Posted by Michael Nagrant, April 25, 2008 at 10:30 AM
They say if you want people to pay attention all you have to do is put up signs that say “free beer” or “free pizza”. It seems the same holds true when you put pizza in your beer.
Walking around Chicago’s supreme liquor warehouse, Binny’s South Loop, I’d spotted a case off tri-color bottles labeled Mamma Mia Pizza Beer sporting the cheesy faces of a couple of floppy Chef Boyardee-style chef hatted folks dubbed Chef Tom and Chef Athena. Turns out Tom and Athena Seefurth are just as cheesy as their pictures suggest. A closer look confirmed this was an ale brewed with oregano, basil, tomato, and garlic. Intellectually, I wanted to wretch, but as a man who loves organ meat, I know you always find great eats in unexpected places.
Surely Chef Tom and Athena knew this, as the bottles were marketed as singles and not in multi-packs. For a $1.99, even if it tasted like Natural Light or Milwaukee’s Best, my wallet wouldn’t sweat it.
Continue reading »
Posted by Ed Levine, January 25, 2008 at 7:57 AM
Check out Adam Kuban's staggeringly brilliant post on Slice on regional pizza styles. The map alone is worthy of a minute of your time.
Posted by Ed Levine, January 22, 2008 at 7:15 AM
Wow, it turns out that people are as passionate about their local food as they are about their sports teams. There were many claims and counterclaims being made by Boston and New York food advocates on yesterday's post, so I thought it might clarify things if I broke down the comparison food group by food group, much the same way newspapers, magazines, sports radio shows, and talking heads on television break down a football team: offensive line vs. offensive line, linebackers vs. linebackers, quarterback vs. quarterback, coach vs coach, and so on.
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What's a None Pizza with Left Beef? Very, very sad.
Posted by Ed Levine, August 20, 2007 at 9:03 AM
I'll admit it. We didn't go out this past Saturday night, so I found myself watching the Bon Appétit Best American Restaurants special hosted by Alton Brown on the Food Network. The show itself was reasonably entertaining, though no one would call it suspenseful. Brown is perhaps my favorite Food Network personality, but he looked totally bored and disengaged on this particular show. Andrew Knowlton and Barbara Fairchild of Bon Appétit were knowledgeable and credible as the magazine's on-camera experts, but they kept talking about passion without exhibiting very much themselves.
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Posted by Robyn Lee, July 3, 2007 at 6:30 PM
Up until today, I only knew of one type of deep-fried pizza: that of the battered kind, in which the slice is encased in a shell of golden, crisp, artery-clogging goodness. While I would like to try it someday (or just a bite of it), higher on my list is the Neapolitan street food pizza fritta, which is something like a filled flat bread dunked into the fryer, unbattered. FX's Kitchen Adventures takes us into Antonio's kitchen as he prepares the first fried pizza of the day, resulting in a beautiful, glistening, bubbled crust whose cheese oozes out between the slices. If only I had a deep-fryer to make Neapolitan pizza fritti with. Would anyone care to experiment?
Posted by Ed Levine, June 15, 2007 at 9:59 AM
Yesterday I headed out to Aspen, Colorado, for the Food & Wine Classic. I'll be filing periodic reports from here, but since I knew I was going to be getting a lot of fancy-pants cooking in the next three days, I decided that my travel day would be hot dogs–hamburgers-and–pizza day. It actually turned into a fun food adventure day.
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Posted by Adam Kuban, June 6, 2007 at 6:15 PM
Hey, folks: Just in case you haven't seen it over on Serious Eats pizza site Slice, I've designed a wacky pizza T-shirt and am taking orders for it until Friday evening. I've already done a first printing, and demand has been strong enough to force a second printing. I figured that while I was at it, I'd give you a heads-up here on SE, too.
Cost is $15, shipping included, for U.S. orders; $25 for overseas. They come in heather gray (shown) and white. They're priced at cost to move!
More details and photos of actual shirts here on Slice »
We now return you to your regularly scheduled programming.
Posted by Adam Kuban, June 5, 2007 at 2:00 PM
Like most pizza lovers, I often find myself sharing a pie with one or more friends. That invariably means heating arguments over toppings. The easiest way to broker peace (at least for the moment) is to do half-and-half pies.
Pricing on, say, a half-pepperoni, half-mushroom pie seems straightforward enough. You should be charged for one topping, right?
Not always. Sometimes a place will charge you for two toppings. Why is that? Blogger Rafi Mohammed has gone through the trouble of formulating a theory:
Continue reading »
Posted by Ed Levine, May 23, 2007 at 7:38 AM
A few months ago I wrote about my delicious dinner at Vetri, a stunningly good Italian restaurant on the ground floor of a townhouse on an unassuming street in Philadelphia. Last Friday I was supposed to meet Philadelphia Inquirer restaurant critic Craig Laban at Mark Vetri's new pizzeria-trattoria Osteria. I had to cancel (too much work to do at Serious Eats, and I feared Serious Eaters Adam and Alaina would yell at their overlord).
Now, Mr. Bruni has beaten me and Serious Eats to the punch with a long piece on Vetri in today's New York Times. After reading his account of his meals at Osteria, which sounded like works in progress, I decided that postponing my trip to Philly was providential. By the time Mr. Laban and I reschedule, Osteria will, one hopes, be in full flight, and it will definitely be on my one-day Philly eating adventure. Currently these places are on my dancecard:
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Posted by Lia Bulaong, May 16, 2007 at 5:00 PM
I love the looks of the Mario Batali Pizza Set by kitchenware manufacturer Copco, with its orange colorway to match Batali's famous ponytail and clogs, and I'm sure it makes great pizza, but who's the target market for a kit like this when it's priced at $169.95—and used to cost $63.50 more?
Serious cooks will already have most of the equipment in there and the ones they don't, well—Batali's pizza cutter is well-regarded, available without the kit and affordable at $14.95, and how many people do you know who want a garlic slicer?—and it's an expensive investment that might not pay off if you don't already know your way around the kitchen, or if you're buying it for someone else who doesn't. So whom do you give it to? College graduates moving into their first apartments? Newlyweds? People with really big kitchens? [via Uncrate]
Previously: How to Outfit a Kitchen for $300
Posted by Lia Bulaong, May 10, 2007 at 1:55 PM
"Which Italian is the better stallion–local eatery Vito’s Pizza or diminutive actor Danny DeVito? A question plaguing scholars for ages. Until now." Losanjealous sat down and worked out the answer, making them my heroes of the day. [via Eater LA]
Previously: Danny DeVito's! Limoncello!
Posted by Lia Bulaong, May 9, 2007 at 12:05 PM
From the Onion Radio News, Doyle Redland files a report on Pizza Hut's New Pizza-Lover's Pizza Topped With Smaller Pizzas. Ed and Adam are positively quivering with excitement. [via Gulfstream]
Posted by Ed Levine, May 9, 2007 at 10:28 AM
Bruni also failed to mention the place mats at Mozza. One is an attempt to teach the unwitting Mozza customer how to speak Italian in seven not-so-easy hand motions, as this video shows.
Posted by Ed Levine, May 9, 2007 at 9:42 AM
Frank Bruni weighs in on the Mozza phenomenon today, but he's just a little late to the party. Serious Eats was on it in January. I do appreciate the butterscotch budino recipe, which is one of the best desserts I have had in years. If you do go to Mozza, have the gelati as well for dessert. You won't be disappointed. This is Nancy Silverton's restaurant we're talking about here. She is merely (for my money at least) the greatest pastry chef in America.
Posted by Adam Kuban, April 11, 2007 at 3:00 PM
Yesterday morning, Lia alerted me to the fact that Subway has started to roll out personal pizzas in a few test stores in Manhattan's East Village. The sandwich chain plans to serve the mini pies nationwide by June.
Of course, I had to rush out to try it. Speaking of "rush," isn't the saying "fools rush in where angels fear to tread?" Yeah. I think it is. You can read about Subway's personal pizza on Slice, Serious Eats's pizza blog. Short take: The pizza (starting at $2.99 for cheese, pictured above) ain't so good.
In other who's-serving-pizza-now news, Dunkin' Donuts is jumping on the bandwagon. Chicagoist tried out Dunkin's wares and found them overpriced:
The deep dish-looking pizza has the exact same flavor as the frozen Bagel Bites we ate as kids, which isn't a bad thing. The crust isn't really crusty, but more like hot bread, and the sauce has that standard fake pizza sauce flavor with assorted bits of basil. The cheese was just as nondescript, but acceptable. We ordered pepperoni but didn't really see a lot of pepperoni.
Sounds about the same as what I encountered.
Posted by Adam Kuban, April 5, 2007 at 2:45 PM
Down Under, Domino's mixes the classic Australian meat pie with the pizza pie:
Until now, the most creative makeovers of the humble meat pie have involved stacking things on top of it. This week Domino's stacked it on something else.
The Meat Pie Pizza comes with beef mince, onions, and peas topped with thick pastry and tomato sauce—and it looks about as pretty as a half-gobbled dog's eye.
Crikey!
Posted by Adam Kuban, April 4, 2007 at 3:00 PM
From PRNewswire.com:
Denver area pizza lovers have a 'hole' lot [Groan —Ed.] to be excited about as Einstein Bros. Bagels cooks up new pizza bagels for its hometown customers.... Einstein Bros. is now offering five Pizza Bagel flavors in 28 Front Range restaurants.
When I was a kid, my sister (who was around 7 at the time) came up with this idea—using Lender's frozen bagels, some Chef Boyardee pizza sauce, and whatever mozzarella we had on hand. She submitted the idea to a local TV station's "create an afterschool snack" contest.
And never heard from the station.
Hey, I thought it was a great idea at the time. These days, you couldn't get me near a hybrid pizza bagel. It just takes the best of two respected traditions and ruins them.
To this I say, Oy vey AND mamma mia! [via "Eater" Ben]
Posted by Adam Kuban, April 3, 2007 at 6:00 PM
This Serious Eats stuff I've gotten myself into is a weird business. Blogging about pizza, burgers, and other food is now part of my job, so it wasn't out of the realm of the ordinary to take part of the day to go out to Di Fara Pizza, in the Midwood section of Brooklyn, New York.
The joint had just reopened after having a nasty run-in with the New York City Department of Health. (I wrote about the closing on Serious Eats in mid March.) The DOH smackdown wasn't pretty. Along with minor violations like failure to wear a hat and gloves, references to mouse poop and unsanitary conditions peppered the report.
But, a couple weeks of forced closure, the pizzeria's proprietor, Dom DeMarco, was back behind the counter, looking and acting a little peppier for the involuntary rest—greeting regulars in his trademark laconic way and accepting well-wishes from customers with a quick nod.
Continue reading »
Posted by Adam Kuban, March 30, 2007 at 3:00 PM
Earlier this week, Serious Eats overlord Ed Levine arrived at the office with a new brand of frozen pizza he had just found. "It's a Neapolitan-style pie imported from Italy," he said. "It's supposed to be great."
I had my doubts. I stopped looking for a "great" frozen pizza long ago. When it comes to an iced slice, I like it cheap, fast, and easy, with cheap being the operative word (frozen pies are always fast and easy).
So Ed was toting a boxed Margherita pizza from Pelle. "Frozen pizza from Italy?" I asked. "What's the point? And, how much did it cost?"
Continue reading »
Posted by Adam Kuban, March 27, 2007 at 3:30 PM
It might be high in antioxidants, but this pizza crust, developed at the University of Maryland, seems like it would be low in deliciousness:
University of Maryland food chemists said on Monday they had found ways to enhance the antioxidant content of whole-grain wheat pizza dough by baking it longer at higher temperatures and giving the dough lots of time to rise.
It actually turns out that the "higher temperatures" cited were between 400 and 550°F, which isn't all that out of the ordinary for most pizza ovens. What's interesting here is whether this effect occurs in whole-wheat pies cooked in high-heat pizzeria ovens. [via Cyrus]
Posted by Ed Levine, March 26, 2007 at 4:30 PM
Johnny's Pizzeria | Mount Vernon, New York
A few months ago Serious Eats managing editor and fellow pizza lover Adam Kuban linked to that insane kazillion page post about trying to replicate the pizza at Patsy's, one of New York's oldest and finest pizzerias. I marveled at the guy's obsessiveness, and I loved the post, but what really intrigued me was his list of favorite pizzerias. There were all the usual suspects (Lombardi's, Totonno's, John's), but there was one that I never heard of, Johnny's Pizzeria in Mount Vernon, New York, a suburb just north of New York City.
A couple of weeks ago, I organized a Serious Eats road trip with Adam; SE general manager Alaina Browne; our phenomenal intern, Robyn (AKA The Girl Who Ate Everything); and one of my oldest and dearest friends, Bob.
Bob grew up in Mount Vernon, and he had never been to or heard of Johnny's, either. The five of us piled into a Zipcar and with the help of Google maps found our way to Johnny's, located in the back of a strip mall in what can only be described as a forgotten part of town.
Continue reading »
Posted by Lia Bulaong, March 23, 2007 at 9:56 AM
There's a theory to which many people I know subscribe which basically says that any delicious food can only get better if you coat it in a tasty batter and then deep-fry it.
Well, FHM got Food Network host George Duran to try it out by submitting five classic comfort foods to Trial By Fryer: White Castle sliders, microwave pizza, hard-boiled eggs, gummi worms and chocolate chip cookie dough. Four out of the five did well, but you might be surprised which food came out tops and which one was a let down. I know I was!
Posted by Ed Levine, March 22, 2007 at 11:55 AM
Food & Wine is actually my guilty pleasure food glossy. I know it's style- and star-driven, but it's a very well put together magazine whose editors execute their vision very well. That said, the "Taste Tests" in the front of the book almost always wimp out.
I'm sure the reason is that they don't want to piss off any present or future advertisers, but the result for me is that I don't believe a word that's said in them. They tasted frozen pizzas in the April 2007 issue and reported on three, Amy's, American Flatbread, and Stouffer's French Bread Cheese Pizza.
In a shocking development, they liked them all. If you need further proof that Food & Wine wimps out on its taste tests, check out this 2002 Frozen Pizza Taste Test. Jeffrey Steingarten and I tasted many, many frozen pizzas for a chapter in my book Pizza: A Slice of Heaven
, and the only one I would choose to eat is the American Flatbread cheese and herb pizza. They actually parbake those pizzas in a wood-burning oven. That's pretty cool for a frozen pizza.
Posted by Adam Kuban, March 22, 2007 at 9:00 AM
Photographs by Adam Kuban
I didn't know when the entreaties and pleading began, though I had an idea. I also didn't know how, exactly, Serious Eats founding overlord Ed Levine was going to manage bringing back to life a pizza shipped cross-country on dry ice. (Serious pizza eaters know the crust is at its best for only a minute or two out of the oven.) I do know that about two months after joining the Serious Eats crew, I received the following email:
So... Ed is calling me begging for a pizza. If I send one, are you going to eat some, since you are now a part of Team Serious Eats?
Continue reading »
Posted by Adam Kuban, March 21, 2007 at 7:30 PM
Yesterday's Question of the Day was about food-themed tattoos. How apropos that today I see this pizza tat. The proud owner, who resides in Wales, did it for charity and to mark the opening of his new take-out pizza joint.
Man has pizza tattooed on head [CBBC Newsround]
Posted by Ed Levine, March 19, 2007 at 3:09 PM
In the New York Times's city section yesterday there was a little piece on bars that are offering free food to lure drinkers.
The Times mentioned the Alligator Lounge and Capone's as the bar purveyors of free pizza. I noticed that the paper of record rendered no judgment on the quality of the pizza. I have two questions for serious eaters: Is this something happening all over the country or is it just limited to hipster bars in New York? And is the reason this is newsworthy is that they're not just serving free food at happy hour but rather all through the night?
Serious Eater and pizza maven Adam Kuban has had the pizza at the Alligator Lounge and says it's pretty damned good for free pizza. At the Crocodile Lounge, Kuban says, "You get what you pay for. But at least they have Skee-Ball." Adam's report on Capone's, which, he says, is all hearsay, is that its pizza is better than the Alligator Lounge's. So Serious Eaters, do tell: Can you get free pizza (or other free foods) at bars where you live?
Free Lunch Returns (And Why It's Not Free) [New York Times]
Free Pizza at the Crocodile Lounge [Slice]
Posted by Adam Kuban, March 16, 2007 at 6:08 PM
Noooooo!!!!!!
Slice reader Gabriel S. just emailed me: "Went by Di Fara looking for a slice today and saw that they were shut by the board of health yesterday. Do you have any details?"
I just called Dom DeMarco proprietor of legendary Brooklyn pizzeria Di Fara. He was at the restaurant, and he confirms that the Department of Health has closed the place "for little things."
"They say I've gotta wear gloves now—and a hat," Mr. DeMarco said. "It's all little things, like everybody else."
Despite the crap news, Dom seemed pretty chipper, taking things in stride. "I'd only wear a hat if I were bald. I'd rather pay the fine than wear the hat."
Mr. DeMarco estimates he'll be open again for business by Tuesday.
"I think it's their way of forcing me to take a little break," he said, jokingly.
Related: Latex Gloves in the Professional Kitchen? from the Serious Eats Talk section.
Posted by Lia Bulaong, March 12, 2007 at 8:51 AM
Lots of great pieces in the Chicago Reader's recently released yearly food issue—a guide to subscription farms for those who want to eat local, where to shop for ethnic groceries to diversify your larder, and the requisite Top 50 Restaurants as chosen by their readers—but the best by far is Nicholas Day's cover story on chef Michael Altenburg, whose soon-to-open pizzeria Crust will be Chicago's first ever certified organic restaurant and only the fourth in all of the US.
Why so few? "Before a restaurant can flash the USDA organic seal, an inspector has to check the provenance of every ingredient in every recipe, which means chefs can’t be nearly as flexible. "Let’s say you’re Bill the Tomato Grower and today you just did a bumper crop,” Altenberg says. "For me to create a special pizza, I have to go through the whole process of resubmitting a recipe." That could take up to a week. "It’s not going to prevent me from being seasonal. What I’m going to have to do is think ahead."
[via dirtynerdluv]
Posted by The Paupered Chef, March 7, 2007 at 11:04 AM
All photographs by Paupered Chef Blake Royer
"You want what?" The confused Domino's employee stared at us, scared, then turned his back and looked in desperation for the manager. No, we hadn’t asked for all the money in the register. Or even a pizza with fresh buffalo mozzarella and rare black truffles shredded on top. We had simply asked him for some pizza dough. Raw pizza dough. You know, before it goes into the oven.
Continue reading »
Posted by Adam Kuban, February 22, 2007 at 12:00 PM
The Hot Truck
Address: Parks at 635 Stewart Avenue, Ithaca NY 14850, on Cornell University's West Campus [map]
Phone: 607-273-1111
Photographs by Adam Kuban
It was late last Friday evening and I was on the phone with my girlfriend's sister after having recently arrived in Ithaca, New York, for a weekend visit. "Drive up to campus, and ask any student. Everybody knows where it is," Sis said. "We'll meet you there in 15 minutes."
Armed with that tip and a simple map drawn by the motel desk clerk, we set out on the snowy streets hoping the pavement had been sufficiently cleared of last week's slippery precip. Our destination: The Hot Truck.
Continue reading »
Posted by Lia Bulaong, February 5, 2007 at 2:47 PM
The SF Chronicle tried out some frozen pepperoni pizzas in a blind taste test last week and lo and behold, not only did DiGiorno's entry come out on top but also scored high enough to make into the Taster's Choice Hall of Fame, "an honor reserved for products that score 80 or more out of 100 points in blind tasting." (It squeaked in with 81.)
Posted by Adam Kuban, February 1, 2007 at 5:40 PM
MORE TO CHEW ON
Pizzeria Mozza [official site]
The Greatest Pizza in the World (Maybe) [Serious Eats]
Week in Review, Part 2: Can't Stop the Mozza [Eater L.A.]
Hot spot? Mozza is on fire [L.A. Times; Grr: Registration required]
MORE EDIBLES
Magnificent Mozza [Wednesday, January 31, 2007]
Quotations from Chairman Bruni [Tuesday, January 30, 2007]
Jamba Juice [Monday, January 29, 2007]
Sour Sunny Bears [Friday, January 26, 2007]
All Edibles
Posted by Ed Levine, January 31, 2007 at 5:30 PM
I said as much in my longer piece in the Serious Eats features section, but the pizza pantheon definitely has a new member, Mozza in Los Angeles. Finally, the City of Angels has pizza worth a detour.
MORE TO CHEW ON
Pizzeria Mozza [official site]
Mozza's Pizza is NOT Pizza! [Chowhound.com]
The Greatest Pizza in the World (Maybe) [Serious Eats]
Week in Review, Part 2: Can't Stop the Mozza [Eater L.A.]
Hot spot? Mozza is on fire [L.A. Times; Grr: Registration required]
MORE EDIBLES
Quotations from Chairman Bruni [Tuesday, January 30, 2007]
Jamba Juice [Monday, January 29, 2007]
Sour Sunny Bears [Friday, January 26, 2007]
Scarfin' the Scharffen Berger [Thursday, January 25, 2007]
All Edibles
Posted by Ed Levine, January 31, 2007 at 6:00 AM
"I have seen rock and roll future" is how, many years ago, Jon Landau began his review of a Bruce Springsteen concert in Boston. (Interestingly enough, Landau went on to become Springsteen's manager—a position he still holds to this day.) Well, last week, I might have seen (and eaten) pizza future at Pizzeria Mozza in Los Angeles.
I don't say these kinds of things lightly. How could I when I share an office with fellow serious eater Adam Kuban, the creator of pizza blog Slice, when I'm the guy who ate a thousand pieces of pizza all over the United States and Italy researching my book, Pizza: A Slice of Heaven. At that time, I believed that Chris Bianco was making the world's best pizza at his eponymous pizzeria in Phoenix.
Continue reading »
Posted by From Roadfood.com, January 28, 2007 at 6:00 AM
While shooting the second episode in our Roadfood video series at Frank Pepe's in New Haven, Connecticut, we asked Michael Stern for some of his other Nutmeg State favorites—starting with a couple other New Haven classics and branching out from there.
Continue reading »
Posted by Adam Kuban, January 23, 2007 at 6:00 PM
Hey, Serious Eaters! Adam Kuban here. In today's installment of 'Edibles,' I join Ed to chat about the wait at popular Brooklyn pizzeria Di Fara, where word is that line time is running upward of two-plus hours.
MENTIONED IN TODAY'S 'EDIBLES'
David Rosengarten on Di Fara (and Franny's)
The Stockholm Syndrome: (Etymology: from a 1973 robbery attempt in Stockholm, Sweden, during which bank employees held hostage developed sympathetic feelings toward their captors) the psychological tendency of a hostage to bond with, identify with, or sympathize with his or her captor. [Merriam-Webster]
"Stockholm Syndrome itself is most commonly perceived to occur with hostage situations, with the logic behind developing this relationship with an abuser or captor is in the interest of self-protection. This development occurs when there are perceived threats of violence, disempowerment of the subject, high levels of stress or trauma upon subject, and ultimate dependence upon the person in control for base survival." [serendip.brynmawr.edu]
DI FARA PIZZA
Address: 1424 Avenue J, Brooklyn NY 11230 [map]
Phone: 718-258-1367
Further reading: All Slice's Di Fara posts [Slice Archives]; Back to Di Fara [Word of Mouth]
MORE 'EDIBLES'
Palapa Azul Mexican Ice Cream [Monday, January 22, 2007]
All Edibles
Posted by Adam Kuban, January 23, 2007 at 4:54 PM
Here is the second episode of what we've taken to calling "Edibles" around Serious Eats world headquarters. In this video, I talk to Adam Kuban, Serious Eats managing editor—and founder of SliceNY.com—about the lines at Di Fara Pizza. My friend Robb Walsh visited Di Fara while in town recently and confirms tales of two-hour waits there. Two hours!
Posted by Nathalie Jordi, January 23, 2007 at 3:43 PM
First, Peter Pan Pizza gets purchased by a private equity company specializing in businesses that cater to Hispanics. Then, Pizza Hut adds online ordering to the Spanish-language version of their website. Finally, Pizza Patron reports that sales have shot up 35% in the last quarter.
Peter Romeo concludes: "Taken as a group, [this is] strong evidence that the pizza posse is the first segment of the business to realize truly and zealously the potential of the Hispanic market."
Posted by Alaina Browne, January 18, 2007 at 1:00 PM
Just when you think you know someone. Slice/Serious Eats pizza fiend Adam Kuban throws us for a loop in a FoodCandy.com interview: "Um, I've got to admit that I don't really mind pineapple on a pie. In fact, I order it quite a bit because 'Girl Slice' really likes pineapple."
What do you think about pineapple on pizza?
Posted by Adam Kuban, January 17, 2007 at 9:00 AM
Foodblogger Pim Techamuanvivit recently announced the winners of the Menu for Hope raffle on her site, Chez Pim. Serious Eats donated two prizes to the fund-raiser, and now it's time to put our money where our big grinning mouth is.
ACrans: Congrats! You've won the dinner for four at Mozza! Bon appétit, friend! We'll contact Mozza and relay pertinent info to you.
A. J. Kinik: Meet Ed and me with an empty stomach and some comfortable shoes. We're going on a New York pizza tour with you and three of your friends! We'll be in touch about logistics and timing.
Congrats to the winners of all the other wonderful prizes, too, and thanks to everyone who participated in the raffle, which raised more than $60,000 for the U.N. World Food Programme.
Posted by Ed Levine, January 12, 2007 at 10:00 AM
Two years ago, when I was writing Pizza: A Slice of Heaven, I spent a couple of days at Pepe's Pizza in New Haven, Connecticut. I’ve been eating Pepe’s excellent pizza since the '60s, when my oldest brother went to school in New Haven.
I’ve always loved just about everything about Pepe’s—the huge oven that dominates its interior; the smart, sassy waitresses; the incomparable crust with a crisp exterior and tender interior; the tangy shower of Romano cheese that lends just the right amount of tang and saltiness to the pizza; the meaty locally sourced sausage chunks; and, of course, the incomparable clam pie, which has the perfect ratio of clams to crust. Most of all, I love the fact that Pepe’s fabulous pizza is the legacy of the hard work and perfectionism of Frank Pepe, an illiterate southern Italian immigrant who built Pepe’s with his blood, sweat, and dough. Although Frank Pepe passed away in 1969, his spirit lives on at Pepe’s in the many photographs and paintings of him that adorn the walls at the pizzeria and even the pizza boxes there.
Continue reading »
Posted by Adam Kuban, December 27, 2006 at 7:16 AM
Deep-Fried Pizza at
THE ATLANTIC CHIPSHOP
Address: 129 Atlantic Ave., Brooklyn NY 11201 [map]
Phone: 718-855-7775
Cost: $3 a slice
The Skinny: Inspired by the Scots, who have a penchant for deep-frying just about anything, the battered slices at the Atlantic ChipShop taste like a combination of a pizza roll and a mozzarella stick. Very good, if you're into those things.
A picture is worth a thousand words, and video is priceless, especially when it comes to the wonder of deep-fried pizza. Take a peek.
Continue reading »
Posted by Adam Kuban, December 13, 2006 at 1:28 PM
As we mentioned on Monday, foodblogger Pim Techamuanvivit has once again organized the yearly Menu for Hope charity fund-raiser. Now in its third year, Menu for Hope is a raffle in which foodbloggers donate prizes and then solicit readers to buy tickets to win the goods in a drawing. Proceeds this year will go to the UN World Food Programme, which provides hunger relief for needy folks worldwide. Last year's MFH took in more than $17,000 for Unicef.
Serious Eats is happy to offer two prizes.
LOS ANGELES: Dinner for Four at Pizzeria Mozza
For West Coast–based Serious Eaters or those willing to travel to Los Angeles, we're offering dinner for four at Pizzeria Mozza, the recently opened Nancy Silverton–Mario Batali–Joe Bastianch pizza joint. As our own Ed Levine said in Details magazine, Pizzeria Mozza is "the first excellent pizza in pie-starved Southern California. Silverton spent a year perfecting the dough. Her breadlike crust is two inches high, but unlike that of Chicago deep-dish, it has a light, crisp exterior and a tender, moist interior."
Dinner for four (you and three of your companions) will include three courses and wine paired with the pizzas you choose. (Winner will need to contact adam@seriouseats.com to make dinner arrangements.)
NEW YORK CITY: Pizza Crawl for Four Led by Ed & Adam
For East Coast–based Serious Eaters or those willing to travel to the Big Apple, we're offering a guided pizza tour for four (you and three companions) of the New York City borough of your choice. The tour will be led by Serious Eats' Ed Levine—he's also author of pizza encyclopedia Pizza: A Slice of Heaven—and me, Adam Kuban, pizza blogger and founder of Slice.
Don't worry: Ed and I will pick you up in the Serious Eats Piemobile and whisk you and your pizza posse away to sliceland. (Winner will need to contact adam@seriouseats.com to make tour arrangements. )
If those prizes don't appeal to you, be sure to check out the full range of wonderful prizes on Pim's site: Menu for Hope III Prizes and Menu for Hope III, More Prizes.
Continue reading »
Posted by Jeff VanDam, December 8, 2006 at 7:04 AM
From left: Fricano's EBA (Everything But Anchovies) pie and a pie from Mr. Scrib's, with the same toppings—sausage, pepperoni, green peppers, and mushrooms.
Let’s get one thing out of the way: Yes, the state of Michigan is responsible for producing both Domino’s and Little Caesars pizza. But even though the products of these two chains are readily available all over both the lower and upper peninsulas—indeed, one can purchase a “Pizza! Pizza!” within the sacred grounds of Comerica Park itself, home of the Detroit Tigers—there is evidence that Michiganders can get pizza right, too. Very right.
On the west side of the state, there are two pizzerias that render the notions of “meat lover’s” and “Brooklyn-style” little more than bad memories. One, called Fricano’s, calls itself Michigan’s first pizzeria and is based in Grand Haven, an affluent beach hamlet with trolley tours. The other, Mr. Scrib’s, has its headquarters in Muskegon, another beach town noted more for its paper mill than its pizzaiolos. Both Mr. Scrib’s and Fricano’s produce crusts no thicker than Saltines, covered with a minimum of sauce and a generous scattering of toppings and sharp cheese—plain Margherita pies are not necessarily popular here. At both places, the ordering of a “deluxe,” or, in the case of Fricano’s, an “EBA” (Everything But Anchovies), is essential.
Over the Thanksgiving weekend, I grabbed a few pies from both Fricano’s and Mr. Scrib’s and brought them home to a panel of taste-testers: my family, and my friend, Scott, all of whom had somehow never tried these pizzas before. I picked up three EBA’s (sausage, pepperoni, green peppers, and mushrooms) from Fricano’s, which makes only 12-inch pies that are cut with scissors, and two larges with the same ingredients from Mr. Scrib’s, which cuts its circular pies in square grids.
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Posted by Adam Kuban, December 6, 2006 at 12:01 PM
'Fesser of The Gurgling Cod received this flyer in the mail. Talk about the crass commercialization of Christmas.
JESUS [The Gurgling Cod]
Posted by Alaina Browne, December 5, 2006 at 1:00 PM
Could you eat an entire 20-inch pizza by yourself? With two toppings? What if it guaranteed you free pizza for a year? Blogger Bear Silber reaches for the eye of the tiger:
The Pizza and Pipes Belly Buster challenge was a success. A few men set out to make history, two became boys while one became a legend. What exactly is the Belly Buster challenge you ask. Simple, it’s a 20” pizza that must be consumed in one hour or less by one individual. To date many have tried but none have been victorious. The Hall of Shame is filled with Polaroids of individuals who’ve attempted to conquer the Belly Buster while the Hall of Fame lay bare.
Did Mr. Silber succeed? You'll have to read his post to find out.
Belly Buster Challenge [Bear Silber]
Photograph from Bear Silber's Flickr photostream
Posted by Ed Levine, September 4, 2006 at 8:28 AM
Four days of eating on Martha's Vineyard and what did I discover:
The best local soda I've ever tasted: Cape Cod Diet Cranberry Ginger Ale: Simultaneously sweet and tart, plenty of cranberry flavor, could go a little heavier on the ginger. I know about Cheerwine and the like, but are there other great local sodas most people don't know about?
A very fine Little Rock Farms blueberry pie made with wild Maine blueberries.
An excellent Mrs. Blake's Strawberry Rhubarb Pie with her usual moist and flaky crust and filling that could have been less sweet.
Fried clams from John's Fish Market in Vineyard Haven that were crunchy, clammy, and yummy. Wispy, thin onion rings that were battered to order (as were the clams. Next time up here I'm going to taste test John's and the Bite's fried clams. May the better clam win!
Pretty good bacon and fresh mozzarella pizza from the Chilmark Store. Too much regular mozzarella made for a very heavy pie. Bacon was in tiny pieces, like bacon bits.
Awful peach crumb pie from the Black Dog Bakery: It's hard to screw up peach crumb pie, but the folks at BDB managed to do it. The pie was a soupy, gloppy mess, and the peaches tasted canned.
By far the best bites of food to be had on this island are the Gold Bud Farms peaches and nectarines sold at Eden outside Vineyard Haven. These are simply as good a piece of stonefruit as you will find on this planet.
This photo of some sliced Gold Bud peaches is courtesy of a Chowhounder. Each piece is juicy and sweet with just the right amount of acidity. How good are they? We bring them as either house presents or dessert when we're invited over to dinner, and we have now become the most popular dinner guests on the island. Ron Mansfield, Goldbud's owner, will ship. Call him at 530-626-6521.
