Pizza and Hockey, New Jersey Edition

As a part of my 25th birthday gift I was treated to a hockey game. This time it was in New Jersey.

After driving six hours straight towards the beautiful city of Newark we stopped in a nice little area called Elizabeth, NJ where we came across a little neighborhood pizzeria. The inside looked quite fresh but a little too new and fake. You know the deal. Its the kind of “Italian” restaurant with the faux-Italian decor and obligatory framed photos of The Godfather actors and pictures of New York.  This place claimed to have a brick oven which was in plain view from the dining area.  This “brick oven” looked like it was made out of that shitty fake rock siding you see on newly built houses.

They should have kept it out of view.

And you can imagine that in the middle of shit-Jersey that there was no shortage of Italians working in pizza places.

Anyway, on to the pie.  Sure, it had all the characteristics of a brick oven pizza.  It was baked fairly quickly.  The crust was very crisp on the outside and soft on the inside.  A fair amount of oven blisters were visible on the crust ends.  We ordered the “Mamma Mia” which had onions, green peppers, prosciutto, sauce and fresh mozzarella.

The fresh mozzarella was anything but fresh.  There was no flavor, no creaminess.  Just rubbery cheese.  The sauce was probably the worst thing on this pie as it was way too salty.  It might have been good for dipping bread sticks in but on a pie that already has the salty meat prosciutto, a salty sauce just throws everything off.

The crust was well baked but was rather tasteless and texture-less.  I like a bumpy, gritty surface to my pizza crust but this stuff was smoother than a Papa John’s bread stick.

It’s a good thing I forgot the name of this place but if you’re interested and in the area it’s on 3rd Avenue in Elizabeth, NJ.  I don’t recommend visiting this neighborhood though.

The Devils beat the Predators, 5-2.  The place went nuts as Ilya Kovalchuk socred his first goal as a Devil.  Awesome hockey experience!

Win a free shirt dudes!

Okay folks. We have been wanting to give back for a while now and get some more participation so we are inviting our readers to take a little quiz. Most of these answers can be found on the internet, although we are hoping you will use the honor system when completing them. In the event you cheat, well then you’re just a shitty person with a free Ninja Turtles shirt that probably won’t fit you. In the event that we get some correct and timely responses, we may consider pizza or beers to lucky winners. Email your answers to info@pamparius.com The winner gets this brand new (albeit a little wrinkled) TMNT pizza shirt, size medium.  Hey, if it doesn’t fit you, give it to someone else!

What frozen pizza company makes a cameo in the 1991 film Don’t Tell Mom The Babysitter’s Dead?

What pizza chain is featured prominently in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movies?

In Bam Margera’s film Minghags, what kind of pizza do the gays keep ordering to Don Vito’s house? (toppings)

In the Home Alone films, what kind of pizza does Kevin prefer?

In Home Alone 1, what is the name of the pizza place the driver works for?

In Adam Sandler’s 2002 film Mr. Deeds, what does Deed’s friend “Crazy Eyes” like on his pizza?

What pizza chain does Tony Hawk’s character deliver for in Gleaming the Cube?

What topping do the ladies love in the 1989 flick Loverboy?

Martin Lawrence delivers some pizza in this 1999 action comedy with Luke Wilson -

The name pamparius pays tribute to the pizzeria in Norway owned by Turbonegro’s Pal Pot… Name 3 Turbo songs not including Age of Pamparius -

Name 3 out of town (RVA) joints pamparius has covered -

There used to be a pizza place in the 5th street mall. What was it called?

Who founded Domino’s pizza, in what year, and how many children do they have?

Pizza or Beer?

Assante’s pan crust

Sorry for the lack of updates lately.  Neither of us have felt like indulging in fatty slices and we’ve been hitting the trainer hard to work off the holiday buldges we’ve sprouted.

-here you see andy working with our intervals coach Dr. Desmond-

In addition, Richmond has been absolutely spermed on with shit weather for several days straight and with no signs of letting up.  Needless to say, no one feels like doing anything.

On a better note, I went to a friend’s house last night to exchange feelings on said poopy weather and mull around in our own little depressed worlds, but lo and behold Mike D. had ordered a pan crust Assante’s pizza with ham and sausage!  All my years living in the vicinity of this fine establishment and I had never thought of ordering anything other than their hand tossed pizza.  The pan crust was quite good, barely bringing back fond memories of my expedition to the Great Pebble Pizza City back in December.  To get absolutely real, this wouldn’t pass for good pizza almost anywhere but on a night when the weather was as retarded as it was last night, almost any kind of pizza would make some poor lads happy.