Adventure #23: EZ's

I was excited to go to EZ's because they have a wood-fired oven for cooking pizza in. Perhaps it's that I'm currently learning to work the woodfired oven at work or that it seems that, if a place is keeping a fire going specifically for the purpose of cooking pizza, they must be excited about their pizza. The latter is probably not true.

They only offer two sizes of pizza, 7 inch and 11 inch (slightly smaller than the typical medium pizza) and since we had guests (and there was a handy special) we decided to get two 7 inch pizzas, a pepperoni and a margherita pizza (they're loose interpretation [an unfortunately rather common interpretation] of which is a white pizza with sliced tomatoes and basil on it).


Both pizzas were underdone and doughy. The crust was fluffy and not unpleasant had it been cooked longer. ^This^ is not an acceptable upskirt for a wood oven cooked pizza! Look at the top pizza, the "margherita". It's not even golden brown! Most of the crust is still white.

The rest of it reminded me a lot of the pizza Lunchables I used to take to grade school. It seemed like a bready, kid friendly crust, pepperoni that was not even a little crisp, cheese that was decent but not good, and unremarkable sauce.


I am truly curious if the pizza would be any better if I ordered it well done.

Conclusion: EZ's is as kid-friendly as it advertises and there is a variety of food, so maybe if I were to go there again and find out that their burgers weren't that awesome and then be forced to go there again and I asked for my pizza well done, this would be a more than edible pizza option. I just wouldn't pick it as a place to go for pizza.

-Karin

P.S. The kid's menu has "Kid's Brick Oven Pizza". I have no idea what that could possibly be and the menu gives no further hints.

Adventure #22: Mangieri's Pizza Cafe

More than a week later I still don't know quite what to think of this pizza. We got the Hot Pig from Mangieri's Pizza Cafe. The Hot Pig has "sausage, spicy giardiniera Italian relish, garlic, black pepper, extra virgin olive oil, mozzarella, and fresh parmigiano reggiano." The crust had the exact flavor of a Ritz cracker, buttery and just a little sweet. This was probably the weirdest part for me. The toppings were ok; the pepper overwhelmed the sausage; the relish was an interesting and delicious topping; everything just didn't quite come together and I don't know why.

Something that did come together wonderfully was the garlic bread. It came with delicious marinara and what was probably a house made garlic butter sauce. Both sauces were so good that I kept alternating, not wanting to pick one or the other.

It wasn't bad pizza, it wasn't even not-good pizza. The only way I think I could draw a conclusion would be to give Mangieri's a second try (but I'm certainly not going to drive down to South Austin to get some).

-Karin

Adventure #21: Texas Pizza, Pasta, and More

For a change of pace, Karin and I decided to grab a takeout pie from a place near to her home - Texas Pizza, Pasta, and More.

Word of warning: we were lucky we had decided on takeout, because there is NO seating here. In fact, when you walk in the door you face a large desk - the type a secretary would have. The kitchen is hidden behind the back wall and a large swinging door with a small window near the top. All in all, it made the ordering and waiting an odd experience. We chose to sit in my car outside rather than stand there awkwardly.

When Karin went in and got our pizza (out of doors, out of mind?), we were off to her house for TV and 'za.

Here's the breakdown:

Garlic Cheese Bread: Karin did not care for this much at all, but I was a fan of the thicker consistency. It had a pita-like quality, with some thickness and chewiness, and just the right amount of cheese baked in to it. The marinara was super thin, but pleasantly spicy.

The Mexican (Pizza): Ground beef, bell pepper, onion, black olives, green olives, tomatoes, jalapenos, cheddar cheese, crushed red pepper, and garlic. Double-digit ingredients!!! Let's have a moment of silence for this achievement. . .and for how it just wasn't that great.

The ingredient selection was the strongest part of this pizza. I loved the green olives and jalepenos! The pizza had salt and spice, but the overall quality was lacking. The crust was not crisp in any segment, the cheese was uneven and congealed quickly, and the sauce wasn't really a presence.

If you're in the Airport/Lamar area, this is a local delivery option for you. Otherwise, check our list for some other sports worth traveling to.

-Ian

Adventure #20: Austin's Pizza

Last week we ventured to Austin's Pizza, the staple food of college-kids all over town. There's not much to say about the place, so I'll jump right into the pizza.

It was ok.

Better than Craig-O's, worse than Jackalope.

They have specialties named after Austin places (which rocks) and we went with The Downtown; Pepperoni, sausage, mushroom, and black olive. A musing on why it might be named The Downtown: it's the ideal combination of toppings for getting after going downtown and getting drunk.

The cheese was cheesy, the mushrooms were fresh, the pepperoni was greasy, the crust was buttery; I have nothing bad to say about this pizza. I'd order it for delivery over Dominos, Pizza Hut, or Papa John's any day.

-Karin

Adventure #19: Niki's Pizza

This was a random adventure, friends and followers. Not only did Karin just happen to spot this pizzeria/Italian eatery as she was out shopping, but we didn't intend to go here this week! Karin had proposed one destination that I had denied due to a rules violation, so she had suggested another. When I pick her up, she desired to go to yet ANOTHER pizzeria, so off we went to the barren north - Tech Ridge.

Niki's Pizza is located in a nondescript shopping center over by Tech Ridge. They serve slices, and one gets the impression that there's a booming lunch crowd given the proximity of Dell. At dinnertime, we had a few other guests dining in with us, and a few others came in to grab their pies to-go. Although the menu online lists some specialty pies, there were none on the menu in-store, so we made pizza ourselves.

We decided on pepperoni, onions, and green peppers due to a) a special on an XL 3-topping and b) a misunderstanding between Karin and I about black olives; turns out we both like them. For starters, we had some garlic bread, as usual.

The garlic bread was appropriately garlicy, but the marinara was thin and generic. We were starving, so there wasn't much to complain about.

How about that pie?

Component #1: Grease - Pools of it!

Component #2: More Grease - Seriously, this is one of the greasiest pizzas we've had. You can see it in the upskirt crust pic.

Component #3: Nicely cut tasty veggies - These were cut in a way conducive to being on a pizza and were pretty fresh. For sure they were a high point.

Component #4: Generic pepperoni - Not much to say about this. Basic salty pepperoni, kind of thin.

Component #5: Cheese and sauce? - The grease, cheese, and sauce seemed to all blend together to form a cheesy substance on the pizza. Not much flavor to comment on.

Component #6: Crust - Not firm enough to stand up to the grease, but appropriately chewy on the ends.

Altogether, this wasn't the greatest pizza, although for the price (9.99), there's not much to complain about. It could easily feed 4 people if you include the garlic bread we got. Last but not least, Karin and I each had additional insights during the night after our adventure:

Karin - "The cheese and grease did a number on my stomach. 10 dollar tummyache"

Ian - "This is much better after some time in the fridge, at 1am, when the grease has congealed."

-Ian