I have recently been referred to as “the pizza guy” among my friends. I have absolutely no idea why. And everybody seems to have a suggestion for what the pizza guy should try next. I love everybody’s enthusiasm. I’ll just feel bad if I go to somebody’s favorite pizza place and then give it a horrible review because it’s greasy or not as crispy as I like. Then I turn from the pizza guy into the bad guy.
Among these recommendations, I get lots of texts and facebook messages telling me about a new pizza variation that somebody just stumbled on. Breakfast pizza, Indian pizza, Vegan pizza. They all exist. And I’m more curious than anybody, but I don’t think it’s really fair to include them in my search. Nobody in their right mind would say these are the best pizzas in New York. Maybe the weirdest.
One variation I was intrigued enough to try was deep fried pizza. That’s right – you heard it correctly – deep. fried. pizza. Chip Shop in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn is a British pub/restaurant where they will literally batter and deep fry anything. In addition to pizza and the usual cod and haddock, they also fry hamburgers, macaroni and cheese, cherry pie, and a number of candy bars. And although it’s not listed on the menu, I have a feeling they also fry an artery or two.
You can’t help but laugh as you eat this pizza. It’s just sort of ridiculous. It tastes pretty good – kind of like a really rich and battery mozzarella stick. The tomato sauce and most of the cheese gets lost, but who cares when the batter is this delicious.
I guess, it’s official. I have to be the “pizza guy” to travel to Brooklyn specifically to try a deep fried slice. Either the pizza guy or British. It’s crazy to me – the Brits have both Shakespeare and deep fried snickers. Where did we Americans go wrong?
Is Chip Shop’s deep fried pizza the best pizza in NY? Come on, in all fairness, I’m not giving this a rating. It’s almost not even pizza anymore. It tastes really good and if you’re a fan of fried foods and heart attacks, then I urge you to give it a try.
