In my last post (see here), I mentioned I am somewhat of “list savant” and that I have collected 12 (and growing) separate lists of pizzas to eat!
I was lucky that the 50 Top Pizza website and list provided two excellent choices Jay’s Artisan and Fabrica, and Fabrica Pizza in Tampa, was GREAT!
On our current trip to north of Orlando, I consulted 50 Top Pizza but found nothing in the area. So, I consulted another list expecting similar results…oops!
Table of Contents
- Can’t Trust Them All?
- Nebaladan Word of the Day – Fecce di Mommeta
- Pizza Review – PizzAmore, Mt. Dora, FL
Can’t Trust Them All?
We love Mt. Dora. It’s about a 1/2 hour northwest of Orlando. But, there’s no sign of that funky eared mouse. Mt. Dora is Florida as it was before Roy Wally decided to drain the swamp and put in a fake, ultra-expense “World” catering to the rich and those who needed a 2nd mortgage to visit.
As you might guess, I wanted pizza. Given that the 50 Top Pizza list had no listings near Mt. Dora, I reached out to another list “The 25 Best Pizzas In Florida“
BIG, BIG MISTAKE!
I should have know better. It’s on website “Big 7 – Enjoy Travel”. Who the F… are these people? There’s no details anywhere. And, they list nothing about their selection criteria for how a pizzeria made their “best” list!
Like blindly following Google Maps over the side of a cliff, I blindly followed The 25 Best Pizzas In Florida to one of the worst pizzas that I’ve ever eaten!
I guess you can’t trust all these lists! And, as my mother would say, “Michael, don’t be a ‘vase-a di mom’!”
(But, in its defense, it’s not total garbage…Fabrica Pizza is near the top of The 25 Best Pizzas In Florida list!)
Nebalatan Word of the Day – Fecce di Mommeta
In my last post, I mentioned a YouTube video Neapolitan words, ok “colorful” words, that I found while researching the Neapolitan language.
There was phrase from the above video that would frequently grace the mouth of my mother (Grandma Joanne).
I thought I’d hear her say what sounded something like, “He/she is a face-a (or vase-a) di mom.” It was always infected in a way as to severely degrade the subject of her rant.
For some reason, I thought “vase-a di mom” translated into “a fool like their mother”. So, in my thinking, when Grandma Joanne used the phrase, I assumed she was calling the person a “fool”.
Now, 50+ years later, I find the above video and finally learn the real phrase and the true meaning of what Ma was saying!
Per the above video, the true Neapolitan/Nebaladan saying is “Fecce di Mommeta” (pronounced fay-cha di mo-met-ta) and literally means “The vagina of you mother!”
Although I didn’t know, I would be surprised if Grandma Joanne didn’t know the real meaning. As you’ve probably learned in the 4+ years of stories about my Ma, she was not a wildflower!
Pizza Review – PizzAmore, Mt. Dora, FL
| Website | https://www.youlovepizza.com/ |
| About Us on Web | https://www.youlovepizza.com/about-us/ Lots of mumble jumble but nothing about pizza. No mention of any training. Not even a reference to loving pizza. Left me to wonder if the guy can spell Napoli or New York. Most likely he thinks Naples is just a city in southwest FL! |
| Location | Mt Dora, FL |
| Ambiance | PizzAmore is in an “Old Florida” house. It’s pretty cool and charming! There is seated dining on the front porch, living room, side room, and the back room is a bar. But, that was the end of the surprise and the charm! We ordered a wine, a beer, a salad, and a large (14”) pepperoni on a Margherita pizza. Soon after, we were delivered a stale glass of wine from a bottle likely opened during the depression. And, I ordered from their huge beer list, but they didn’t have the beer! The salad was nondescript, likely from a bag, with a few cherry tomatoes and croutons and dressing likely from the distributor. |
| Style | Not Sure! Website says Neapolitan, but it might have been Naples, FL! It wasn’t close to a Neapolitan. Why is style important? A pizzeria needs to have a style; even if it is its own style. The style sets a standard for how their pizza should be CONSISTENTLY made and taste. Without that standard you have “pollend” (aka pollenta, aka cornmeal mush!). |
| Dough | If you read my blog, you know that the dough/crust is the first thing that I taste. But it’s not only the taste but the texture that matters to me. A pizza needs a strong base, or it’ll crumble. Well, after Cathy and I took our first bites, we looked at each other and shoot our heads! I said, “It tastes flavorless like DiGiorno!” Cathy replied, “I was thinking the same thing!” And neither of us have had a DiGiorno pizza in years. The bottom had no char while the center was undercooked and raw. The cornicione had some puff, but it was small bubbles. There was a distinct sweetness to the crust. I’m guessing some sugar was added to the dough to cause quick rising like DiGiorno. |
| Sauce | Lots of spice, overpowering any tomato taste. It was very much the same taste as canned Mutti basil flavored pizza sauce from Publix. Speaking of basil, it was supposed to be a Margherita, where was the fresh basil? |
| Cheese | The first thing that I noticed when the pizza was delivered were the burnt pieces of shredded cheese! Shredded cheese? That’s a big, big no-no. Shredded cheese adds anti-caking chemicals (starch?) to prevent it from sticking together and to improve aging. HOLY SHIT! Was it even moozedell or was it something fake like a white Velveeta? And, there definitely was not taste of parmagian or percorino to round out the taste. |
| Sauce to cheese ratio | Sauce = Medium to lot Cheese = Medium to lot Just goes to show that even a good sauce-cheese balance can’t save poor ingredients |
| Value | $18 for a pepperoni 14″ is a good price in the US, but doesn’t make up for the MEH pizza |
| Overall | MEH (which is not good, but never forget, there is no bad pizza! (but some may approach bad!)) PizzAmore is another example of someone who does not really understand pizza, but goes and opens a pizzeria anyways. If you decide to go, I’m sure you’ll hear a ghostly Grandma Joanne calling you a “vase-a di mom!” |
| Would I Go Back? | No way |
You must be logged in to post a comment.