Having parents who grew up near the central belt, battered pizza is something I have grown up with. Although I have noticed it’s not as common in the north-east.
Don’t get me wrong, when I first came across it, it sounded rather bizarre, but over the years road trips to my grandparents would always result in a battered pizza supper, or a pizza crunch as I know it.
So when independent pizza firm Big Mannys’ announced they were teaming up with two chippers across Aberdeen to deep fry their New York style pizza, I knew I fit the bill to try it out.
While I have tried out a variety of the firm’s offerings, my colleague Karla Sinclair hasn’t yet, so I was intrigued what she’d think of trying it for the pizza for the first time, especially seeing as it was deep-fried.
Meeting at Oor Wullie’s Braw Fish and Chips on Great Western Road at lunchtime, we put it to the test to find out if it is worth spending your hard earned cash on.
Deep-fried NYC pizza taste test
Supplying their 18-inch El Jefe pepperoni pizzas to the chip shop and Rosehill Fish Bar on Rosehill Drive seven days a week, hungry customers can grab a slice for £3.50.
Taking no more than four minutes to deep fry – with two-minutes each side – the pizza is dunked and coated in batter and then popped into the fryer.
While it is just pepperoni available just now, it is said other flavours could be added to the line-up in the future.
The results
So what did the deep-fried NYC pizza taste like and did it compare to others I’ve had before?
It was much better than any other I have tried before as it was a single slice and not a pizza folded over in half, which is usual for a pizza crunch down the road. There was a lot more flavour, but I will say it was quite greasy, which I know you’d expect with chipper food, but it was much greasier than other chipper cuisine I’ve had.
The greasiness is probably down to the cheese and pepperoni as these are traditionally a little oilier when fried.
The flavours were there when you could taste the tomato base, but the tomato wasn’t there with every mouthful which I felt let it down a bit. There was plenty pepperoni all over and it was quite salty with it being wrapped in batter.
Karla would agree that it was rather greasy, although she was pleasantly surprised at just how nice it was.
She thought it had a lovely crunch and was surprised the dough stayed a nice fluffy texture after being deep fried.
Would we both order it again? No. But are we glad we tried it? Yes.
Taste
Julia: 3.5/5
Karla: 3.5/5
Presentation
Julia: 3/5
Karla: 3/5