I left a pizza my heart in Bora Bora

Who doesn’t love pizza? If you say you don’t - I’m 99% sure you have never had a good pizza and are without a doubt missing out on life. Yes, LIFE. What classifies a pizza as a pizza – Well, I’m no pizza connoisseur, (if that’s a real job, and you happen to know someone hiring, PLEASE let me know!) but last time I checked, it has a round base, typically made of dough, but I’m going to argue otherwise (the possibilities are ENDLESS), topped with some sort of a sauce at which to adhere the goodness of glorious various toppings that pair well together when consumed. My pizza definition is loose, just the way my pants were before starting this blog. #deadserious

I love all things pizza – the traditional Italian pizza with marinara sauce, mozzarella, and basil, the dessert pizza with chocolate and toasted marshmallows, the breakfast pizza with egg, cheese, sausage, and avocado, the pizza not made with dough but instead cauliflower topped with something equally as healthy… HA! jk. I'm sure it's good... Or the most recent type of pizza I heard of the other day: sushi pizza. I couldn’t even explain what that is right now, but it sounds like something I desperately want to consume as of yesterday. Needless to say, my love for pizza runs deep in my soul. Yes, so deep, my core is basically made of pizza. Overdramatic? I think not.

Now what do you get when you pair pizza with a view? You get a pizza my heart left in Bora Bora.

Sands Restaurant is located at the Intercontinental Bora Bora Resort and Thalasso Spa. The restaurant is located right ON the beach. If it were any closer to the beach, it would be in the freaking ocean. AMAZING, does not even do the location justice. Unfortunately, neither does my picture. So here goes my attempt and describing the pizza that stole a pizza my heart…

The round base was made of dough, such that of a traditional pizza. The dough was wood fired cooked, as evidenced by the toasted bubbles on the crust. It was evenly cooked through from crust to center. It’s always a pet peeve of mine when the center is sad and soggy and your slice just droops when you pick it up. Don’t worry, this pizza base passed the droopy test with flying colors!

On to the sauce – sticking to the traditional route, the pizza was topped with marinara sauce. The sauce was a vibrant red and well blended in salt and seasoning. This was not the atypical chunky marinara sauce where you’re not sure if that tomato chunk is an accidental topping or a poorly bended, meant to be “chunky” sauce. The smooth marinara sauce had seasoning visible through specs of diced, cooked down spices of oregano, garlic, and parsley… so good. Ratio of sauce to crust was solid – nobody likes a dry or leaky pizza!

To the toppings – I bet you’re thinking, so far, traditional sounding pizza; will these toppings also be traditional? How could that be… this pizza stole a pizza her heart after all…

Being in island paradise, it seems only fitting that pineapple is the first topping of discussion. Perfectly sweet, obviously fresh, can I get the rest of the pineapple to go on the side of my pizza please? Cut into chunks and evenly scatted, I definitely cannot complain.

Next, we have sausage balls. These balls are not only perfect in size, but perfectly complement the traditional Italian spices already mixed in the marinara sauce. The meaty texture adds a nice contrast to the juicy pineapple chunks.

Final topping… BELL PEPPERS. Yes, bell peppers. GENIUS. First, I thought, well, peppers are sweet, pineapples are sweet, and therefore, my palette will surely want to reject this strange combination. I could not have been more wrong! INCREDIBLE! Not only in flavor, but also in texture. The crisp bite and slight crunch the red and green bell peppers maintained went perfectly to contrast the other toppings.

No pizza is complete without cheese! And this pizza was no different – loaded to say the least, each piece was a perfect cheese pull. The cheese pull where only the cheese pulls and the toppings stay on the pizza where they belong. Absolute perfection!

Now, hear me out a minute – if you’re not drooling yet, you will be soon. We proceeded to top this delicious pizza with THAI CHILI SAUCE! Right now you are either cringing at your screen or heavily drooling… I’m hoping for the later, but I won’t hold my breath.

Before today, the thought of Thai chili sauce on pizza had never once crossed my mind. Maybe if I was eating an egg roll pizza (no idea what that is, but in my head, it sounds amazing!) No joke, it's a pizza game changer. Sweet, with a slight tang at the end that leaves you smacking your lips together for more. Try it, and let me know what you think :)

Literally, counting down to another opportunity to leave all the pizza my heart in Bora Bora.

#hungry.girl.wanders

#BoraBora #Pizza