Savory and sweet, salty and spicy – these balls will have you sweating and asking for more. At least, some of the fried dough balls in Pizza Paul’s lineup will. Notwithstanding the litany of sexual innuendos, Paul’s has a menu of fried dough balls with various toppings. Unbeknownst to many, this extends beyond their renowned Basic and Blue Balls. The current selection of 16 balls includes the Bacon Ball, Doing the Salsa, the Nutty Ball, Snickering about my Balls and the Cheesecake Ball.
After learning of this unexplored chasm of Geneseo’s universe, our staff had to check it out.
Among our favorites were the blue ball, the unsung hero: the basic ball, the Sweet n’ Sexy Ball, the Nutty Ball and, unexpectedly, Full of Bologna.
The Sweet ‘n’ Sexy ball has a soft brownie core and is sprinkled with raspberry drizzle. The brownie core was warm and moist –- a top contender along with the Nutty Ball. The latter had melty peanut butter on top and in the middle. Generally, the simpler the ball, the better.
Perhaps the strangest ball was the Dew in the Ball. It consisted of Mountain Dew flavored frosting and was topped with crushed Doritos. We were expecting to completely hate it but it actually tasted like Fruit Loops with Doritos.
Arts & Entertainment Editor Chelsea Butkowski was the biggest proponent of the Full of Bologna ball, which was essentially a sandwich of ball and bologna served with ketchup. Pineapple Express was a runner up for Butkowski as well.
“This ball was incredibly refreshing and exotic compared to the others,” she said. “Also, the combo of pineapple and raspberry was legitimately tasty.”
Some of the balls were doused in a coating of nacho cheese. As a rule, the nacho cheese balls should be consumed with caution. The sweet balls were generally more enjoyable, some of them tasted like Toaster Strudels, which brought on flashbacks to our childhoods.
At less than $2 apiece, Paul’s would make an excellent dessert stop to end your next date night.
Reporting contributed by Arts & Entertainment Editor Chelsea Butkowski, Opinion Editor Kevin Frankel, Knights’ Life Editor Frankie Mandracchia, Photo Editor Zoe Finn and Editor-in-Chief Maddy Smith.