Cycle 4 - Item 138

23 (Thu) May 2013

Pizza Bismarck

1.5

at The Corner Kitchen

-Oksu, Seongdong, Seoul, Republic of Korea-

with W and DJ, Dad

Pizza Bismarck is an Italian dish.  It's a pizza with tomato sauce + cheese + sunny-side up egg + ham or prosciutto.  The name supposedly derives from Otto von Bismarck, Minister President of Prussia, who in 1862 delivered a speech in which he said "The great questions of the time will not be resolved by speeches and majority decisions but by blood and iron," which was mistranslated in Italian newspapers as "blood and eggs," and then someone invented a pizza about it.

Alas, the Pizza Bismarck from The Corner Kitchen was a dud.  On a standard tomato sauce and mozzarella base, the toppings included egg + bacon + spinach.  The problem was that the egg came practically raw.  Runny yolk I can handle, but the uncooked white felt kinda icky; the photo doesn't really show it, but the white just sat there in a puddle, all clear and gooey on the surface of the pizza.  No wonder, this kind of Napoli-style pizza is flash-cooked in the oven for less than 2 minutes, just enough time for the crust to set.  Indeed, for that reason, the spinach and bacon were both cooked in advance.  On a positive note, the combination of egg and bacon - good quality bacon, nicely smoky and salty, not the bland local stuff - made the experience feel like eating breakfast.  If only the egg were a bit more cooked, this would be pretty good.  The item remains on the menu from the restaurant's inception, so other customers seem to like it, apparently.

(See also GLOBAL FOOD GLOSSARY)

(See also RESTAURANTS IN KOREA)