The Pizza Cone of The Mad Italian
I’m a sucker for novelty foods like deep fried butter and Krispy Kreme Hamburgers and such. So when I found out that a place called The Mad Italian (1581 Bayview Avenue, Toronto) was selling something called the Zazzu (a zinged up name for pizza in a cone) it was an inevitable destination. And today was the day.
I ordered the Mediterranea ($5.49) which featured mozzarella and parmesan cheeses with black olives, mushrooms, red peppers and tomato sauce topped with goat cheese. It was exactly what I was hoping for in all the right ways.
At $5.49 the zazzu is more expensive than a boutique slice at a regular pizza joint, but the extra care is evident. For one, the actual cone is a marvel of food engineering. It’s not actually a cone so much as it’s cylindrified pizza dough with the ingredients poured into it like a cement casing. While that sounds simple enough, it’s probably a relatively exacting process to get right. And get it right they did.
Where the zazzu succeeds over a normal pizza slice is in the insides. The exact same ingredients that would make up a slice somehow combine more effectively in cone form. What you get is this thick slurry of cheese and sauce with little vegetable lumps that hold their form just well enough as to not be messy or dribbly.
That’s the best thing about the zazzu. Even the though the whole gimmick is about the “cone,” when you’re eating it the cone’s actually an afterthought. The gutty, tasty foodball that’s inside the cone is more in-focus than with a normal slice. It’s like if you ordered a pizza then took a fork and started raking it across the whole pie and shoveled whatever you drag-netted into your mouth. And that equals good times.
Thumbs up, pizza cones.
The Pizza Cone of The Mad Italian (halfway done)
