at night. Stuff that for a game of soldiers.

Let's move with the times - we want to see imagination on our plates (and hopefully with something deep-fried next to it). Actually... perhaps we've been too hasty. We've just noticed Otto specialises in coke floats. Let's not go crazy - let's make sure there's space in the new futurism-diet for classics such as those. Ooh, they also do a cookie-ice-cream sandwich - which is possibly in on the list of deadly-sins according to your GP, but once in a while (and as part of a healthy balanced diet), it's probably ok... now to justify having it with a coke float...

Anyway - the point is we had a great time here chowing down and fattening our lives and memories up. Otto is definitely worth a visit not least because pizzas are available by the slice. We like slices that's very American and very much non-traditional Italian.

http://www.ottopizza.co.uk/

Second, was Pizza Pilgrims - those fierce warriors of street stall fare - the last bastions of English creativity and entrepreneurialism. Ok, not the last bastions at all but we just wanted to use the phrase. If you dislike it you can write your own blog - but be warned: It won't be as good as ours.

Sorry... we digress... we ventured to Berwick Street to seek out the promise of pizza cooked in a brick over right infront of our very eyes. We were not disappointed - the dough was smudged out on the counter before us and the toppings were lovingly and strategically placed by one of the pilgrims. What came out a short while later was possibly as hot as the sun but superbly tasty - and ridiculously good value. A simple pizza for £5? Madness. Austerity gone wild.

Now, notwithstanding our mini-rant against traditional-flavours, we are going to contradict ourselves (again, if you have a problem with that we invite you to write your own stuff). The traditional topping combinations (well there were only two) were delightful and somehow fit the incredible heat of both the pizza and the summer sun... our bodies were too over-heated to consume anything too complex.

The Pilgrims (despite their name) weren't the new world types we had hoped, but regardless they impressed us with their simple approach to an age-old problem: What do you want to eat?

http://www.pizzapilgrims.co.uk/



Frank and Maffew got dressed up especially for their trip to Pizza Pilgrims

After all that pizza we had to find ourselves something non-food related on which to concentrate. We were delighted, therefore, when Nick Prints fell into our laps. Not literally as they're quite large, but, again, the phrase sounded far more interesting than just saying we were dicking around on the internet avoiding writing when we stumbled onto his site (and ordered several prints immediately).

'Nick' is a graphic designer for a flare for very fashionable prints - particularly the city prints which captures the essence of a city in a multitude of landmarks and stereotypes that will take you ages to identify and visit (or just identify). Regardless - you'll definitely get your money's worth as the investment is around £40 for something beautiful, sentimental and a snapshot in time that is likely to change over the coming decades. Get it before it becomes vintage...

http://www.nickprints.co.uk/