Sometimes I have dreams about food. One time I had a dream I was at a fair and they were selling deep-fried pizza slices.
Do these really exist? I mean, I’ve heard of deep friedcandy bars, and pizza seems to be a good medium for deep frying. Anybody know?
The “Deep Fried Mars Bar” is one of those urban tales that the telling of far surpasses the reality. Everyone talks about them, very few eat them. It gives the tourists something to marvel at.
They are not a regular feature of the Scottish chip shop.
The Deep Fried Pizza, I’m afraid, is another matter. They’re not entirely unpalatable, but certainly couldn’t be called a real pizza.
A local Italian restaurant (where a friend works, incidentally) sells deep-fried pizza. I had a piece once; it was good, so to speak, but the grease to crust ratio was like a wet sponge. The crust is fried by itself, then toppings are added in the usual manner and it is baked. It’s nothing I’d recommend eating on an anxious date.
My friend reports seeing quite a few half-eaten orders of fried pizza coming back in the bustubs, most probably from disillusioned customers with something else in mind. The actual pizzas are only 6-8" in diameter.
What leander’s link omits to mention is a key refinement to the traditional Glaswegian fried pizza: the cheese topping comes from a can and is sprayed onto the base. Then fry.
That’s not how it’s done in the Scottish chip shop. It should be fried complete from frozen, topping and all. The idea is that the initial frozen state and then the fried cheese keeps it all together.
I told you it doesn’t really count as a real pizza!
I’ve only had it the once. I wasn’t overly impressed. Very greasy.
That deep fried pizza looks a lot like a calzone.
I was at the fair a few weekends ago, and a vendor was selling deep-fried Twinkies.
I was wondering about the calzone aspect. If it’s encased in dough, then it’s a calzone or a PizzaPop™ and has been around for many many years in trademarked form.
I’d expect better of the people who invented haggis, curling, golf, and the art of the head butt.
We need to define the term, I think. Is the dough open or closed before it goes into the oil?
In my experience growing up on the West Coast of Scotland, open.
No, it is not a calzone.
Nor is it, strictly speaking, going into ‘oil’. Usually we’re talking animal fat.
I’ve never seen what bonzer describes. Usually it’s a bottom of the range standard cheese & tomato frozen pizza. Anything fancier and you’d be as well baking it properly, wouldn’t you?
We do know what’s proper Italian food. There’s a significant Italian presence in the west Of Scotland, plenty of authentic Italian restaurants.
A close cousin in the US would be fried dough. If you get it with tomato sauce, its quite tasty – though this omits the cheese, which, IMO, is what quintessentially differentiates pizza and other breadstuffs.
