On a cool January weekend, we visited a new Italian bakery in the Olympic village called Gusto, A Taste of Italy.
It’s next door to the London Drugs.
The menu features freshly ground espresso beverages, Italian wines and fresh pastries.
And they have this striking rotating dessert display case.
The menu also includes antipasti and scrocchiarella. This is what we were here for.
We placed our order at the cashier, and grabbed some stool seats along the window in the corner of the bakery.
Now, even though we were here for lunch, we were tempted to try the cream puff
This is a crispy pâte à choux filled with custard cream, whipped cream, and dusted with confectioners sugar. This was a terrific cream puff. The choux pastry was light and crisp on the outside, and tender on the inside. The custard cream was smooth, cool and had a hint of vanilla. The whipped cream was light and slightly sweet.
Now, the main event, the scrocchiarella topped with marinated mushrooms and greens
Scrocchiarella (aka roman style pizza) is a distinct style of pizza from the Lazio region of Italy (where Rome is located) and is distinct from it’s more famous relative, neapolitan pizza with it’s ingredients, and texture.
Neapolitan pizza is very thin, and has only 00 flour, water, yeast and salt. Neopolitan pizzas are always round, and tend to be crisp on the edges but very soft (bordering on soggy) in the center.
Roman pizza is slightly thicker, and has a little olive oil, and that makes the crust crisper and heavier, and tend to be crisp across the entire bottom. And they can be round, or an oblong shape.
This was a fabulous roman pizza. The crisp was crisp on the edges and the bottom but with a tender chew in the between the top and bottom edges. The crushed marzano tomatoes were a nice tangy base, and the salad greens and marinated mushrooms provided a nice refreshing taste.
This was scrocchiarella topped with blue cheese and pear
This was a unique flavor combination. It was topped with Gorgonzola and (I’m guessing) fontina cheese, and slices of Bosc pear. It has a wonderful funky flavor from the blue cheese, and a little sweetness from the pear.
And finally, the scrocchiarella vancouver (cold smoked salmon and greens)
This roman pizza was baked with crush mazano tomato sauce, then topped cold smoked salmon, greens, capers and creme fraiche. When I frequented Trilussa on Main street, this was my favorite pizza in the city. Now Gusto’s vancouver pizza is my new favorite in the city. The smoked salmon is smooth and silky, and the creme fraiche is tangy and creamy. The salad greens provide some nice earthiness and freshness.
The dining room is bright and airy, but the seating is tight and compact (lots of squeezing and maneuvering between table and chairs).
The service appears to be a work in progress. The orders are called by the name of the customer, but it’s loud and crowded in the room, so it’s hard to hear the name being called if seated in the corners of the space.
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