Cycle 4 – Item 113

28 (Sun) April 2013

Frutti di Mare Pizza

1.5

at The Corner Kitchen

-Oksu, Seongdong, Seoul, Republic of Korea-

solo

The Frutti di Mare Pizza, a new menu item, wasn’t that great.  For one thing, it’s not so much a seafood pizza as it is a cephalopod pizza, mostly squid and octopus, plus a couple pieces of scallop, and by “couple” I really mean like “two.”  Furthermore, none of it was properly seasoned – unseasoned squid and octopus, and scallops, are kinda gross, all rubbery and flavorless.  For the first time in my life, I asked for salt and sprinkled it on a pizza – come to think of it, I can’t a single instance of ever adding salt to a restaurant dish.  On a positive note, I liked the cheeseless aspect, giving the pie a light feel – personally, I don’t really dig seafood and cheese together anyway.  And of course, the crust itself remains the best Napoli-style crust in the city.  Overall, however, it’s the first pizza from this restaurant that I didn’t thoroughly enjoy.

After such a long absence, the owner seemed genuinely happy to see me.  But then, very enthusiastically, knowing how big a fan I am of his food in general, he asked what I thought about the new pizza.  He’s never asked me to comment directly on a particular item.  I told him more-or-less what I write above.  Although he thanked me for my honesty, he looked rather disappointed, maybe even a bit sad, that I didn’t gave it a rave.  Oh well.

(See also GLOBAL FOOD GLOSSARY)

(See also RESTAURANTS IN KOREA)