the cheeseboard...

On Thursday I saw Julie (bestest friend from high school) and her husband. Yes, I have married friends. This is what happens when your friends move to *Minnesota* but I digress. As one of her wedding gifts I had given her the Cheeseboard Collective cookbook and she really wanted to try the pizza.

The last time I had cheeseboard pizza was in high school. I was introduced to it by a boyfriend who had told me I was mediocre and later broke my heart so I've pretty much harbored negative associations with it, as well as certain Counting Crows songs and all things Harvard.

When I started working at UCSF, people kept raving about the pizza and baked goods at Arizmendi, a few blocks down on 9th ave. So I went one day and had the most amazing pizza - I don't even remember what was on it, but if you want an idea of what kind of stuff they have, go here. I also tried a banana chocolate chip scone that nearly made me cry, it was so moist and yummy. Turns out, the co-op members of the Cheeseboard trained the members of Arizmendi so many of the recipes and offerings are similar.

Much of my desire to bake stuff is thanks to Julie's influence. On your birthday she would make this amazing fudge that didn't make your teeth hurt. That's right, I have sensitive teeth. But I think some people make fudge that is so sickly sweet and almost has a weird dry consistency that it has the potential to make your teeth hurt. Not Julie's fudge. It's a work of art. She also made butterscotch brownies that I could probably eat five of in an one sitting. Anyways, the scones and muffins I have had at Arizmendi have brought me much joy over the past few years so I wanted to pass along the joy to her.

We showed up at 6pm on Thursday. That is apparently the best time to go, because by the time we sat down at a table, there was a line out the door. The pizza of the day was bell pepper and mushroom. Sounds completely normal, but it was amazing. I don't know if they do this with all their pizzas, but the toppings were sliced really thin, almost shaved, so that they completely blended into the cheese. Therefore, you weren't eating a piece of cheese pizza with stuff on top, you were eating a slice of coherent pizza, where everything just seemed to go with each other, like the bell pepper was specifically grown for this very pizza, and so on. Make sense? Probably not. Anyways, I guess all I'm trying to say is...go to the Cheeseboard! Even if you associate it with painful high school memories. It's worth it. Really.