Greek Pizza?

This weekend my Aunt and I tried Athen’s Pizza. It is quite close to Emory. Going from Emory, head up North Decatur, make a right onto Clairmont and it should be the first right at 1341 Clairmont Road, Decatur, GA 30033. When you hear the name Athens you usually think Greek and that does not necessarily correlate to great pizza. At least when I think of Greek food I think of gyros, olives, feta cheese, and pita bread. Those may be only small aspects of Greek cuisine, but I never would think that Greeks would make good pizza.  I was definitely unsure of what to expect, but I was really hungry and was looking forward to something tasty. My aunt and I both started off with a Greek salad. Lots of lettuce, olives, feta, olive oil, and tomato slices are what we got. The salad was rather good and refreshing, but it just was not satisfying enough. It really was only a precursor to what we were waiting for, PIZZA! As I said in my previous blog post, a good pizza has to satisfy three critical criteria. The crust has to be excellent, the sauce has to be delicious, and the cheese has to be delectable. Athens Pizza only offers whole pizzas rather than individual slices. They come in 6”, 10”, 12”, and 16”varieties. I got a 10” pizza. When the pizza arrived I was greeted by the aroma fresh dough, tomato sauce, and melted cheese. I wanted the pizza to taste good, I really did, but it just wasn’t. The bread was way too doughy and the cheese was too stringy and gooey. The rim of the pizza was way too thick. Each slice had too little cheese and sauce and way too much bread. It seemed as though the pizza was undercooked. I feel as though if they left the pizza in the oven for about 10-15 minutes longer the crust would have acquired some sort of crispiness. As it was the crust was just too chewy. It had too much of the doughy taste and not enough of the cheese and sauce. The cheese was too mushy and chewy. Every bite was met with endless chewing and some taste. Before serving the pizza, the servers should have let it cool a bit so the cheese would not be falling off as I was eating slice. The overall pizza was not very good, but compared to the cheese and crust, the sauce was tasty and flavorful. It was sweet, but not too sweet and at the same time somewhat bitter. Athens pizza had a good experience with a good homey and traditional feel, but it did not have stellar pizza. I would recommend going there because it is a really well kept restaurant with a good feel. Get classic Greek food because that is what would be good at.

  I came to college with an expectation of the food not going to taste too good, and unfortunately the DUC has lived up to that expectation. I can definitely say that DUC food is not something I look forward to everyday.  I miss food from home so much and probably the one I miss the most has got to be pizza. My hometown, Pelham, NY, is known for its high taxes, low crime, and having way too many pizzerias. Seriously, looking on urban dictionary will prove my point. I think have a pretty I good idea of what a good slice of pizza tastes like. I don’t want to act like an expert, but in my opinion a mouthwatering pizza has to have certain type of crust, cheese, and sauce. The crust, I believe, is what defines a slice of pizza. It can also determine whether the slice will be taste good or not. The bottom crust has to be crispy, but no too crispy and at the same time it also has to be slightly chewy and at the same time flavorful. When a pizza crust is too dry, bland, or crunchy it ruins everything. The crust also has to be capable of being folded and supporting the weight of the slice without any aid. Nothing is worse than folding a slice and having the tip sag down and seeing the cheese slip out of the pizza. The cheese plays a vital role in a decent slice of pizza. It has to have that requisite “gooey factor”. It has to be gooey, but no too gooey, and chewy, but not too chewy. I kind think of it as a Goldilocks kind of thing. The sauce what brings the crust and the cheese together. It has to have tomatoey taste that balances both sweetness and acidity with a hint of I don’t know what, but it tastes good. With these high standards I find it difficult to be able to find a slice of pizza that will be able to match the quality of a slice from hometown. Last semester my aunt and I embarked on a challenge to find really good pizza in Atlanta.

Photo courtesy of: Lin

     We started by choosing a different place to go to every weekend. Last weekend we had Fellini’s Pizza on Mclendon Ave near Candler Park. I ordered a Fellini’s special slice, my aunt ordered a  plain slice, and we split a calzone. The special slice had a myriad of toppings including mushrooms, sausage, onions, olives, peppers, and pepperoni. The slice of pizza was actually fairly good. The addition of the toppings made the slice special. The crust was a little too crunchy, but the overall package was really good.  I blame my crunchy crust on the fact that they probably had to cook it longer due to all the extra toppings. Next time I’ll try to keep it simple.