DishDoppelgängers: Farinella & Momofuku Milk Bar

The Gluttoness & The Hungry Goat — November 05, 2009

You know you’ve been caught looking at celebrity look-alike features in tabloids on the supermarket line or when surfing online. Well, we’re applying the concept to well-known dishes and others that resemble them. And why not, for those of us interested in food, Thomas Keller’s Oysters and Pearls dish is just as iconic as Jay Leno’s chin. As soon as a doppelgänger dish emerges, you better believe we’ll spot it.

We know, we know. doppelgängers are supposed to look alike. But this edition of DishDoppelgänger is switching things up a little, featuring two potato dishes with matching flavor profiles: Farinella’s (view) Panzerotto and Momofuku Milk Bar’s (view) Volcano.

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AlwaysInvestigating: Nutella Pizza

The Gluttoness & The Hungry Goat — August 07, 2009

Slice recently highlighted the pizza episode of the Food Network’s ““The Best Thing I Ever Ate,”:http://www.foodnetwork.com/the-best-thing-i-ever-ate/index.html” in which Aaron Sanchez heralded Max Brenner’s Chocolate Pizza as his ultimate slice: manufactured pastry dough topped with melted chocolate chunks, marshmallows and candied hazelnuts. It sounds better than it tastes— the result is a gooey mess on crappy crust— and the backlash against Sanchez hasn’t been pretty. Eat Me Daily featured his selection in a Crimes Against Food post, and Farinella’s owner, Alberto Cretara, tweeted: “NEVER SEEN ANYTHING SO DISGUSTING IN MY LIFE! PLEASE USE THE WORD “PIZZA” WITH CONSIDERATION! TASTE OUR PIZZA AARON!”

Max Brenner’s Chocolate Pizza becomes more appetizing after a few drinks, but even then it isn’t close to the best of anything. However, there are awesome dessert pizzas in New York City. The best forgo chocolate for Nutella.

Kesté Pizza & Vino’s Pizza Alla Nutella, $10.00.

Kesté Pizza & Vino (Pizza Alla Nutella) — The key to a righteous Nutella pie is quality dough. The slight saltiness of Kesté‘s excellent dough tones down the rich spread, and its thin, crispness adds the requisite texture. Each of these four panini-esque wedges rewards you with a thick, sticky mustache of warm melted chocolate. It’s a formula that makes the pie at Kesté the best of this bunch.

Scuderia’s Pizzetta Con Nutella E Mascarpone, $8.50.

Scuderia (Pizzetta Con Nutella E Mascarpone) — This rustic-looking dessert pie is most notable for adding dollops of creamy mascarpone. The balance between the mascarpone and the Nutella, combined with the crunch of the thin, golden brown dough, makes for a sweetly satisfying bite. The downside is that within a few minutes the too-thin Nutella spread hardens and flakes. Solution: consume quickly.

Tonda’s Nutella Pizza, $5.00.

Tonda (Nutella Pizza) — More like a calzone than a pizza. Although “too much Nutella” is a phrase rarely uttered by chocoholics, this thin dough is easily overtaken by the dense, rich spread.

If these three decadent dishes have you craving more, here are some other renditions:

-“Accademia di Vino”:http://www.alwayshungryny.com/reviews/accademia-di-vino/:
Grilled Nutella Pizza w/White & Dark Chocolate, Sweet Ricotta & Coconut, $16
-“Pie by the Pound”:http://www.alwayshungryny.com/reviews/pie-by-the-pound/:
Nutella Ricotta Banana Pie, $4.75
-“Krunch Pizza Bar”:http://www.alwayshungryny.com/reviews/krunch-pizza/:
Nutella Krunch w/Hazelnut Spread, White Chocolate Shavings & Crushed Pistachios, $4/slice ($32/pie)

AlwaysInvestigating: More to a Mozzarella Sandwich than Meets the Eye

The Gluttoness — August 06, 2009

Ordering a cold cheese sandwich has never been a compelling option. Not grilled cheese sandwiches— those have a time and place (with tomato and bacon)— we’re talking sandwiches that recall Wonder Bread and Kraft Singles. But when a sandwich is assembled with divine mozzarella and freshly-baked bread the result can be sensational. Take Porchetta’s Mozzarella Cheese Sandwich, which opened our eyes to the genre’s potential. It won’t dethrone the Porchetta Sandwich as Porchetta’s best item, but it inspired us to find other good renditions.

Clockwise from top left: Porchetta’s Mozzarella Sandwich ($7), Sanpanino’s Fresh Mozzarella Sandwich ($6.50), Defonte’s Fresh Mozzarella Sandwich ($8.50) & Farinella’s Caprese Panini ($9.25)

Porchetta (restaurant page) Fresh Di Palo Mozzarella in a Sullivan Street ciabatta roll, lacquered with olive oil and topped with sun-dried tomatoes and caper-herb tapenade. It’s love at first bite.

Sanpanino (restaurant page) The owner, Leonardo Scarpone said this means “Saint of the Sandwich” in Italian and Sanpanino tries to set a divine example by making their own mozzarella. Firm rounds of cheese, plum tomatoes, fresh basil and olive oil are served on golden, fluffy focaccia (from Royal Crown, Staten Island) whose saltiness gently seasons each component. While the restaurant’s name also implies pressed sandwiches, “Lenny” recommends eating them cold to appreciate the ingredients.

Defonte’s of Brooklyn (restaurant page) Their surprisingly mild mozzarella is also made in-house, and it’s piled high with just a few tomato slices. The garlic bread is like an exceptionally crusty, double-wide French baguette garnished with burnt garlic bits and brushed with basil-flecked olive oil. The abundant mozzarella is well-matched with the hearty bread, which stands out but doesn’t undermine the authority of the cheese.

Farinella (restaurant page) Of this selection, Farinella’s Caprese Panini is king. The housemade focaccia is a standout in it’s own right— thin, crisp and salty. But it’s the oozing, slightly sour buffalo’s milk mozzarella that Alberto Polo Cretara imports from Naples, which is unparalleled by the other sandwiches. The creamy slices are amply dressed with fresh basil, lettuce and tomato, and milk drips like jus while you eat. A cheese sandwich has never been so satisfying.

AlwaysHungry: Farinella’s “The Gluttoness” Special

The Gluttoness — July 22, 2009

Farinella’s “The Gluttoness” special pizza with Radicchio and Gorgonzola

Twitter is an amazing thing, especially when it leads to personalized pizza.

I have been following Farinella (restaurant page), my beloved neighborhood Italian bakery on Twitter since not long after Alberto Polo Cretara opened it in March. I’ve been begging him for months to make a Radicchio and Gorgonzola pie, my favorite pizza whenever I visit Rome. Considering Farinella’s Roman pizza, it’s only right that they offer these traditional Roman toppings.

On Monday Alberto asked his twitter followers for special topping suggestions. I had to answer back. Farinella’s reply answered my prayers:

Farinella: SPECIAL OF THE WEEK? we accept special request or suggestion…c’mon tweet us!
The Gluttoness: farinellabakery GORGONZOLA & RADICCIO PIZZA!
Farinella: AHNY Gluttoness GORGONZOLA E RADICCHIO??? tomorrow our Lady of Mount Glutton will be pleased and surprised!!!

Well, the Lady of Mount Glutton obviously had to visit Farinella for lunch to eat this custom creation. And there it was waiting as promised- my glistening purple pie. Fine, maybe it wasn’t glistening, but the fact I can take credit for its existence truly heightened the experience.

As always, Farinella’s crisp, well-salted crust was the perfect backdrop for its topping: pungent gorgonzola cheese and plentiful raddicchio chiffonade. Fresh and fragrant but wilted and warm from the oven, the Italian chicory added a peppery punch that was subdued by a sprinkle of shredded mozzarella. Ultimately, it was the gooey gorgonzola that characterized the slice and lingered on the palate— each crunchy bite replete with an authentic taste that transported me back to Rome. It was everything I had hoped for.

AlwaysHungry: Farinella Pizza

The Gluttoness — March 02, 2009

Alberto, the owner of Farinella’s, has been very excited that AlwaysHungry has been covering his new shop and it was great to finally meet him in person—he has an uncanny resemblance to the late Heath Ledger—this past Saturday.

Farinella is Italian for “little flour” but more than just a little flour is being used at the store. Aside from pizza, Farinella also makes daily Calzones, phenomenal homemade bread, and sandwiches, on top of this phenomenal bread.

Pizza is the main event though. Each pie is four feet long and 10 inches wide. (Unfortunately, they did not allocate the proper amount of space in their display case, so the pizzas are cut in the back of the store before they are brought up front.) Toppings change daily, with some signatures that will surely always remain. On Saturday my options included: plain, mushroom, zucchini/mushroom, potato/onion, eggplant and tomato/rucola.

The thin crust had a nice char on the bottom but soft spots were found towards the center. The outer crust was especially crisp to a crackly-crunchy level, and all of the ingredients were fresh, but unfortunately not always used generously. The eggplant pizza (pictured above) had the most surface area coverage, while the lesser-dressed mushroom and mushroom/zucchini slices were victimized by many bare spots.

My personal favorite was the cherry tomato/rucola, which may have had an unfair advantage as it arrived hot out of the oven, but the tomatoes were slightly roasted, the fresh bed of rucola was peppery, and there was a hearty covering of cheese hidden beneath the warmed greens.

Despite having eaten all this pizza, I also sampled the calzone of the day. The wilted greens and olive filling made me grateful I had gorged on pizza, but the fantastically soft, salty shell was good enough to merit trying a new filling in the future.

My next visit: a slice of potato/onion pizza and a speck sandwich. For now, the overall foodcentric experience lands them a B on AlwaysHungry, but with constantly changing toppings, there will definitely be room for improvement.

AlwaysInvestigating: Farinella’s Interior Tour

The Gluttoness — February 24, 2009

After seeing New York Magazine’s beautiful picture of Farinella’s pizza, we wanted to bring you a first glimpse inside former Italian rap impresario Alberto Polo Cretara’s new bakery on Worth near Broadway. Since they close before the AlwaysHungry office does, I headed over for an early morning frittata. Unfortunately, at 9am, the doors were locked and the owner was not there. I knocked, and none other than Fabrizio Rosciolo, owner of Forno Camp de’Fiori, the well-known pizzeria in Rome, came to the door. Having shared Forno’s secrets as Alberto’s pizza-making mentor, Fabrizio crossed the Atlantic to help him get situated in New York. Donning a chef’s coat from his own restaurant, Fabrizio was kind enough to take a break from buttering mounds of dough to give me a grand tour.

The decor is clean and simple. Golden balsa wood lines the floors, tops the tasting bar, and even divides square cubbies for a mini-market featuring Italian imports like pasta, sauces and cookies. The Tagliavini triple-decker oven, sent from Italy, is large enough to hold the ginormous wooden planks on which the pizzas are cooked (each longer than a middle-schooler). Their 4-foot long specialty pies are in the fashion of Roman pizza, including toppings like Radicchio and Gorgonzola, Potato and Onion, and of course, the classic Margherita.

Farinella’s rectangular slices range from $2-$4 each. I spoke with Alberto this afternoon by phone and he said they’re packed, so expect the noted hours, 9am-6pm, to be flexible in response to the demand.

AlwaysInvestigating: Farinella’s Grassroots Marketing

February 19, 2009

Ever since Farinella’s white-and-yellow striped awning went up at Worth St. & Broadway, I’ve been googling up a storm to find more information to no avail. When I began noticing stickers with the restaurant’s logo superimposed over the awning’s colors popping up around the neighborhood, it dawned on me that this lack of information might be purposeful.

Instead of hiring a prestigious PR firm or going straight to the press, the owners behind the yet-to-be-opened Farinella’s have taken to Guerilla Marketing tactics by blanketing TriBeCa with legions of stickers reading, “I Love Pizza – New York Loves Me.” The intentional omission of the restaurant’s name piques the interest of passersby (especially when they love pizza, like myself) to investigate their origin.

Of course, the stickers won’t mean anything if the pizza is horrible and only time will tell whether the high-end flour and other premium ingredients make this a premiere destination in the coming months. In the meanwhile, the grassroots marketing campaign is clever—it’s definitely got me craving an opening day slice.