Famous Ben’s Pizza

177 Spring Street, New York, NY 10012

What’s a trip to New York without a proper pizzeria visit? For this visit we picked something close to where we were staying, SoHo. First off, I think I wanted to try Ray’s Famous Pizza, but then got it mixed up with Famous Ben’s Pizza…

Anyhow, you can see the pizzeria by the big Italian chef statue it has situated near the front entrance. For a regular lunch hour, it had a good amount of people coming in and out. They even sell Italian icees on the side window.

Once you go inside, there is a big counter on the left with a variety of pre-made pizzas and pastas and bread all for your taking. In the back of the store, there is a window that leads to the kitchen. You can see the cooks measure pizza dough and make-toss the pizza.

I decided to stick to what I came here for, of course, the pizza. I ordered 2 slices of the sausage and mushroom pizza. The combination of this pizza is not on the typical rotation so it took some extra time to make. Upon first inspection, I noticed that the thinness of the slice of pizza is up to New York standard… actually I can’t think of a pizzeria in Houston that makes pizza this thin yet have it still taste like pizza and not one of those hard thin crust pizzas. The dough was soft but firm and the cheese was at a good degree of melty-ness. The sausages were Italian sausage, served by the slices. The mushrooms however, looked like canned mushroom… not really the fresh kind. The pizza sauce was slathered at a good level not to much to take away the flavors of the toppings but just right to balance them all out. To add to the mushroom hating, I think that this pizza is really a pre-made cheese pizza, throw on some sausage, mushroom, sauce, and extra cheese, pop it in the oven and behold! New Pizza from semi-scratch.

Overall, it was good, but it was pretty pricey for pizza of this caliber… not just because its New York, because there are a lot of $1 pizza places in NY.

Also, I was wishing for something even more greasy…

The Durian Project

So… side tracking for a bit today.

A while back, some friends and I were casually discussion different types of tropical fruit… and the durian fruit came up. After a round of curious chit chat, I decided that we should just make an experiment out of it. I, personally, have not bought and served durian before. I remember seeing it for sale in the frozen section of the local Asian grocer, so we then proceeded to make purchase of this mysterious fruit.

The durian fruit is native to South Asian, shaped like a acorn/pine cone cross while growing on trees. It can weigh between 2 to 7 lbs and as big as the size of one’s head. The outside is hard and spikey and the inside is soft and mushy. The durian is most commonly banned from public tight compartments like trains and elevators due to a very strong odor emitted by its flesh.

Over with the brief intro, let’s begin tracing my steps on handling this fruit. It is quite a task to even break it open!

Chapter 1:

How to open the durian.

1) Take hold of spikey fruit with both hands

2) Locate hard concrete floor

3) Lift up and smash down, HARD

How to open the durian.
1) Take hold of spikey fruit with both hands
2) Locate hard concrete floor
3) Lift up and smash down, HARD

6) Grab hold of the split and proceed with caution
7) Wear hand protection if available
Pull the shell apart to expose the flesh sections

9) Keep peeling until all of the shell is off
TIP: The shell actually grows in a pattern, so as long as you find the seams, you can get an easy tear between them.

Now for the taste test… Hmmm… I’ve never had it before in it’s original form and all I’m going to say is that I’ll never have it again. It is definitely one of those acquired tastes… one that I never got. The flesh is slimy and wraps around a big pit, much like the avocado. There is a tough fibrous skin surrounding the outside of the flesh, which resembled latex to me. The taste is a cross between leek dumplings and a dash of sugar. I mean, it is sweet, but carries a WHOA aftertaste. I have friends who love this stuff, but granted, they have been eating it since they were young. I am not trying to diss the durian, but its not definitely not a introductory course to South Asian cuisine.

If the description was hard to understand, let me just say that it tastes just like it smells.