food

Pizza evolution - mochi-dough 'stick pizza'

6 Comments
By Andres Oliver, RocketNews24

Most of the foods we enjoy today have gone through many stages of evolution, to the point where you almost begin to wonder whether they can ever be improved upon. Yet, so long as cooks maintain their curiosity and enterprising spirit, the foods we know will surely continue to change. We can see the truth of this in creations such as Mokubaza’s cheese keema curry, which we covered in a previous article.

But how can we possibly improve on the wünderfood that is pizza? Well one pizza cafe in Tokyo’s trendy Roppongi district seems to think so…

Stick-shaped pizza?

Recently a new take on a common dish has come to the public’s attention after being featured on television. The updated dish in question is none other than stick pizza. True to its name, this particular type of pizza is made into a stick shape rather than into a circle. The surface is crunchy, the inside fluffy–something that’s difficult to achieve with normal batter. Yet stick pizza somehow does just that.

In June 2014, EU Shokudou, a café specializing in stick pizza, opened its doors in the area of midtown Roppongi, Tokyo. When you say “stick pizza,” most Japanese don’t seem to be familiar with the term, but it’s something that has been around for a while in some western countries. You can think of stick pizza as something reminiscent of that shape.

EU Shokudou has 15 different types of stick pizza on offer. Taking their queue from pasta sauce, six of these flavors range from carbonara to meat sauce. Adventurous customers can try some of the more unusual flavors, such as walleye pollack roe potato and shrimp squid ink. Rounding out the 15 are five dessert flavors, which include chocolate banana and cinnamon apple.

At around 20 centimeters, each individual stick pizza is fairly long. Lower-priced varieties include the 180-yen corn and bacon, with those on the other end including the 660-yen Wagyu beef ragu sauce. Seeing as most of the choices are priced at 300 yen, they won’t break the bank.

Out of all these enticing options, our reporter chose the meat sauce, carbonara, and shrimp squid ink. These turned out to be longer than he had expected. That being said, they weren’t overstuffed on the inside, making for a quick meal. The texture is more crunchy than flaky, probably owing to the use of rice batter. Conjuring up memories of roasted mochi, the browned surface is truly a thing of beauty.

As for the filling itself, it was deliciously moist and springy, with some bits of soggy dough making for an added treat. Normally, when you bake pizza dough in a wrapping, the ingredients tend to get a little runny. However, the clever cooks at EU Shokudou seem to have developed a means of counteracting this effect. On the whole, the stick pizzas felt like more of a snack than a meal. There’s no doubt that stick pizza would be a hit if someone were to sell them like crepes on a busy Harajuku street corner. We’re looking forward to seeing how this trend develops.

Shop Details Name: Stick Pizza & Cafe Bar EU Shokudou Location: Tokyo, Minato Ward, Roppongi 7-3-13 Trusty Building 1F Hours of Operation: 11:00~23:00

Read more stories from RocketNews24. -- We’re going bananas over these amazing Attack on Titan…bananas -- Domino’s Pizza Japan offers dinner and a show with new toppings and a Hatsune Miku mini-concert -- Video game maker’s Akihabara pizza joint has great food, not a single maid

© Japan Today

©2024 GPlusMedia Inc.


6 Comments
Login to comment

This is NOT the March of Progress. It's the destruction of it. No need to reinvent the wheel or the pizza because they are both the perfect shape. Very few can draw a circle to it's perfection. So why try?

You'd be pretty upset if I turned Japanese sushi into a Kentucky Double Down style sushi sandwich. Then justify it by calling it the evolution of sushi.

-1 ( +2 / -3 )

more mutation than evolution

0 ( +1 / -1 )

customers can try some of the more unusual flavors, such as walleye pollack roe potato and shrimp squid ink.

Um yeah....that's not pizza.

1 ( +3 / -2 )

Sounds more like stick calzone.

2 ( +3 / -1 )

It's the destruction of it. No need to reinvent the wheel or the pizza because they are both the perfect shape.

You mean like a calzone or stromboli? Oh, wait.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

They've had this in Korea for years and years.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Login to leave a comment

Facebook users

Use your Facebook account to login or register with JapanToday. By doing so, you will also receive an email inviting you to receive our news alerts.

Facebook Connect

Login with your JapanToday account

User registration

Articles, Offers & Useful Resources

A mix of what's trending on our other sites