- [Scott] What does this look like?
- [Man] I have no idea.
- It's ramen pizza.
My name is Scott and I live and breath pizza.
Most days you can find me leading pizza tours in New York,
but other times I'm hanging out with old school
pizza makers like Mark Iacona.
Mark is a pizza purist.
- [Mark] It's not a pizza.
It's not a pizza.
I'm about to kick you out.
- [Scott] But the game is changing in New York,
so I'm trying to bring him up to speed
on the craziest pies I can find.
They all claim to be pizza, but are they "Really Dough?"
(playful orchestral music)
Mark.
- Hey, what's going on?
Good to see you.
- What are you doing here?
You stalking me?
What's going on?
- No, I heard uh, a buddy of mine called me up this morning.
He's got this pizzeria in Hoboken and he's doing this
ramen pizza thing and I'm gonna go check it out.
- Ramen pizza?
- Instead of a crust, like the crust is noodle
and then all the ramen stuff is on top.
- That's not pizza, Scotty.
- I don't disagree with you, but I feel like I gotta try it
cause it's like, I want to broaden my own horizons.
- All right, go get me a slice.
Let me get inside, it's freezing.
- All right, fair enough, fair enough.
I'll see you later.
- [Mark] Ramen pizza.
Stalker.
(playful orchestral music)
- I'm at Tony Boloney's in Hoboken right now.
I'm going to check out that
ramen pizza we've been talking about, see it for myself.
Hello Mike.
- [Mike] Hey, what's up?
- How's it going dude?
- My man.
Scott Wiener, pizza extraordinaire.
- [Scott] You know it. - What's happening?
- I came by because I heard that you're doing
a ramen kind of thing?
- It's a pizza.
- This kind of day, you know, it's a little rainy outside.
A bowl of ramen sounds good.
- Yeah, it's ramen pizza.
- Okay, that's--
- [Mike] Oh, it's a pizza.
- I feel like I shouldn't judge it before I eat it, so.
- You got a little time?
- [Scott] Yeah, I got time, sure.
If it's gonna be good.
- -----' slamming.
Have a seat.
I got you.
- And while I wait, maybe I'll eat some pizza.
- Perfect, Bangkok Patay, Smoked Mozzarella,
---- Faced Beer Battered Chicken,
- [Scott] That's weird.
French Onion Soup, Escapist Mexican Corn.
- Yeah man, you really get weird with it, but--
- Pinky's Smoked Pepperoni Vodka--
- I politely refused these generous offerings and
let Mike get back to work.
As I took my usual seat by the window,
I began to wonder, would Mark approve of such
an unorthodox pizza?
Mark has a fixed set of rules
upon which all pizzas are judged.
- Sauce, cheese, and dough.
You walk into a pizzeria,
the smells should punch you in the face.
Pizza tastes best served right out of the oven,
500 degrees across the board.
Make it really good.
A pizza should look better than it tastes.
Those are the rules with no exceptions.
- Would Mark approve of a pizza that has noodles
instead of a crust?
(upbeat electronic dance music)
- All right, so ramen pizza.
I use two different kinds of noodles.
These are the fresh ramen noodles
that we've soaked for like four hours.
Then good old dried instant ramen pack o' noodles,
take you back to your college days.
Then we're going to get into the ingredients.
I used to get really high in college
and I used to make Buffalo chicken ramen in a crock pot.
I'm not even going to lie,
I can't pronounce half of this ----.
and it was the ---, everyone loved it.
This is a kind of nutty, peanuty.
This is like a Japanese hot paste.
This, I have no ---- idea what this is.
Oh my God.
Eggs are up.
Put them in this ice bath with a little cold water,
let 'em chill.
That component is done.
Add a little more cheese.
Mix these two up.
I'm going to coat the pan.
Once we put them down, we're going to spread them out,
nice and even, got to put it in the corner.
And that's the crust.
Mozzarella.
Then, soft boiled eggs.
You got a little scallions, sesame seeds, seaweed.
Arigato.
- [Cameraman] Just say done.
- Done.
(rain falling)
(triumphant orchestral music) - Oh my God.
Seriously?
This is like the most anticipated moment of my year.
So, okay, I want to take a look at this slice.
- [Mike] Go for it.
- All right, so there's a clear crust here
with clear toppings added after the crust has been baked.
There's discreet strata, which I'm always looking for
if something's a pizza.
It's a pizza if I see discretion among strata,
so this is kind of testing my own personal
definition of what is a pizza.
- I tell people before they eat it,
close your eyes, think of ramen, you want to do that,
and then focus on texture.
- Okay.
(crunching)
I'm closing my eyes.
- [Mike] Close your eyes.
- I'm thinking ramen.
I'm focusing, I need to listen.
(laughing)
When the lights are out, everything's a pizza.
You know what I mean? - [Mike] Yeah.
So, my whole philosophy behind this is that,
is it a pizza, is it not a pizza?
I say, why is it not a pizza?
- [Scott] Well, because there's no dough.
- Right, well, there is dough.
It's the noodles that I've reconstituted
into a dough form.
- What is your cheese on top?
I know you said there's cheese mixed in with the dough,
but I see this other layer.
- So, it's a dry aged Mozzarella that we make
with Reyou and Japanese spices.
We then let it sit in brick form,
shred it and put it on the pizza.
- What about sauce though?
- So the sauce is a hot sauce.
It's rye, but there's like 30 different spices in here.
There's a tomato base chile paste.
- So you do have tomato in there.
What if somebody comes up and says,
I've never seen boiled eggs on a pizza?
- Then clearly you've never been to Tony Boloney's.
(laughing)
Clearly you've never been to Tony Boloney's.
That's okay.
- Walking into this, this was the last thing on Earth
I would have called a pizza, but when I know--
(clanging spatula)
when you really do the math on it,
it's a pizza.
I don't know if Mark's going to agree,
but we'll let him decide for himself.
(upbeat jazzy music)
All right, man.
We got it.
Check it out, ramen pizza.
(dramatic percussion music)
- It's got hard boiled eggs on it.
- Like ramen, right?
- Where's the noodles?
- Maybe you'll find that when we eat it.
- [Mark] Wow, it's heavy.
- [Scott] Yeah, it's dense, right?
- Come on, get your slice.
- [Scott] Oh wait, you know what?
Slide the egg into the bite.
Get some of the egg in the bite.
- This is really good.
- What do you taste?
- The noodle.
The scallion.
And the heat, it has fantastic heat too.
It's really, really good.
It kind of looks like a pizza,
but it's not pizza.
- But hang on a second.
- You don't have an argument on this one.
This is not pizza.
- Like, when you close your eyes and bite into it,
doesn't this feel like a grandma pizza to you?
- No, not at all.
What are the flavors of ramen?
- I don't know.
I just eat it.
I don't know what's in it.
- Point to each element and tell me what it is.
- I have no idea.
- It is a wheat noodle though.
Is dough not made from wheat flour?
- Get out of my pizzeria.
(laughing) Please.
- The ramen pizza from Tony Boloney's in New Jersey
is absolutely delicious.
- Fantastic.
- [Scott] But technically not a pizza.
Try it for yourself at Tony Boloney's.
Thanks for watching Thrillist and check us out next time
on "Really Dough?" Or really noodle, or really spaghetti.
- Macaroni. (mumbling)
- Macaroni, sorry, I keep calling it spaghetti.
My bad.
But I'm not finished with (mumbling)
I love it, it's good.
- I love the eggs.
- Is this like the spaghetti pie you grew up with though?
- Yep.
- Oh come on.
You had it with the egg on it?
- I'm talking technical like,
I'm Jacques Pépin of like the jailhouse ramen noodles.
I don't think Jacques Pépin would be too excited
or proud of me for this one, but
I don't know.
I never went to culinary school and
I don't really give a shit.
I never went to culinary school and
I don't really give a -.