Review: Mandee's Pizza

Mandee’s Original Pizza Gourmet

In a town full of small, delivery based pizza shops, it’s hard to truly stand out. There are a handful of places that every Salem State resident student is aware of, largely due to thei r proximity to the college and the stacks of menus they leave in the lobbies of each Residence Hall every semester. However the place where students should be ordering their food from is not well known by the student population. Mandee’s Pizza, which is not far from where Domino’s and Sammy’s straddle Canal Street, is the hidden gem of delivery pizza joints in Salem.

What sets Mandee’s apart is simple: the pure quality of the food. The doughy pizza crust has a fresh floury flavor which combines amazingly well with the zesty tomato sauce. While other delivery joints in Salem have cookie-cutter cheese pizzas, Mandee’s offers a delicious spin on the traditional pie. The taste isn’t all that different, just better and fresher all the way through. From the ingredients to the preperation, it seems like Mandee’s has it figured out.

However it is the calzones that really set this place apart. Much like the pizza, the calzones are based on a doughy crust that is soft and flavorful. They actually melt cheese on the top of the calzone crust, however, setting them apart from other calzones you’ll find in town. Unlike other pizza places, they use baked breaded chicken rather than fried chicken fingers for their calzones. The result is a Chicken Parm Calzone that blows away that of any competitors. The combination of real baked chicken, zesty tomato sauce and a delicious doughy crust is simply unbeatable in the delivery game.

The commitment to fresh ingredients and good food preperation makes Mandee’s the best delivery joint in Salem, but there are other advantages to this place as well. For one, because they are not as well known in the Salem State community, their delivery times are typically faster than that of their rivals. Second, they have an excellent online ordering system that allows you to customize your order and pay with a credit card. This is great for large orders or orders that require a lot of substitutions, because ordering is as simple as clicking a mouse, and you can review the exact wording of the order that will be sent to the store.

Finally, there is the pricing. Amazingly, this high quality food is about the same in price when compared to similar places in town. Unlike some competitors, Mandee’s does not tack on a delivery charge. All of these reasons help to cement this restaurant as true royalty of the delivery world.

4 Stars

Mandee’s Pizza
408 Essex St
Salem, MA 01970
978-745-6400
http://www.mandeespizza.net/

Simple Recipes: Fruit Salsa

Winter is here, and that means it is getting very cold out. Living on South Campus this year has been great until now, when evening trips to the Marsh Dining Hall have become brutal tests of endurance in the cold. This major obstacle has forced me into my kitchen more and more over the past few weeks. Additionally, my roommates seem to all have been struck by some kind of Super-Cold, the kind that wakes them up coughing at 5:00am and leads to horrible sneezing fits whenever a slight draft comes in under the door.

My recent spurt of cooking and fear of catching this horrid illness combined last week to produce a concoction that proved to be delicious, healthy and tropical enough to remind me that winter won't last forever. Inspired by the traditional tomato salsa I was taught to make at Agave Mexican Bistro, in Newburyport, MA, here is my recipe for a great homemade fruit salsa:

Fruit Salsa

Ingredients:
1 Whole Pineapple
1 Pint Strawberries
1 Red Onion
4 Jalapeno Peppers
1 bag tortilla chips or
2 packages corn tortillas

Materials:
Large Mixing Bowl
Large Knife for Pineapple
Chopping Knife for Other Ingredients

Instructions:
First, cut the pineapple into pineapple rings, taking out the core as you go along.
Cut the rings into small pieces, about the size you would expect tomato pieces to be in a Pico de Gallo. Put the fresh pineapple pieces into the large mixing bowl.

Next, cut the strawberries to about the same size as the pineapple, and throw them into the bowl.

Move on to the onion next, dicing it into very small pieces. Put them into the bowl with the fruit.

Now, wearing gloves of some sort, slice the jalapeno's into very small pieces. Put them into the bowl as well, and mix all the ingredients together.

Finally, cover and place in fridge for between two and three hours. This helps the flavors to combine and chill.





This dish is great served with either corn tortilla chips or fresh corn tortillas. Wrapping some of the salsa up inside a warm tortilla is excellent in the winter. Despite the season, all of the ingredients were available at Crosby's Market on Canal Street, and I only spent a total of $16 preparing a good size portion of the salsa that lasted me and the roommates through an entire Sunday of football.
That's roughly seven hours of straight snacking, for those of you unfamiliar with the sacred Sunday ritual.

If any of you give this recipe a try let me know what you think in the comments section.

Enjoy, and stay warm Vikings.