Brazilian Pizza / Pho Pizza

What do cool people do when they get off work early the Friday of a long holiday weekend? Carbo-load, duh!

Brazilian Pizza
We checked out newly opened Bella Vista in Culver City for their dinnertime rodizio - basically, all-you-can-eat Brazilian pizza slices that you select from servers who wander around with different freshly baked pies.

We sat in the covered patio, where this guy was playing acoustic covers of Brazilian and American songs.

We wanted to try a little bit of everything, but even though the slices were mercifully small, we hadn't tried half of the many flavors offered by the time we were full.

Accessories

The pizzas definitely had a Brazilian twist to them. They all had the same thin crust and hardly any sauce. And there were seemingly authentic toppings such as a very creamy catupiry cheese, dried beef, hearts of palm and picanha, a churrascaria staple. There was even a beef stroganoff pizza, which was essentially just a crust with beef stroganoff on top, sprinkled with these tiny fried potato sticks. This was a bit rich for our blood, but seemed to be a big hit with most of the diners.

As though eating 100 slices of pizza for dinner wasn't enough, there was also pizza for dessert, God help us. The banana, cinnamon and mozzarella was just ok, but the chocolate and condensed milk was awesome.

Pho Pizza
Our visit inspired the idea to make a pho pizza. That's right. We're still working out the details, but it basically would have a hoisin- and Sriracha- infused sauce, anise-flavored beef or chicken, and bean sprouts, scallions, cilantro, onion and purple basil sprinkled on top. If When we make it, we'll let you know. And if someone else beats us to it...well, just remember that you heard it here first.