Tag: Review

That’s Amore

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By Jonathan Baca, Guest Writer

Amore Neapolitan Pizzeria, located in Nob Hill at 2929 Monte Vista Boulevard NE, is a temple to thin crust, savory sauces, and globs of gooey mozza­rella, and as New Mexico’s only certified, sanctioned Neapolitan restaurant, they take pride in getting the little things right.

In order to be certified as an official Neapolitan pizzeria, pizza chefs must train with the Associazione Pizzaiuoli Napoletani, the official governing body of thin-crust, Italian style pizza, at one of their training centers in Naples or New York City.

Owners Gabriel and Kimberly Amador trained with APN president Roberto Caporuscio at his num­ber-one and number-two ranked pizza joints in the Big Apple, and came home to start the state’s first officially recognized parlor.

Neapolitan pizza differs from the average pie in sev­eral key ways.

First and most importantly is the wood-burning oven, which is Amore’s red-brick, fire breathing behe­moth, and was imported straight from Italy.

Pizzas start off no more than three millimeters thick, and are thrown into the oven at a staggering 905 degrees for only 60-90 seconds, in an attempt to get that perfectly thin, crispy crust.

Several of Amore’s key ingredients must be sourced directly from Italy, and their mozzarella, sauces, dough and bread are all handmade in-house, something that was hard to believe, but makes a big difference once it is eaten.

All other ingredients are sourced from as close to home as possible, and Amore has partnerships with sev­eral local farms for veggies and produce.

Amore also has a very extensive wine list, along with a decent selection of local and imported beers. They also serve some unique Italian sodas and other Italian inspired drinks.

So first things first: the pizza.

All pizzas are thin crust of course, and are about nine inches. They are suggested as personal sized, but along with an appetizer, salad or dessert, are really big enough to feed two. There are three different sauces: tomato, white cream, or “rose,” which is a mixture of the two.

Prices for pizza range from $7.15 for the absolute bare-bones to $10.95 for the carnivore special.

There are several vegetarian selections, like the Vegetariano “Trophies of the Garden” pizza, which fea­tured house-made mozzarella, basil, roasted red pep­pers, artichokes, roasted mushrooms, olio and a choice of sauce.

The crust was surprisingly floppy and blonde on the bottom, suggesting that it may have been slightly undercooked.

But when cooking time is 60-90 seconds, it follows that the lines between undercooked, perfectly crispy and completely burned are very thin ones.

Although it was not as crispy as one would hope, the crust had a pleasant texture and was fresh.

The house-made mozzarella was superb, with a bright, tangy flavor and perfect consistency. Instead of being shredded and evenly distributed as cheese typi­cally is on a pizza, Amore uses one or two big globs of cheese per slice that are plopped down and allowed to melt naturally in the oven, which was a surprising and welcome twist.

The vegetables were obviously fresh and tasty.

The mushrooms were clearly roasted to perfection, with a not-too-soft texture and earthy flavor.

The peppers were bright and sweet, and the arti­chokes were not overcooked.

Amore also has an impressive selection of desserts, including Tiramisu and “dessert calzones,” which are actually more like dessert pizzas, as they are flat and not folded.

Along with pizzas, Amore also has a decent selec­tion of salads and pastas, along with a dish they call Pizza Sushi, which consists of Mahi Mahi rolled up in pizza dough, and topped with fresh papaya slaw.

The ambiance at Amore is warm and hip, with modern lighting, warm colors and lots of seating for such a small space. And with warmer weather on the way, it is worth waiting to visit on a warm evening to take advantage of their rooftop patio, which offers abso­lutely beautiful views of Albuquerque.

Best of all, students get 10 percent off any purchase with their IDs so do not forget to bring those along.

All in all, Amore is a fun, affordable and delicious taste of authentic Italy, great for a date night or just a fun time out with friends.

Carousel spun out of control

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By Adriana Avila, Senior Reporter | Photo provided By Max Woltman

5.1

Like sardines, Carousel is an acquired taste and I have been left tasteless from this play.

The play Carousel written by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein, playing at the Rodey Theatre located at Popejoy Hall on UNM campus opened on Saturday July13 at 7:30 p.m. had high and low points to this rendition of a classic play directed by Laurie Finnegan and sponsored by Landmark Musicals.

Although the basics were good, this play mixed too many ingredients into their clambake and it gave me a stomach ache. There were few pieces of the play that were not underdone or over seasoned but was not enough to keep me entertained through­out the performance.

The performers and crew members were probably too nervous to function properly or they just needed more time to rehearse, so the crew seemed as they absolutely needed more time to rehearse to make sure the robotics of the dances were oiled and all of the bugs were taken care of before opening night.

The pieces of the play that were crucial to its survival were its fantastic singing and the on cue 23 piece orchestra. It would be better to just get the soundtrack because the great singing and the awesome orches­tra were just about the only things that kept the play on a high note.

The dancers could not dance; their move­ments were mechani­cal and it seemed they were programmed to hop to one spot where the invisible tape marker was every single time. Also, I felt like I watched the actors after they picked up acting tips from ‘70s movies. Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II were known to write melodramatic plays but this one took the double-layer cake.

During the per­formance stage hands and actors could not keep a handle on the props. In scene three, a fisherman dropped his bucket of clams when he was trying to hand it over to another crew mate. The spot­light operator could not get a grip, and the spotlight kept slip­ping off the actors, that seemed like they were having trouble with how big the spot­light should have been. Throughout the per­formance there was numerous times that the spotlight’s area was changed and it did not look good at all. By the end of it my head was spinning, and I felt like I was a cat chas­ing a flashlight. And where was the light going, exactly where it should not have been.

During the open­ing scene there was a particular juggler who could not juggle. At any circus if the jug­gler could not get a hold of the balls he or she would be replaced with a second acrobat.

Carousel takes place in a small New England town in the 1880s during the summer. A no-good carousel barker named Billy Bigelow and an innocent young girl named Julie Jordan get married with little motivation, while getting to know each other during a 15 minute scene. Sounds reasonable enough after Bigelow, played by Michael M. Finnegan, threatens to beat up Jordan, played by Alexandra Martinez.

Julie cannot leave her good for nothing abusing husband, and he keeps abusing her, which is apparently fine for him to do so. Where are the morals and life lessons there? I do not understand fully why I sat through the entire perfor­mance other than for the music and singing.

In New England it may be okay to put on a performance of Carousel because of its setting and numer­ous shout-outs to the regional culture, but out here in Albuquerque, there is no real connec­tion to this play. There are no good morals or lessons to be learned from this play and the cultural references are lost among Burqueños so I’m completely unsure why Landmark Musicals chose to stage this play here in Albuquerque.

I must compliment the set design as it was fantastic. Dahl Delu, has designed sets, light­ing, costumes and scen­ery for numerous presti­gious theaters including Broadway, and this is his first time working with Landmark. His wonderfully painted Maine coastline sets are beyond the ability of the actors. Delu’s beau­tiful stage design sur­passes this production.

Carousel is the epitome of a wonder­ful exterior but an unsatisfying center.

One of the most confusing parts about the play was the cos­tumes. But the time frame became clear to me during the last scene at gradu­ation, where the banner read class of 1898. The play is sup­posed to be from1883 through 1898, not 1873 through 1888. The printing company for the plays handouts, Starline Printing, got a crucial difference of time wrong and con­fused a few members of the audience. The timeline did not make sense at all and my attention was drawn more to the choice of clothing rather than the plot, which was still not very good.

The design crew got the timeline cor­rect, but Starline Printing had several printing errors.

Although the play itself was unappealing and a few actors here and there were off point in their performances, a few stood out of the remains.

Courtney Giannini, Louise daughter of Billy and Julie, had a great performance. Her dancing was elegant and poise. The play should have ended after the death of Billy Bigelow but I am glad it did not because I would not have had the opportu­nity to enjoy Giannini’s wonderful performance.

All of the per­formers, who had the chance to sing, really sang wonderfully, and the actors’ ability to sing kept the play afloat along with the other recognized factors.

Carousel was suc­cessful with a great set design, wonder­ful singing and great music, but that is barely enough to keep the acting and dancing from a flop. For more informa­tion on this play run­ning until Sunday July 28, on Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 p.m. and on Sundays at 2:00 p.m., go to abqtheatre.org/index. php/per forma nces/ carousel/