Burnt

Ristorante Pulcinella

1147 Kensington Crescent NW

www.pulcinella.ca

Oh Pulcinella... with your sparkly white decor, oversized black and white photos and your authentic neapolitan pizza, how I <3 thee. Made with love, you provide delicious food to fill my stomach. After scoring a wicked parking spot directly in front of the restaurant (No it wasn't a handicapped stall...), we were quickly seated in the main dinning area when we entered. It was a quiet morning. Only 3 or 4 tables being occupied. Trying to beat the rush, we quickly ordered some food. 

Two appetizers to start. The first to arrive was the calamari. We had the calamari the last time we dined here and it was amazing so we ordered it again. Unlike other places, the batter is not very crispy. In fact, I would describe it as soggy. But it tastes so super amazing. The unique blend of herbs and spices is a little spicy. A little tangy. And all delicious. Mmmm... I can eat this all day. 

Next to arrive was the arancini. It is a ball of rice stuffed with mozzarella cheese. It is then topped with a tomato paste, more cheese (parmesan I think) and a crispy basil leave. I think the leaves were drenched in an oil, probably of the olive variety and then roasted. Or something. It was pretty neat. Crispy. Tasty. Definitely the highlight of this dish. The arancini balls were pretty good too. Very flavourful. Extremely filling. The tomato paste was very sweet. I still like the calamari better. They should just make a dish called roasted basil leaves. Win. 

Pulcinella waited until we finished all of our appetizers before making our pizza. Which was really unfortunate. Because we were saving the last arancini ball for later. The waiter finally came over and asked us if we were ready for our pizza. We said yes and off they went. We finished off the last arancini ball (there was 3) as we waited for the pizza to be hand kneaded and fired in the stone oven with an oak-wood fire. I have been to Pulcinella several times, and despite my love for them, the quality of the pizza is wildly inconsistent. Or consistently inconsistent. Sometimes the dough is too soggy. Or too burnt. Could be contributed by the difference between 60 seconds in a dying flame or 90 seconds in a raging fire. The results for our cotto e fungi today? Thoroughly cooked with minor burns. Crispy along the crust, softer towards the centre. Topped with tomato sauce, mozzarella cheese, mushrooms and proscuitto cotto (Read: Common ham), it was great. There's some major flame on the 'spoon about Pulcinella using regular ham on the pizzas when it says "proscuitto". Prosciutto = Ham. Prosciutto crudo is the cured variety while proscuitto cotto is the cooked variety. Check which one you order because they use both. Capeesh?

Aside from the minor cancer inducing crust, the pizza was pretty good. Probably one of the better ones I've had in a while. 8 stars out of 10. I think the quality is better when they aren't too busy. Made with more love. At least two cups' worth. 

The Great Pizza Dough Famine

Michael's Restaurant, Pizza & Bar
139 10 Ave SW

We arrived at Michael's at noon for a Friday lunch. Upon being seated on the second floor, we quickly ordered our food. 4 large pizzas on regular dough. A house special, Michael's special, all meat and SFO (Spinach, feta and onions). We were quickly informed that only whole wheat is available for large pizza breads. We said that's fine and the waitress disappeared to put in our order only to return to tell us there's only 2 large pizzas left. We revised our order to 2 large and 3 mediums. The waitress returns a few minutes later to tell us there is actually only 1 large pizza left. Revising our order yet again to 1 large and 5 mediums, we were informed by the chef moments later that there's only 4 mediums and as many small pizzas as we wanted. We opted to stick with 1 large and 4 mediums. The chef returns to our table shortly after that to inform us that they found an extra medium pizza. How do you find extra pizzas? Yeah, like "we were sweeping the floors and found some extra dough under the oven". Or "we were grabbing a can of tomato paste in the pantry and lo and behold! Extra pizza dough!" Seriously, I don't want that! I'm not too entirely sure what we finally order. All I know is a solid half hour later, a medium all meat and house special pizza was placed in front of me.

First up, the all meat. Pepperoni, beef, salami and ham topped a regular pizza dough. I'm pretty sure this was the one that they found as it was on regular white pizza dough. You may noticed there's a slight blur at the top left hand corner of the picture. This was Megan's hand swooping in for a slice of the pizza. Poor girl was so hungry from waiting so long for the food. The pizza was of the thick crust variety. It's no neapolitan pizza that's for sure. Thick slices of meat were layered between Michael's homemade tomato sauce and mozzarella cheese. It was pretty decent. Very hearty and afternoon nap inducing. The cheese was thoroughly melted and very stringy.



Topped on whole wheat pizza bread, the house special was decent. I wasn't a super huge fan of the whole wheat aspect of this pizza. Toppings include pepperoni, mushrooms, ham, green peppers, tomatoes and feta cheese. Despite being a carnivore, I do enjoy having some fresh veggies on my pizzas. It adds a different texture so it's not just a giant slice of soggy meat and dough. The resulting flavour is also very refreshing.



This pizza dough debacle is nothing new, we've had this happen before. Is it super delicious? Not really... But it's super close so it's got that going for it. With all things considered, this was a mediocre 5 stars out of 10.

Special Happy Birthday shout out to Kristel and best of luck to Megan for going back to school.

Move over Pizza Hut...

Famoso Neapolitan Pizzeria
2303 4th St SW
www.famoso.ca

Famoso is a Neapolitan Pizzeria that originated from... Edmonton? The owners trained with the Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana (VPN) in Naples to learn the ways of the Neapolitan pizza. From the '00' Caputo flour to the San Marzano tomatoes grown in the Campania region of Southern Italy, the hand stretching and tossing of the dough, the fior-di-latte, bell-shaped fire ovens that cooks your pizza at 900°F in 90 seconds, everything screams authenticity.

I had to pepperoni and roasted mushroom pizza. Quite possibly the least authentic of them all. But it was good. The oven has a "lazy susan" type contraption inside that spins the pizza around the flame. The result is a crispy yet tender crust that is evenly cooked and not burnt. That was one of my complaints at Pulcinella; The dough was sometimes too soggy or too burnt. The San Marzano tomatoes is less acidic, results in a much sweeter taste for the sauce.



Famoso describes themselves as a "fast casual style restaurant". Food is ordered at the counter similar to most fast food places but the food is brought to your table like traditional restaurants. It's kinda weird... like do I tip? I'm not sure... I did anyway to not look like an ass. The restaurant features a "dome" roof with full floor to ceiling windows that lets in ample natural light. A large monochromatic painting hangs on the wall along with 2 large flat screen tvs. The painting likely depicts the eruption of Mount Vesuvius near Naples. Yeah?

Opa!

Mykonos Greek Restaurant and Lounge
1121 Centre St. N
www.mykonoscalgary.ca

My experiences with Greek cuisine is limited to that of Opa! which isn't really saying much. So when we were going to go out for dinner at Mykonos, I was super pumped! Amanda and I had the saganaki which they flamed at our table. The flame was so high, it hit the ceiling! It was so cool but all I could think about was the importance of fireproofing. Opa! indeed. I wish I had gotten a picture of it.

Anyway, I got the lamb shank special. It was pretty good. The meat was really tender and it didn't have that sometimes overwhelming lamb taste so that was a bonus. The dish came with salad, rice and potatoes. My only beef was the potatoes were really sour. Maybe it's suppose to be really sour? I don't know.



This was also my first plate breaking experience, pretty excited! We spent a good 5 to 10 minutes talking about how embarrassing it would be if you threw the plate into the pit and it didn't break. As we stood before the pit, we noticed there were several unscathed plates, more mockery ensued. I decided to practice my Frisbee throw as I whaled it into the wall. The plate shattered into a billion (slight exaggeration) pieces, it gave me a sense of ease knowing that my plate will not stick out in a sea of ceramic shards and become the mockery of fellow patrons of this fair establishment, unlike the other guest of my party.

Amato Gelato
2104 Kensington Rd NW
www.amatogelato.com

Following our plate destruction, we headed to Amato Gelato for some ice cream. They had a million different flavours, it was amazing! I had the Swiss vanilla almond? (Or was it vanilla Swiss almond?) and the one with the rum. It was super creamy and delicious! Om nom nom nom!



Giuseppe's Italian Deli and Market
1207 1 St SW
www.giuseppesitalianmarket.com

Went to Giuseppe's for lunch today with Jordan. Fridays are usually busy at Giuseppe's, the wait for pizzas was "approximately 20 minutes". Normally I would have said "Eff that!", but I promised I would get it the next time I go, so I toughed it out. It ended up being an half hour wait. Brutal... ANND on top of that, the prices have been increased by a dollar. Booo!

Anyway, I got the Four Seasons, I'm not sure why it was called that because there was only 3 toppings; Pepperoni, mushrooms and anchovies. The toppings were placed within their respective third of the pizza so you could never get mushrooms with pepperoni. I guess it's a bonus if you hate mushrooms or something, though I'm not sure why you would get this if that were the case... The pizza dough was very crispy unlike that of Pulcinella. I find the dough is usually really soft and gooey there, perhaps because it's thicker? I don't know. Anyway, it was pretty good but I'm still bitter that they raised the price!

Pizza Pizza

Sunterra Market
Bankers Hall +15 level, 855-2 Street SW
www.sunterramarket.com

I got the 4 Meats pizza at Sunterra today. It was okay. It doesn't look very good from this picture because it kinda got destroyed on my way back to work. There's pepperoni, chicken, ham and something else... I think it was bacon bits. The crust is pretty thin, really crispy but overall pretty average.