Truck's Oven, Sodus Point

I don't get out to Sodus Point very often, but I always like going there. It's a nice setting, and even though I'm not a boater I enjoy strolling down Greig Street, visiting the lighthouse, or just relaxing in the park out at the tip of the Point.
A few days ago I had to drive out that way on a personal errand, so I decided that this would be a good time to check out the pizza in Sodus Point. Which pretty much means Truck's Oven.
There may be a convenience store or two where you can get pizza in Sodus Point, but to my knowledge, Truck's is the only full-fledged pizzeria in town.
I was going out to dinner a short time later, so I just got  a couple of pepperoni slices, one of which I saved for later. I don't know if this is how it always works there, but apparently they took two cheese slices, added pepperoni, and popped them back in the oven. But I could imagine them not getting enough customer traffic at this time of year to keep multiple kinds of slices on hand, so that makes some sense I guess. The pie from which these slices were cut came out of the oven while I was waiting, though, so these were very fresh.
The first thing I noticed about these was the addition of extra cheese on top of the pepperoni. Lots of places give the pizza a light dusting of grated Romano or Parmesan, but this was the first time I'd seen a pizzeria sprinkle extra shredded mozzarella on a slice before reheating it.
The next thing I noticed was the crust, which was rather interesting. The slices were thin, and the bottoms were dry, but with a very unusual appearance. Golden brown areas, where the dough had been in contact with the cooking surface, were interspersed with large pale areas, presumably where the dough had bubbled up a bit. (The deep, yellowish colors you see in the photos are due to my taking these pictures in the late afternoon sun.)
The texture was unusual as well. The crust was somewhat crisp, yet it had an almost biscuitlike feel to it, with a bit of crunch.
So intrigued was I by the crust that I hardly noticed the toppings. But there was an ample layer of sauce, with a straightforward tomatoey flavor, a slightly browned, uniform layer of cheese, and then the pepperoni and added cheese on top. Since the slices only went back into the oven for a brief time after the addition of the latter two ingredients, the pepperoni was just cooked to the point of softening, and the cheese was nicely melted but not browned. I imagine if I'd ordered a pepperoni pie, the pepperoni would've gone on at the beginning, and turned crisper.
Truck's Oven - which, by the way, beat out ten other pizzierias to take top honors in a Wayne County pizza contest earlier this year - offers pizza pies in 14" and 18" sizes, as well as "personal" size pizzas (not sure of the diameter of those). Sixteen toppings are available, and four specialty pizzas, including "ABE's Big Dog," a double-crusted pizzas stuffed with garlic butter, mozzarella, and your choice of toppings, and a sundried-tomato pesto pizza that's described as a house favorite, with garlic, ricotta, the aforementioned pesto, sauce, cheese, sausage, mushrooms and onions (wow!).
If you like wings at all, don't miss Truck's wings, which are available with over a dozen sauces. The "Stunners" sauce, described as "hot and spicy nacho cheese," sounds tempting, but the most unusual has to be the "Spicy P B & J" sauce. According to the menu, it is exactly what the name implies - peanut butter, jelly, and spice.
The rest of Truck's menu includes hot and cold sandwiches, "tunnels" (stuffed-bread subs), lobster rolls (which are apparently only available on Saturdays), calzones, fries, and soups. Truck's daily specials go beyond the commonplace, chicken French and eggplant parm variety. Truck's Facebook page shows, for example, that a recent day's special was garlic, beef, chicken and spinach enchiladas with a side of cilantro lime cole slaw, and lobster and crab chowder was the soup du jour.
Getting back to the pizza, this is a tough one to rate. The crust was unusual, and in some ways rather different from my ideal pizza crust. And yet I couldn't help liking it for its distinctiveness. I can see how some people could really dig this, and others find it not to their liking, so inasmuch as my ratings constitute an implied recommendation, it's difficult to know where to put this one. I'll just go with my gut, and my gut says a B-minus feels about right, but with the added advice that if you get a chance, check out Truck's pizza yourself. Love it, hate it, or fall somewhere in between, it's something you should try.
As for me, I'm not sure when I'll next find myself in Sodus Point. But when I do, I'm pretty sure I'll be making a return visit to Truck's. And no knock on the pizza, but next time around might be a wingfest instead. There's just something so culinarily perverse sounding about PB&J wings that I don't think I can resist.
Truck's Oven, 8487 Greig St., Sodus Point
Tel.: (585) 967-8787 (967-TRUX)
Truck's will be open Friday through Monday during the winter season. I believe they're open from noon till 9:00 on Fridays and Saturdays, noon till 8 on Sundays, and 4:30 to 8 on Mondays, but call ahead to confirm.

Tony Pepperoni''s, Henrietta, X-Large Cheese Pie

I've done one blog post about Tony Pepperoni in Henrietta, but it's been two and a half years, and that post was only based on one slice. So it was high time to go back and get a full pie.
Tony's pizzas come in 12-, 16-, and 18-inch sizes. I went with the 18", extra-large pie, just cheese. I also recently shared a 16" pie, which I didn't photograph or take notes on, but I will comment on that too, just to offer some comparisons.
The crust on the 18" pie was rather thin, and though Tony's offers thin, regular and thick crust, I didn't specify. So I would assume this was "regular," but I also can't imagine their crusts getting much thinner than this. So maybe if you don't specify, you get thin. Or maybe the 18" pie runs toward the thin side because they take the same amount of dough and stretch it out wider. The 16" pie did seem a shade thicker, although it was still pretty thin. But I like thin crust, so regardless, I was OK with this.
The underside on this pie was dark brown, though not charred. It was crisp and toasty, with a chewy, bready, narrow lip. The 16" pie was closer to charred, with a few nearly black spots on the crust, but not dramatically different.
The mozzarella cheese was moderately applied, and lightly browned here and there. The sauce - well, this was odd. I found it on the mild side, with a slightly sweet-salty tomatoey flavor, and a hint of oregano. My wife, on the other hand, thought it was quite salty - too salty for her, in fact. She's not generally overly sensitive to salt, so I don't know what to make of these different reactions we had to the sauce.
Salty or no, the pizza was pretty well balanced, with healthy doses of cheese and sauce, but not so much as to overwhelm the thin crust.
My family and I did all like the crust on this pizza, and it wasn't hard for me to polish off several slices. As has been my experience with Tony Pepperoni's in the past, it seemed to me like a derivative of New York style pizza. There were enough slight differences that I wouldn't actually call this New York style (nor does Tony Pepperoni claim it to be), but it's kind of like a cross between New York pizza and Rochester's more generic "American" style. A little heavier on the sauce than a New York pie, a little less crackly-crisp on the bottom, but still a bit bready, not greasy, and with the crust, sauce and cheese in good proportion to each other. I enjoyed it enough to give it a B+.
Tony Pepperoni's, 4164 West Henrietta Rd.
Tel.: 334-2830
Open daily 11 a.m. - 10 p.m.

Book Review - Everyday Exotic: The Cookbook

"TV chef" has become a loaded term these days, covering everything from latter-day Julia Childs who have made the transition from classically trained chef to media star, to pretty faces whose cooking skills don't extend much past knowing how to open a can of condensed cream of mushroom soup.
Roger Mooking, host of Everyday Exotic on the Cooking Channel, seems closer to the culinary end of that spectrum. He's got some serious credentials, with formal training at the George Brown Culinary Management Program, work experience at the Epic Dining Room in Toronto's Royal York Hotel, and he's the executive chef and co-owner of Nyood Restaurant in downtown Toronto.
The premise of Everyday Exotic is that each episode will show you how to "give everyday weekday meals a fantastic exotic twist with one new ingredient" that's a bit unusual but still easily found at any well-stocked supermarket. So in general, we're not talking here about stuff you have to look up on Google, but they may not be ingredients that the average home cook would typically have on hand - think fresh ginger, pine nuts, lemongrass, celeriac (well OK, I did have to look that one up), and so on.
Mooking's new cookbook, straightforwardly named Everyday Exotic:  The Cookbook, brings together a year's worth of recipes from his show. It starts with a brief explanation of his concept of the "obedient ingredient" - ingredients that most of us may have little experience with, but which are easily mastered in the kitchen to serve our culinary needs. From there, the book moves on thematically, with chapters on "comfort classics," the gamut of meat-based entrees, pasta, one-pot meals, desserts, drinks, and more.
In general, the titles of the dishes tend toward the verbose variety that you see on a lot of higher-end restaurant menus, with "Salt Cod Fritters with Creamy Mustard Sauce & Orange Chili Sauce & Pineapple Chutney served with Shredded Zucchini Salad" being one of the more longwinded examples. Each recipe is illustrated with at least one full-color photograph, and preceded by a brief introduction by Mooking, with cooking tips and advice about using the more exotic ingredients. The index is thorough and easy to use.
I always check to see if there are any pizza recipes, and I found one here, for "buffalo mozzarella and tomato pizza." Essentially, it's a Margherita pizza, topped with canned tomatoes, fresh mozzarella di bufala, and fresh basil. I guess the cheese, made from buffalo milk, qualifies as the exotic ingredient here, but there's no reason you couldn't substitute ordinary fresh mozzarella, or even the low-moisture variety. Mooking's recipe is pretty good - I'll give him points for advising the reader to let the dough rise overnight in the refrigerator if possible and for suggesting the use of a pizza stone. Personally, though, I'd crank my oven up to the max (550 F, for most people), instead of the 450 that he calls for. 
With free recipes so easily available on the internet, cookbooks are becoming rarer in American homes, but I think they still deserve a place in most people's kitchens. What's changed, from my perspective, is that we can be more discriminating these days. Everybody still should own at least one good, basic cookbook, but beyond that, a cookbook should fill some niche. 
Everyday Exotic falls into the latter category. This isn't the book to turn to if you want to know how long it takes to hard-boil an egg, or the correct ratio of water to rice. And while Mooking's instructions are clearly written and easy to follow, this book is generally aimed at readers who have a certain comfort level working in the kitchen, especially if you're going to put together one of his meals, which means preparing several dishes more or less simultaneously. 
But if you've been cooking for a while and find yourself getting bored with the same old stuff, Everyday Exotic is a useful resource, especially if you do much entertaining. It's chock full of recipes for dishes that will wow your guests, yet that aren't necessarily any more difficult to prepare that more traditional fare. After all, what sounds more impressive to you - "lemongrass baked snapper served with ginger butter potatoes and crispy garlic broccoli," or "fish and potatoes"? Even if that's not a major consideration, this is still a good source of ideas for literally spicing up your dinners without a lot of extra effort beyond picking up a few extra items when you're grocery shopping.
Everyday Exotic:  The Cookbook. Paperback. 192 pages. Whitecap Books Ltd. (November 21, 2011)