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)

AlwaysPartying: Summit Wine and Food Festival

Arthur Bovino — July 28, 2009

Uproot’s Fluke Crudo with Blueberry, Radish, Peach and Vanilla Lime Salt

AlwaysHungryNY.com took the PATH to Summit, NJ last Friday evening for the opening reception of the Summit Wine & Food Festival (view site), hosted at The Grand Summit Hotel. Besides wine-tastings and dinner, the three-day festival was slated to include wine panel discussions and cooking demonstrations by Franklin Becker, David Burke and the Food Network’s Ingrid Hoffman, among others. Josh Ozersky of The Feedbag was also scheduled to host a “Sultans of Steak” demonstration featuring: Josh DeChellis, John Schenk, Anthony Goncalves, Craig Koketsu and Jayson Margulies, but his star-turn at the event was headlining his first Feedbag Burger Summit.

Our favorite dish of the evening was the Fluke Crudo with Blueberry, Radish, Peach and Vanilla Lime Salt by Uproot (view site), scheduled to open soon in Warren, NJ. Among wines present from over 25 wineries we found Badger Mountain’s Organic Riesling and a 2007 Montgomery Place Napa Valley red wine from Mouton Noir to be particularly enjoyable. Pictures of the opening night food follow.

Click for pictures of food from the opening night reception. >>

AlwaysInvestigating: About Giada’s Meatball Madness…

GutterGourmet — May 21, 2009

Now that Dish du Jour’s “Meatball Melée of the Boroughs” is behind us, and Nicky’s Famous Meatballs, a dark horse, deep-fried meatball by Bello Giardino’s, has taken the title, Best Meatballs in the Borough, it’s time to look forward to the next great meatball competition. This fall’s return of the Food Network’s New York City Wine and Food Festival (presented October 8-11 by Food&Wine and Travel+Leisure) is rumored to be featuring an entirely new event hosted by Giada De Laurentiis: Meatball Madness. It would have been a close call to choose between getting up close to Giada or the city’s best meatballs, thankfully we won’t have to. And who better than Giada to judge the best balls?

The event has inspired some intense thought about the competition’s potential participants and possible categories. For the approval of the powers that be, we submit the following:

The Traditional Italian/American Category
1) Lazzara’s gargantuan Meatball Parmigiana Hero (now at 2 locations: 38th Street and the new offshoot in Hell’s Kitchen on 9th Ave.).
2) Papa Perrone’s (best Midtown pizza truck) for meatball sandwiches and meatball pizza.
3) Manganaro’s Grosseria (no, not their archrival relatives next door, Manganaro’s Hero Boy).
4) John’s of 12th Street for spaghetti and meatballs in a Tony Soprano atmosphere circa 1908.

Click here for more suggested "Meatball Madness" categories >>