by Mariella Amodio
A new restaurant, Main Street Pizza, just appeared on YK’s pizza delivery scene. Unfortunately, it opened after EDGE YK had a taste test of other pizza places (see YK’s Pizza Meltdown in the April/May 2014 issue), the winner of which was Diamante.
That’s why I have been invited by the magazine to taste it and judge it. At this point, I think I need to introduce myself. My name is Mariella and I’m an Italian living in Yellowknife. My nationality made me a perfect jury member, or rather, The Judge. As an Italian living abroad, I never expected to find here, in the deep North, the real Italian pizza. After all, I want to explain to you North American people what pizza means for me.
Pizza is not junk food or something that you can eat at 3 a.m. That is poutine. Pizza is a delicious and healthy food. You can have it for lunch or dinner. It’s a complete meal and it is suggested even if you are on a diet.
The most popular one in Italy is the Margherita: topped with tomato sauce, mozzarella cheese and fresh basil. Tomato sauce is usually homemade made from fresh tomatoes, it’s not a thick tomato paste that comes in small cans. Mozzarella cheese is a semi-soft cheese made from cow’s milk or Italian buffalo’s milk, it’s not a “synthetic” cheese. Green basil is fresh and you lay it on top, it has to be fresh and it’s not pesto. All those ingredients are layered up on a thin, crisp crust that should be cooked in a wood-fired oven. That said, I was not expecting this kind of pizza here in Yellowknife.
I had to taste pizza from two different places here in town, one was Diamante – the winner from the competition that had taken place a few weeks ago at EDGE YK – and the other one was the new Main Street Pizza.
Diamante
Diamante delivered its pizza on time. The pizza looked like a Canadian pizza, over-covered by mozzarella cheese. The taste was just “ok.” The dough was thick and much too soft, I will not say uncooked, but for sure not well-cooked. The mozzarella cheese was probably enough for two pizzas and it was hiding the pepperoni’s taste. I cannot even say if the pepperonis were spicy or not.
Main Street Pizza
Main Street Pizza’s delivery was about half an hour late. They need to work on that. The pizza was not hot, I will not say cold, but for sure it was not the right temperature. They need to work on that too. After all this, the pizza was really good – the dough was surprisingly crispy and not very thick. The mozzarella cheese was in the right quantity and was well-mixed with spicy pepperoni. I would definitely order pizza from Main Street Pizza. I’ve just proclaimed it the winner.
