A thing about Hitman is that he is into good, authentic food as much as I am. He’s always looking for the truest form of preparation for a certain type of cuisine and in reality, he is much, MUCH pickier than I am =P On our first date we were at a Thai restaurant and I ordered a green curry. He asked if they actually had Thai eggplant instead of the usual westernized version made with peas…
So if we were to have pizza….of COURSE we have to have the most authentic one!! Somehow he found out about Via Tevere Pizzeria Napoletana. Located near Commercial Drive, Via Tevere makes and serves authentic, Napoli pizza. Visit their website for the strict list of criteria. In essense, true Neapolitan pizza, as required by the Associazone Vera Pizza Napoletana (AVPN), must be baked in a wood-fired domed oven using precise amounts of certain ingredients from specific locations.
They open at 5pm every day. We arrived at quarter after and the restaurant was busy but we still managed to get a table right away. However a lineup formed pretty soon after. The wood-fired dome oven is situated in the back. The server was very attentive.
We started with an appy of Frittura Napoletana ($16 for 2) which is a sampling of deep fried Neapolitan street food. From the left, it’s mac and cheese, risotto, potato and cheese, and pork meatballs. Honestly, for the price I really did expect something a bit more extravagant…think about it…the two meatballs would be $1 each…and they were a quarter in diameter…and taste-wise not especially spectacular to boot.
My fav of the 4 would be the mac and cheese, but that really isn’t say much…the risotto is mixed in a tomato sauce, and the potato cheese concoction was kind of doughy, like a fritter I suppose.
But I digress…the star of the shows were supposed to be the pizzas anyways….
And they sure lived up to the hype, in my opinion anyways. Hitman ordered the Margherita ($11) and as simple as it was, it was delicious. The basil leaves were extremely fragrant and the cheese, although almost tasteless, added a nice chew. The marinara sauce was just right- not to tart or sweet. A fault though was the taste of the dough itself…while the texture and consistency were perfect, biting into the plain crust we found that the dough itself was actually quite salty.
I actually was complaining about how the middle of the pizza got soggy though, and how that made the pizza difficult to eat. But as it turns out, that’s the way it’s supposed to be. They’re supposed to eaten with a knife and fork, or ripped and folded and eaten by hand. It says so on the menu. If only I paid attention….
My choice was the Napoletana ($13) which is the Margherita but with the addition of anchovies. I love anchovies. I love how pungent they are.
And they were. There were only about 5 pieces of the yum scattered, but just a small bite of it is enough to create a flavor explosion of saltiness and brininess. Loved it.
A very good find indeed.
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