Costco Pizza

Ok. I know. It's not authentic Italian pizza. But, even authentic Italian pizza back in Toronto was hard to come by, especially if all I wanted was a slice, or two. I'd have to buy the whole pizza and then have the leftovers for the next few days. And, it never tasted as good after the freshness of it had worn off the next day in the fridge anyways. But, "Canadianized/Americanized" pizza is one of the few things I do like. It's not the same as the real thing, but it's still pretty good. The "Pizza Nova" a few blocks from where I used to live back in Toronto made the best of its type anywhere.

After reading about how "authentic" (at least from an "Americanized" pizza perspective) the pizza is at Costco from another blogger (http://seoulfoodyo.wordpress.com/2009/12/17/costco-pizza/), I was eager to try it out. It took me over three months to get there from the time I first read about it. But, today I managed to make the trip.

My math teacher friend and I headed out to the Ilsan Costco on a rainy, dreary saturday afternoon. The drive out was uneventful and was very quick. Maybe about half an hour and we did not even get lost this time. The place was packed and we had to park almost on the roof level. The good thing is that the food court is outside the main shopping area of Costco, so that if you do not have a membership you can still go in and eat. The food court was packed. We almost did not get a place to sit down. People waited for us to get up after eating.

Anyways, the pizza was somewhat unexciting. It was a bit too undercooked for my liking. The Korean preoccupation of never overcooking anything in order to avoid having any slight burn/singe/brown/scorch spots/areas does not do pizza any good. This avoidance of "scorch marks" stems from the worry of contracting cancer from such "burnt" parts of food, any food. So, most pizza here is pretty bland and tasteless as it is these exact small "burns" that actually impart flavor and texture to certain types of food, especially pizza. The crust, needless to say, was very thick and soft/soggy because of this lack of oven time. At least the sauce and the taste was authentic "Americanized" pizza taste, if not the texture (and, pizza needs both to be good IMHO). All in all a somewhat disappointing experience. Chalk up another one for experience. The next pizza will be from an authentic Italian restaurant which I might have found already.

Wish me luck!

Costco Pizza: Not really recommended unless you are really desperate for a somewhat disappointing taste from home.

Location: Ilsan Costco

Note: Generic Costco pizza pic from the web of the deluxe pizza we ordered. It was way too crowded and crazy there for me to even think about trying to get some pix of the pizza today. The pizza in the pic looks much, much, better than the one we actually had. At least it was cheap!