A few months ago, I had a chance to try a pizza from Youngman Pizza (청년 피자). It was quite tasty, but it left me wanting more. A new shop of the franchise recently opened up in my neighborhood and lucky for me they are now promoting a new pizza, the Hala-mayo pizza.
The pizza itself is loaded with Jalapenos peppers, chicken breast, and covered with their special Chung-yang mayo sauce. The mayo sauce is also spicy, so this promised to be a (hopefully) mouth burning treat for lunch!
The new location is not far from the ocean, and just a quick five minute walk from my apartment. The storefront is pretty small, and there are only two small tables in the front. This is clearly a place for either pick-up or delivery, which is actually pretty common for most pizza places here in South Korea.
Lim Young-oong’s face is still everywhere in the store, as he is still the spokesperson for the brand as I wrote about last time.
There was also a poster of the new Hala-mayo Pizza, and I decided to order a family size so that I could enjoy it for more than one meal.
While I was waiting for the pizza to cook, I went for a short walk to enjoy the ocean, although it was quite windy which made it a bit hard.
After a brisk 15 minute walk I was back at the shop and the pizza was ready. The owner also added a small bottle of Coke and a number of dipping sauces and condiments.
I quickly walked home, fighting the wind as the pizza was blowing around quite a bit.
Finally, I was home, and it was time for lunch.
I unpacked all the items, and there was quite a bit. There was the pizza of course, 1 container of Chung-yang mayo, 2 containers of garlic dipping sauce, 2 containers of pickles, 1 packet of Parmesan cheese, and 1 packet of hot sauce, as well as the Coke.
Opening the pizza box, it smelled very good! The pizza itself was quite large and was cut into ten pieces. Like my previous experience with Youngman Pizza, the crust was quite thin, but that does help to cut down on the carbs.
I cut a couple of pieces out and went to sit down and enjoy the pizza.
The first bite was very tasty! It did have a decent kick to it, with both the Jalapenos and the Chung-yang mayo added some heat.
Next, I tried it with the garlic dipping sauce. The garlic dipping sauce is still very different from most other pizza places because it is much thicker and has little flecks of pepper or real garlic in it. It is definitely delicious though, and I really like it.
I also tried the pizza with Chung-yang mayo dipping sauce, although it was hard to tell the difference because there was already so much on the pizza.
The Hala-mayo pizza is itself delicious. There is a generous amount of both chicken and Jalapenos, and the Chung-yang mayo sauce adds a creamy texture to the toppings. The cheese is a mixture of mozzarella and provolone, and while it wasn’t stringy (probably because the pizza had cooled down from walking) it was tasty. The tomato sauce underneath was also good, and not too sweet, having a nice blend of both sugar and salt.
There were also a few other toppings including green peppers and onions to up the veg content of the pizza.
Overall, this was a very tasty pizza and I continue to be impressed by Youngman pizza. I will definitely be going there again.
