Aş Evi, East Ridge Road

Thanks to a recent piece by Chris Lindstrom in City, I recently became aware of Aş Evi, a Turkish restaurant and takeout place on East Ridge Road in Irondequoit.
I was interested, not only because the food sounded good, but because I'd had some experience with Turkish food, having done a post in November 2011 about Istanbul Market on Norton Street.
In particular, at Istanbul Market I tried a Turkish dish, lahmacun, that is, as I described it then, a cousin of pizza. It consists of an oven-baked flatbread topped with a mixture of ground meat and spices.
Aş Evi offers traditional pizza, and that's what I had in mind when I went there the other day. But on arriving, I reconsidered. I'd like to try their pizza, but I figured, start with what they know best, and lahmacun is close enough to pizza to warrant a blog post. So that's what I got.
At Aş Evi, you can get one piece of lahmacun for $3.49, or three for $9.99. I opted for the latter.
Each lahmacun starts off with a small round of dough, which is quickly stretched into about a nine-inch disk. It's then topped with a mixture of ground beef and chopped garden vegetables, before going into a pizza oven for a few minutes.
After emerging from the oven, my three lahmacuns were folded and placed in my to-go box, with chopped tomatoes and white onions, iceberg lettuce, and a couple of lemon wedges. Apparently those are commonly put on the lahumacun, but I treated them as a side, the better to experience the lahmacun itself. And the experience was a good one.
The lahmacun base is a flatbread that's somewhere between a crepe and a tortilla; not as sweet as the former, more breadlike than the latter. The bread emerges from the oven spottily browned, with an aroma reminiscent of a freshly made pancake. It's chewier, more glutenous than a crepe, but a little puffier than a tortilla; somewhat reminiscent of Indian naan, but more pliable and not quite as charred.
I suppose you could eat it with a knife and fork, but it seems meant for rolling up. Not folding, like New York pizza, but rolling. The toppings don't spill out, and you get a full hit of flavor with every bite. It's an almost perfect hand food.
And that topping. It's meaty, spicy and complex, stretching beyond the limit of my admittedly modest ability to identify individual flavors. Cumin, garlic, peppers, ... a hint of cinnamon, or coriander?  Trying to pick out individual flavors became like trying to listen for each individual instrument in a symphony. Stop, and just enjoy the whole, which is what I did.
Now as I said earlier, Aş Evi does sell traditional pizza. So while I was waiting for my lahmacun, I asked proprietor Selami Tulum if he uses the same dough for pizza that he uses for lahmacun. No, he does not. And he told me that he doesn't sell a lot of pizza, which doesn't surprise me. Not because I think the pizza is likely to be bad, but because, well, why would you go to a place that does great Turkish food, and order pizza? So I have no idea what the pizza is like.
But I still want to try it. I'm guessing it is good. And I want to try Aş Evi's pides, which are described as a thick dough crust stuffed with various optional ingredients, including cheese, meats, and vegetables.
In short, I want to go back. Soon. I'll do another post when I do so, but in the meantime, I urge you to get to Aş Evi. I can't yet vouch for anything but the lahmacun, but if you like pizza (and you're not a vegetarian), you need to try this.

Aş Evi, 315 E. Ridge Rd., Rochester 14621
585-544-0101

Tue. - Sun., 10 a.m. - 11 p.m. (but call to confirm)

Pontillo's, Hudson Ave. & East Ridge

Some time ago, somebody asked for a review of the Pontillo's in Irondequoit. I'm sorry it's taken so long, but I finally made it there.
Often, I like to get a plain cheese slice, or maybe a pepperoni slice, as they serve as useful benchmarks for pizza. But on this occasion, confronted with a wide variety of slices to choose from at lunchtime, I went with a Buffalo chicken slice and a pepperoni Sicilian slice. Next time I'm up that way, I'll get a regular cheese slice.
The Buffalo chicken slice was very thin and easy to fold, with a lightly browned bottom. It was not at all charred, unlike most Pontillo's pizzas I've had. (As has been pointed out before, Pontillo's is a very loosely knit chain, with different locations often sharing no more than a name, so what you get at one may not be much of an indicator of what you'll get at another.) But there was no greasiness, either; the underside was dry and a bit floury, with some surface crackling, a good sign of a crisp crust. The edge was nice and bready, with the texture and flavor of Italian bread.
Buffalo chicken pizza may be one of the most variable styles, with options including tomato sauce, hot sauce, breaded or unbreaded chicken (which might be ground or cubed), mozzarella or blue cheese, celery, carrots, and various permutations of all of those. This one was topped with a thin layer of wing sauce. It was fairly mild, but packed some punch, as it more flavor than physical substance, as compared with a typical tomato-based pizza sauce.
Atop that, small chunks of diced, unbreaded white meat provided the protein. They were a little on the dry side (wouldn't dark meat be closer to real wings?), but you may prefer that to right-out-of-the-fryer, breaded chicken coated with grease that spreads oil all over the pizza.
The cheese here seemed to be all mozzarella. It was about as thick as the crust itself, but since the crust was thin, this wasn't overly cheesy pizza. If there was any blue cheese in there, it was well in the background, as I didn't taste any. The overall flavor of this slice was of chicken, overlaid with mild Buffalo-style spices, with the thin but bready crust as a base, and the mozzarella cheese as a condiment. In some ways, this was almost like a Buffalo chicken wrap - a cup of blue cheese dipping sauce would've been nice.
I don't recall having seen Sicilian slices at any Pontillo's before, not that I'm any expert on Pontillo's, but that's why I opted for one here. These were available with either cup-and-char or "regular" pepperoni, and I chose the former.
This slice was about an inch thick, and roughly six by six inches. The underside was well browned, and just slightly oily to the touch, which is not uncommon for a pan-baked pizza. It was firm underneath, with a bit of crunch on the surface, and dotted with bubble holes and craters of various sizes. As I have generally found to be true of Pontillo's crusts, this one was chewy and bready, with a well-risen interior marked by numerous air pockets.
The tomato sauce also seemed very similar to what I've had at other Pontillo's locations, with a medium-thick consistency and a touch of sweetness. The mozzarella cheese didn't blanket the entire slice, but seemed to have settled into some low spots on the surface as it melted. The pepperoni was more evenly distributed and was good and crisp along the edges, with a nice crunch followed by a meaty chewiness. All in all, the slice was on the heavy side, a bit dense, but more from the substantial, thick, chewy crust than in an overloaded or oil-soaked way, as is the case with some pan-baked pizzas.
The Irondequoit Pontillo's has a little seating, and a basic menu consisting of pizza, calzones and wings. Service was friendly, despite the lunchtime crush. Oh, and despite the official address, the entrance is on Hudson Ave., just north of East Ridge.
These were both pretty good slices, further confirming that despite its loose-knit organizational structure, Pontillo's generally turns out reliably good pizza. I'll give the Buffalo chicken slice a B, on the strength of its good crust and tasty toppings. The Sicilian gets a B as well, for a crust with nice crunch, appropriate density and chew, and overall good balance.
Pontillo's,702 E. Ridge Rd. (Hudson Plaza), Rochester 14621
Tel.: (585) 467-6900
Hours: Mon. - Wed. 3 p.m. - 10 p.m., Thu. - Sun. 11 a.m. - 10 p.m.

International Food Market & Istanbul Market

A few days before Thanksgiving, I checked out two different, but related places serving two different, but related variations on pizza, with some interesting results.
International Food Market and Pizzeria in Henrietta opened recently in Jefferson Plaza, on Jefferson Road across from Southtown Plaza. It offers a pretty wide variety of packaged and freshly prepared American and Pakistani foods, and a 100% Halal menu.
I love exploring ethnic cuisines as much as the next guy, but as intriguing as some of the hot dishes looked, on this occasion I was there to investigate the pizza.
There were a couple of sliced pies on a warming tray. One was topped with pepperoni, and at first I wasn't at all sure what the other one had on it. It appeared to be a mixture of cheese interspersed with some unidentified, dark brown bits. Given the name of the place and the presence of various, more or less Middle Eastern items available, I thought perhaps it was some exotic topping that I'd never tried before.
So it was with some disappointment that I learned that it was simply mozzarella cheese that had been overbaked. The guy behind the counter explained that it got a little overly brown, so he put on some extra cheese to compensate, which gave the pizza an unusual, mottled light-and-dark appearance.
I kind of like browned cheese anyway, so I got one cheese and one pepperoni slice. The thin to medium crust was mostly soft, unevenly browned underneath, and screen baked. There was a little crunch along the edge but the edge also had kind of a tough, chewy texture.
The sauce had a thinnish consistency and a tomatoey flavor that was on the bland side. The cheese was as you'd expect, with some caramelized, burnt-cheese flavor mixed, on the cheese slice, with added, melted mozzarella.
The pepperoni was the best thing on this pizza. It had a good, meaty flavor and was just crisp along the edge.
So, not so great pizza, although the market looked to be well worth a return visit.
And most definitely worth a visit was International Food Market's sister establishment on Norton Street in Rochester. Istanbul Market is much smaller, with just a narrow storefront in a strip mall near Portland Avenue. And while it doesn't serve "American" pizza, they do offer lahmacun, a close cousin of pizza that's commonly found in Turkey and elsewhere in the Eastern Mediterranean. In fact, lahmacun is sometimes referred to as Turkish pizza, although the Greeks caused a bit of a stir earlier this year by claiming it as their own.
This was my first time trying lahmacun, but I don't think it'll be my last. A small ball of dough was stretched as thin as, maybe even thinner than a tortilla, to about the size of an average dinner plate, topped with a well-seasoned mix of ground lamb, tomatoes, onions, parsley and spices, and popped into the oven for a few minutes. So if you define pizza as a flattened layer of dough that's spread with toppings and baked in an oven, well then, this is pizza.
I try to avoid the word "delicious" on this blog - it's too cliched, and not terribly descriptive - but this was delicious, with a complexity of flavors and aromas that belied the relative simplicity of its execution. (The young woman behind the counter advised me, by the way, that lahmacun is often given a sprinkling of lemon juice before being eaten, but I had none on hand, so that will have to wait until next time.)
The very edge of the wafer-thin disk had charred nicely in the oven, giving it a crackly crunch right along the rim, though the rest of the crust remained pliable, thanks I'm sure to the protective layer of toppings, which covered nearly the entire surface. You could easily roll this up and eat it like a street vendor's crepe, but I chose to tear off and savor one bit at a time.
Regular readers of this blog will know that with pizza, I'm all about the crust. But while this "crust" (which doesn't seem like the right word, but it'll do) was fine, clearly its main function is simply to serve as a base, or wrap, for the toppings, which are the real star of the show. This was intoxicatingly aromatic and immensely - though not intensely - flavorful, subtle and complex at the same time.
And while, as with a curry dish, it was difficult to pick out all the constituents - cumin? mint? coriander? chiles, perhaps? - there was a certain underlying comfort level here too. I don't think it was the particular seasonings that were unfamiliar to me - I may well have them all in my kitchen - but they were blended in a way that I'd never had before.
Both of these markets offer an interesting selection of food items, and it's fun to browse their shelves and refrigerator cases as well as their to-go menus. Many of the packages are written entirely in Turkish, but an employee will be happy to translate for you, or you could just be adventurous and buy whatever looks good.
As far as the hot prepared food is concerned, I think my brief sampling tends to confirm the truism that when you go to a place that serves food, stick with what they do best. The pizza I had at International Food Market was passable - I'll give it a C-minus - but the lahmacun at Istanbul Market blew it away. It rates an A. (And let me emphasize that those ratings are for the two things I ate - the pizza and the lahmacun - not the markets themselves, both of which are worth a visit.)
Istanbul Market, 1388 Norton St., Rochester 14621
Hours:  Mon. - Thu. 9 a.m. - 7 p.m., Fri. & Sat. 9 a.m. - 8 p.m., Sun. 9 a.m. - 5 p.m.
Tel.: 342-2990
International Food Market & Pizzeria, 376 Jefferson Rd., Henrietta
Hours:  Mon. - Thu. 11 a.m. - 10 p.m., Fri. & Sat. 11 a.m. - 11 p.m., Sun. noon - 8 p.m.
Tel.: 270-4004 (delivery available)

Amico Pizza: "The #1"

There are certain pizzerias I find myself going back to, partly because I like their pizza, and partly because there are particular items on their menus that I want to try. One of those is Amico on East Ridge Road.
I've tried Amico's regular pizza, and their white pizza, but their "#1" caught my eye - it's described on the menu as "[a]n Amico tradition since the beginning. Our homemade sauce covered with fresh ground Pecorino-Romano."
Now a pizza with nothing but red sauce and Romano cheese might not sound that interesting, but it is to me. I've come to think that in the early days of Rochester pizza, before the chains moved in and before pizza became homogenized into the standard American pizza of today, pizza, where it could be found, tended to be a very simple affair, with little more than, well, the aforementioned red sauce and Romano cheese. The more bland, but better-melting mozzarella seems to have come along later.

I've tried some other examples of this older style, such as Gallo's "Old World" pizza, Guida's "sauce pie," and Giuseppe's "Old Timer," which, with the addition of anchovies and cherry peppers is a little more complicated, but which is still based on the same foundation of red sauce and Romano. Despite their simplicity, these pizzas may be a little more challenging to the modern American palate, primarily because of the heavy dose of Romano, which nowadays is more often used as a sprinkled-on condiment - an afterthought, even - than a prominent, integral component.
Amico will be celebrating its 50th anniversary next year, putting it in the senior class of Rochester pizzerias, and no survey of this local style would be complete without a visit to Amico. So, when I picked up a medium #1 pie from Amico last week, I was eager to try their version of this old-school pizza.
The first thing that struck me about this pizza was its mouthwatering aroma in my car. The steam emanating from the pizza box carried with it the scent of freshly baked dough, tomato sauce and Romano cheese, making it difficult not to pull over and devour a slice or two before I got it home.
I was able to maintain my willpower, though, and waited until I got indoors before opening the box. I was a little surprised, though not disappointed, to see that the crust was considerably thinner than the pizzas I've gotten from Amico in the past. Amico's menu notes that you can get thick or thin crust on request, and while I didn't specify any particular thickness for this one, I think this would have to be considered a thin crust. I'm not sure if that's standard for the #1, but it might be. With such simple toppings, a thick crust might tend to overwhelm the sauce and cheese. This crust was thin enough to allow the full flavor and texture of the toppings to come through.
Similarly, the underside on this one wasn't as dark as on the pizzas I've gotten from Amico before. Now that could just be a random thing, or it might be by design too. Again, the Romano doesn't melt the way that mozzarella does, and this cheese was already turning a little brown in the center of the pie. Much longer in the oven and the cheese could easily have gotten overdone.
The thin crust still had the breadiness I've come to associate with Amico's pizza, but it was easily foldable. A napkin or two was called for here, as the sauce tended to ooze out the back end as I worked my way through each slice.
A little sloppiness was a small price to pay, though, for the flavor of this pizza. How good can a pizza be with nothing but sauce and Romano cheese? Very good, indeed. The thin but bready crust made a fine base for the contrasting yet complementary flavors of the sauce and cheese.
That cheese was laid on in some abundance, so much so that you might think its sharp flavor would simply be overpowering, but it wasn't. The comparatively sweet, vibrant flavor of the tomato sauce acted as a counterweight to the lactic tang of the cheese, and the time that the pie spent in the oven may also have taken a bit of the edge off the Romano as well. I didn't notice much herb flavor, but it was hardly needed here.
What was also striking about this pizza was its texture, particularly that of the cheese. While it was missing the chewy-gooey stringiness of processed mozzarella that most of us have come to expect, the Romano had something of its own to offer. Baking atop the sauce, the cheese here had developed a crumbly, almost cakelike texture that gave it an unusual but very interesting mouthfeel.
Having tried several of these "old timer" style pizzas now, I've formed some opinions about them. On the one hand, I can see why today's style of American pizza eventually supplanted these. In this land of supersized meals, it's not surprising that people came to prefer pizzas covered with thick blankets of mozzarella, loaded with toppings. And I have to admit that there's a certain richness that you get with melted mozzarella that you can't get from a grating cheese like Romano.
But I can also see why people fell in love with pizza in the first place, back when pies like this were closer to the norm. I'm guessing that even this style of pizza is more Italian-American that native Italian, yet it clearly owes a good deal to the pizzas of the Old World, which I think tend to be far simpler, more subtle affairs than their bold, brash American cousins.
And what a pizza like this shows is that simple doesn't have to mean boring, bland or insipid. For all its seeming austerity, this pizza had abundant flavor, and a beautiful harmonic balance of bright sauce, tangy cheese and bready crust.
This pizza may not be for everybody, and even for me, it probably wouldn't be an everyday kind of thing. As much as I enjoyed and appreciated it, my tastes in pizza were shaped by the dominant pizza culture of late-20th-century America, where processed mozzarella is king. But this is definitely a pizza I would go back to now and then.
If your idea of a good pizza is one piled high with pepperoni, sausage, and extra cheese, this may not be to your liking, frankly. On the other hand, if you enjoy diving into a plate of pasta drenched in tomato sauce, with a healthy dose of Parmesan or Romano on top, this one's for you. Me, I'm giving it an A-.
Amico Pizza, 859 E.Ridge Rd. 544-8380
Sun. 1 p.m. - 9 p.m., Tue. - Thu. 11 a.m. - 10 p.m., Fri. & Sat. 11 am - 11:30 p.m.

Amico's Pizza Bianco

I previously reported on Amico Pizza in April 2009, giving it a B for "good, basic, honest Rochester pizza." Not long ago, I went back and picked up a Pizza Bianco, which is described in the menu as topped with fresh chopped garlic, olive oil, Peccorino Romano, mozzarella, ricotta, tomatoes, onions and fresh basil.
This pie had a medium thick crust with a browned, flour-dusted bottom. The underside was dry and non-greasy, with some firmness, though the heavily-laden slices were a bit floppy at the tips.
This was a flavorful pizza, starting with the crust, which had the aroma, flavor and texture of freshly baked bread. The puffy edges of the crust were nice and chewy, without being tough.
Olive oil and garlic is pretty much a can’t-miss combination as far as I'm concerned, and here they made a terrific base for the other toppings, starting with the Romano, which added a sharp, salty tanginess to the pizza. I believe it was sprinkled on first, then layered with low-moisture mozzarella and finally the ricotta. Though the latter two cheeses didn't contribute as much flavor as the Romano, they added some varied textures. The mozzarella was smooth melted but not browned, except for a few stray strands near the edge. The mildly-flavored ricotta had a texture somewhere between the liquidity of fresh mozzarella and the thickness of cream cheese.
The remaining toppings - tomatoes, onions and basil - were judiciously applied, adding some further interest to the overall flavor profile without taking center stage. The chopped tomatoes were OK, not great, but not bad for still being out of season locally.
Different pizzerias make white pizza in different ways. Some keep it simple, with just some olive oil and a minimum of toppings, some use a lot of cheese, and others use an alfredo or other white sauce. Though the olive oil was an important component here - conveying flavor and keeping the crust from drying out on top - this was a cheese-dominated pizza.
At the same time, though, it was really an exercise in balance, with the various components added in inverse proportion to the assertiveness of their flavors. The strongly-flavored Romano was added in a small enough amount to keep it from dominating, while the milder mozzarella and ricotta were laid on in much more substantial quantities. The garlic, onions, tomatoes and basil were also noticeably present, but all in balance, complementing rather than competing with each other.
There are other places and other pizzas that I mean to try, but this will not be my last visit to Amico. I still want to try their minimalist-sounding "#1," which is topped with nothing but sauce and Pecorino Romano. But if you're a fan of white pizza - cheesy white pizza, in particular - Amico's take on it is well worth a try. I'll give it a B+.
Amico Pizza, 859 E.Ridge Rd. 544-8380
Sun. 1 p.m. - 9 p.m., Tue. - Thu. 11 a.m. - 10 p.m., Fri. & Sat. 11 am - 11:30 p.m.
Pizza Guy note, 9/15/10:  I'm not sure if these hours are accurate. I called the other day to order a pizza for lunch and was told that they didn't open until 4:00.

Amico Pizza, East Ridge Road

Amico Pizza was started in 1962, which undoubtedly makes it one of the oldest pizzerias in Rochester. The original location was on Waring Road in NE Rochester and was founded by Sam Amico. A second location was opened in 1980 in Irondequoit on East Ridge Rd.
In 1995, Sam retired and his sons David and Chris took over, eventually consolidating their operations at the Irondequoit location. The business today is run by David Amico.
I love these family-run pizzerias, especially the ones that have been around for a long time, because they bring a commitment and passion to the business that I don't think you get from a basic franchise-type operation. This is also a great way to get a taste of history, as I imagine this pizza is probably not all that different from what Sam Amico was serving up 30+ years ago.
In this case, that means a fairly (maybe half-inch) thick pizza, cut into squares. The edges were baked to a golden brown, and the underside was more browned than charred. Though it lacked crispness, it was not at all greasy and had a pleasant bready aroma, flavor and texture reminiscent of soft-crust Italian bread.
The sauce, which was applied with a properly restrained hand, was slightly sweet, not tangy, with a hint of herbs. The cheese was uniformly applied, in fairly liberal fashion, which was appropriate given the relative thickness of the crust (remember, pizza is all about keeping the components in balance with each other).
Like many places, Amico will do thin or thick(er) pizza on request, but I've found you're usually better off getting a pizzeria's "standard" pizza, which tends to be what they do best. They also offer breakfast pizza "with advance notice" - I'm not sure how much notice they need - and a number of specialty pizzas, including one that I'd like to try: "The #1," which is described as "An Amico tradition since the beginning. Our homemade sauce covered with fresh ground Pecorino-Romano." Maybe next time. Besides pizza, they serve wings (my Buffalo wings were a tad on the sweet side), eggplant parm, a Friday fish fry, and a handful of sides.
While eating my pizza, I was trying to think of an adjective for it, and "straightforward" came to mind. This is not some nouveau "gourmet" pizza, nor is it an attempt at New York style, Chicago style, Sicilian, or anything other than what it is: a good, basic, honest Rochester pizza, the way it used to be - and still is, at Amico. I'll give it a B.
Amico Pizza, 859 E.Ridge Rd. 544-8380 Sun. 1 p.m. - 9 p.m., Tue. - Thu. 11 a.m. - 10 p.m., Fri. & Sat. 11 am - 11:30 p.m.
Pizza Guy Note:  for a review of Amico's pizza bianco (white pizza), go here.