Posted by Adam Kuban, September 22, 2008 at 10:00 AM
Clicking in to the Slice inbox today, we've got this awesome email from Justin C. in Zambia....
I'm a federal civil servant currently on a four-month detail to Lusaka, Zambia, and until recently I had accepted that I'd be without good pizza during that time. Lusaka is the capital of a very undeveloped country, and the options are very limited even in the city. There are a couple fast-food pizza joints here (South African chain Debonairs and Pizza Inn), but they're terrible.
A couple colleagues recommended I go to Black Knight, a local bakery/coffee shop chain that makes pizza. The location in the Kabulonga neighborhood of Lusaka is the only one offering pizza, so after a few weeks of emptiness in my life, I finally (and skeptically) checked it out.
Etcetera24 says: "That place makes a great pizza. Don't let the appearance in the photo fool you. There's an entire (albeit tiny) restaurant tucked away there. The
entrance is at the end of an alley. As seen in my pictures here."
But is that really the name of the place? Do the Chinese characters translate into something else?
"The name is really Hutong Pizza," she said. "If you do a google, you'll get quite a few hits for the restaurant too."
Thanks for sharing your pix, Etcetera24. And for the intel.
Before and during the Olympic bacchanalia in Beijing, much was made of the fact that the government there had torn down blocks of hutongs. Those remaining are being snatched up by wealthy Chinese or foreigners, all who think it's cool to live in these traditional courtyard residences. From what I've read, it's not uncommon for restaurants and shops to be located in hutongs, and here, I just spotted this cool photo of a pizzeria situated in one. It's from jeanmichelchuiche's Beijing 北京 Hutong 胡同 on Flickr.
I'm with my family in Paris and just had a really serious pizza pie. The restaurant is called Da Pietro, located on Rue d'Mabillon in the 6th Arrondissement. Nobody had hyped me on the joint, but I kept walking past it all week, and something about it kept calling to me. I'm glad I listened.
The pie I had is also called Da Pietro, and I can see why they decided to put their name to this particular pie. Its base is a Margherita, in the Una Pizza Napoletana tradition—fresh mozzarella, slightly chewy crust, perfectly ripe but not too sweet sauce. But while the pizzaiolo clearly understands the heritage of the basic Neapolitan pizza, on the Da Pietro he adds thinly sliced pieces of ham and tops it off by breaking an egg right in the center, so that by the time it comes to the table it is a perfectly cooked sunny side up.
After spending the past few days eating so much foie gras that my blood now has twice the viscosity of motor oil, the Da Pietro felt light and tasted great, and my only regret is that I'm going to have to wait a really long time before I can have it again.
In case you or any of your readers are going to hit Paris soon, I wanted to go on record. So now I have.
A Guide to the French. Handle With Care: "Never use the word 'toilette' when asking a host for directions to the powder room; try to avoid going there at all. Never say 'Bon appétit' at the start of a meal. Don't talk loudly. Never discuss your religion or your money at dinner. Eat hamburgers, pizza, foie gras, and sorbet with a fork. Always say 'bonjour' to the bus driver, and to fellow passengers on elevators. 'Pas mal' doesn't necessarily mean 'Not bad.' It can mean 'Great!'
Posted by Robyn Lee, February 26, 2008 at 10:00 AM
Nothing gets the stomach juices flowing quite as well as a ring of shrimp with tails dangling in the air and heads swaddled in tubes of cheese-stuffed dough.
My idea of a pizza is rather basic: a flat round of dough covered in tomato sauce, dotted with mozzarella, and topped with a few basil leaves. But in the world of East Asian pizza chain pies, that would be some major weak-sauce pizza. Where are the shrimp, potato, and mayonnaise toppings? Where's the hot-dog-and-cheese-stuffed crust?
During my search for extreme Asian pizzas, I mostly noticed the range of unconventional crusts, ranging from those stuffed with hot dogs to crusts filled with sweet potato mousse. After the jump, check out my list of Top Ten Weird Asian Pizza Crusts, arranged from least weird to most bizarre.
Posted by Adam Kuban, February 20, 2008 at 10:45 AM
I am a devoted slice eater and pizza worshiper from Providence, Rhode Island. I am writing to you from the state of Esprito Santo in Brazil.
Before I left for my trip, I had the pleasure of dining at Angela's Coal Fired Pizza in Saugus, Massachusetts (actually, immediately before leaving from JFK, I stopped at L&B Spumoni Gardens, Nathan's, and Di Fara within a two-hour period). Angela's opened in November, I believe. As far as I know, it's the closest coal oven to my Providence home. It may be the only one in Massachusetts as well.
Editor's note: Last week, we ran an item on pizza in Reykajik, Iceland, sent in from homeslice Mark H. (aka Famdoc), who's written some reviews for us in the past (here and here). Mark grabbed some shots of the following:
Dear Slice,
While strolling the streets of Montpellier, France last month, I spied what must be the world's smallest pizza delivery truck, en route to a hungry, pizza-loving French person.
—Mark H.
Editor's note: A few weeks ago, I got the following email from Mark H. (aka Famdoc), who's written some reviews (here and here) for us in the past. He tipped us to the following. Buon appetito! —Adam
Reykjavik Pies: Talk about frozen pizza.
Recently got back from a two-week trip to Europe, finishing off with two and a half days in Iceland, thanks to Icelandair's fares allowing a free stopover en route to or returning from its European destinations.
We spent a day and a half in Iceland's capital city, Reykjavik. Not really thinking about pizza, I passed by two pizzerias before being drawn to the Reykjavik Pizza Company (pictured), located at the top of Laugavegur, Reykjavik's main shopping street. On the corner is Reykjavik Pizza Company's take-out store. A few yards up is the restaurant, with a large wood-burning oven in back. Available by the slice as well as by the pie, with a variety of toppings. Be aware: This is a European-style pizza, with a blend of mozzarella and gruyère.
I cannot comment on the product, as I was saving myself for a meal of Iceland's fine cod.
Iceland, by virtue of its latitude and isolation from the rest of the world, as well as the dollar's poor performance, is indescribably expensive. A $45 entrée at even a neighborhood restaurant is not uncommon. But the beauty of the volcanic/glacier countryside and the thriving music and arts scene in Reykjavik makes Iceland worth a visit.
Japan, I used to love you for your inventiveness—the way you took things from other cultures, tweaked them, and improved them.
But you're slippin', babe. That Double Roll pizza you came up with? So kinō.
Say annyong to two amazingly ostentatious pizzas that Pizza Hut South Korea has come up with (I don't know their names, so I'm just making them up here as I go along).
Ladies and gents, my homeslices, every now and then one of you writes in with a review and info about far-flung pizzerias that are way out of the range of typical Slice coverage. Today, we've got such an item for you. Mark Cohen (pictured, below right), who lives part of the year in Manila and whose first Manila dispatch appears here, is back with another report. —Adam
Cibo is the ten-year-old brainchild of one of Manila's most dynamic and accomplished business people, Margarita Fores. Born in Manila, she moved to New York City when she was 15 and lived there for 11 years. She obviously was exposed to New York pizza and Italian food while growing up, so when she decided to go into the Italian food business in Manila, she knew what constituted "good."
Fores became a serious student of Italian cuisine and eventually studied in Italy. In formulating her restaurant's M.O., she consulted and commiserated with some experienced chefs in Italy, all the time keeping her mind set on the fact she would be operating in Manila. What would work best? What was doable? What would Filipinos like and dislike? What can be mass-prepared consistently? All the things necessary to open the first Italian eatery of its kind in the Philippines.
Ladies and gents, my homeslices, every now and then one of you writes in with reviews and info about far-flung pizzerias that are way out of the range of typical Slice coverage. Today, we've got such an item for you. Mark Cohen, who lives part of the year in Manila, submitted a couple dispatches about some pizzerias in the Philippines. Here's the first of his reports. —The Mgmt.
Words and photographs by Mark Cohen | I grew up in the New York City area and lived there until I left for college. I was a typical New York pizza freak—except that, at the ripe old age of 12, I was making pizza out of the box, learning to work with dough (Chef Boyardee for those who remember). By the time I was 23, I was making pizza from scratch and was fortunate enough to work for a master pizzaiolo in the best pizza place in San Francisco in the late '60s, early '70s. My mentor hailed from the Naples area and was a great cook all around, so I learned from the best.
SCREEN NAME REDACTED: prepare to have your mind blown: hot-dog stuffed crust pizza - http://yumsugar.com/407464 nycslice: seen it: http://slice.seriouseats.com/archives/2007/05/pizza_link_roundup.html nycslice: ;) nycslice: and, yes, my mind was thoroughly blown nycslice: i kinda want it nycslice: i wish we had real pizza huts in nyc nycslice: instead of the pizza hut express locations SCREEN NAME REDACTED: so do i - i love that it's half and half nycslice: (um, i can't believe i typed that)
Reaching into the Slice mailbag today we find a tasty-looking photo from reader Paul Lang:
Adam,
I'm a fan of the blog and recently went to Europe for a quick trip. In Rome (Trastaverre was the specific neighborhood), my wife and I ate at Taverna della Scala Ristorante. We had a terrific pizza Margherita (photo attached) that had the perfect combination of crisp crust, appropriate amount of cheese, and fresh tomato sauce. Combined with the €9 house wine and a long day of hiking the city, this pizza really hit the spot.
I thought I would send along the pizza experience to contribute to your community. Keep up the great work!
Paul,
Thanks so much for the picture and advice. Photos and tips are always welcome so that we may better promote the pizza experience among the all the homeslices out there. It's always good to have one more suggestion for ol' Roma.
Hasta la pizza,
Adam
Taverna della Scala Ristorante Address: Piazza della Scala 19
Until now, the most creative makeovers of the humble meat pie have involved stacking things on top of it. This week Domino's stacked it on something else.
The Meat Pie Pizza comes with beef mince, onions, and peas topped with thick pastry and tomato sauce—and it looks about as pretty as a half-gobbled dog's eye.
Posted by Adam Kuban, January 31, 2007 at 12:18 PM
Dear Slice,
My name is Oded. Me and a friend started a new pizza site in Hebrew at www.pizzanet.co.il. The site features all sort of funky Pizza information such as the history of the pizza, trivia, famous pizza related quotes, recipes etc.
The site is entirely in Hebrew, except for a new English index we just added (we are working on translating the content to English). We are without a doubt the biggest informational site about Pizza in Hebrew.
—Oded
Dear Oded,
I'm going to have to trust you that all the triva, recipes, funky pizza info, etc., exists on your site, since I can't make heads or tails of Hebrew! Welcome to the world of pizza blogging. You have chosen to walk a strange, maddening path!
Posted by Adam Kuban, November 13, 2006 at 10:20 PM
A Scottish chef has made what might be the world's most expensive pizza:
The pizza is sprinkled with gold and topped with champagne-soaked caviar and lobster marinated in the finest cognac. Creator Domenico Crolla [right] said it was worth more than $3,700.
Mr. Crolla is tying the pie in to the upcoming James Bond movie by calling it the "Pizza Royale 007" (" 'If any pizza was made to suit 007, this is it,' said Mr Crolla.") and will auction it off on eBay to raise money for a charity, the Fred Hollows Foundation, "which works to prevent curable blindness in developing countries."
Posted by Adam Kuban, November 13, 2006 at 1:32 PM
Quite a while ago, Slice reader Will F. wrote to us:
I have found a counterpoint to New Zealand's Hell Pizza. It is Al Volo, a more traditional Italian pizzeria located in the greater Auckland area. I took a shot a writing my own review here: Al Volo Pizza, but perhaps
their website, which has a spiffy animation of the pizzaiolo doing his thing, would be more informative: www.alvolo.co.nz.
No, Will, we think your take on it is more informative:
The pizzas were classic neapolitan pies--extra thin crust, measuring about 12" in diameter. According to the pizzaiolo, the oven ran on native manuka wood and burned somewhere between 300 and 400 degrees Centigrade (roughly 575 F to 750 F). The pies only were in the oven for two or three minutes before they were done. The crusts were crisp, if a little flimsy due to their thinness. However, the sauce was somewhat bland. This may have been related to the kind of tomatoes used (I couldn't say for sure), but it also suffered from an apparent lack of any seasoning. The difference between the cow and buffalo mozzarella was suprisingly clear when sampling them side by side with the buffalo possessing distinctive tang and a creamier texture. Olive oil proved to be an excellent addition to the Al Volo pie, while basil was key for the margherita, though it probably could've used a few more leaves.
Thanks, Will!
AL VOLO PIZZA Address: 27 Mount Eden Road; Auckland, New Zealand [map] Phone: 09 302 2500
Al Volo Pizza [Cat Eats Brains] Photograph of Al Volo pie by Will F.
Posted by Adam Kuban, November 7, 2006 at 11:58 AM
New Zealand chain Hell Pizza, no stranger to controversy or clever gimmicks, has come up with a new one. For its new "Lust Pizza," a pie for, ahem, meat lovers, the company has been distributing pamphlets containing sex instructions and a condom.
The viral campaign has aroused some criticism, as you'd imagine. From Hawkes Bay Today:
Not only do they have the authority of government policy on their side in raising the profile of HIV-Aids-and-conception-free sex with each mouthful of their product, but they are guaranteed that those calculated to be most irritated immediately become, in spite of themselves, part of their promotion. Adjudication by the Advertising Standards Authority is also factored into the marketing plan.
Not only giant, but with local landmarks depicted upon it:
MOSCOW, September 6 (RIA Novosti) - Sightseers in Moscow might be able to take a very different look at local landmarks Thursday when they appear on an enormous pizza baked in honor of the capital's birthday....
The edible "map" will feature famous sights, including the Kremlin, Vorobyovy Gory hills with a platform overlooking the capital and a ski jump, the Moskva River, and new sprawling communities outside the Ring Road around the city.
Australian television comedian Paul Fenech left Madrid this morning on his 20,000km journey to set an unbeatable Guinness World Record for longest delivery and raise money to fight child cancer.
He will fly via Johannesburg and Sydney before delivering the pizza to the Wellington home of cancer sufferer Niko Apostolakis, 13, at 10am on Saturday.
GREEN DOOR PIZZA Location: The Muslim Quarter, Jerusalem. Getting There: From the Damascus Gate, make the first left off El Wad. Telephone: 02-627-6171 Hours: Fluctuates depending on business. On busy days -- en Shala, Mr. Ali says (Arabic for "G-d willing") -- 7 a.m. to midnight. On slow days, he closes as early as 6 p.m.
Do the time warp: Abu Ali greets visitors to Green Door Pizza from his "pizza pit." After cooking an egg-and-cheese pizza, Mr. Ali coats it with uncooked tomatoes just before serving it.
WORDS AND PHOTOGRAPHS BY SELTZERBOY .::.Let's say you've just traveled 5,600 miles, becoming the first person in your family in 2,000 years (give or take a few hundred) to return to your homeland. Would grabbing a pizza be on your mind? It wasn't on mine, either. Alas, duty calls.
We all eat pizza on the road. Not just to see how it measures up; we like to be reminded of home. But this wasn't one of those trips. Surrounded by the beauty and vibrancy of Israel, I never felt like I wasn't home. So I waited until home took its weekly vacation -- on Saturdays, the Jewish Sabbath, Jerusalem grinds to a halt -- to explore the local pizza trade. The only place to do that on Shabbat is the Old City. Aside from the Jewish Quarter and the Western Wall, life there beats as usual.
Holy land: A view of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem's Old City. The Dome of the Rock, Islam's third-holiest site, was built in 691 C.E. Below it is the Western Wall, the only surviving portion of the Second Temple, destroyed by the Romans in 70 C.E.; it is Judaism's holiest site.
Old City is the part of Jerusalem that dates 4,000 years and draws religious pilgrims and curiosity seekers from around the world. It's easy to get lost amid the narrow streets and alleys, each filled with a different story from the city's compelling past. Following the action in this one-square-kilometer town, it's little wonder I ended up deep in the Muslim Quarter -- the largest and liveliest section of the walled city. What's surprising is that with nary a tourist following me, I ended up eating something called Arabic pizza. Much of Old City involves visiting ancient places; in the Muslim Quarter, even everyday life looks probably just as it did when the Ottomans ruled. Except that for most of the Ottoman Empire, pizza didn't even exist.
Not far from the Damascus Gate, Green Door Pizza is a respite from the bustle. Whereas all the action in the Muslim Quarter takes place on the street ("streets" are about 10 feet wide), the Green Door does its business in an actual sit-down restaurant. It's near the intersection of El Wad and Suq Khan ez-Zeit, but good luck finding any street signs. Most outsiders just call this the Arab shuk, using the Hebrew word for "market." You'll know you've found the right place when you see its large green doors, unmistakable amid the seemingly endless paths of stone.
Down a few steps are a few mismatched plastic tables and chairs. As I enter, an elderly man is eating a whole fish from a frying pan at the table nearest the door. From the next table, two middle-aged men look up with large smiles. "Welcome," an Arabic-accented voice says from the back. "Come." It is Abu Ali, standing ten feet back from the entrance -- and three feet down. Mr. Ali, who runs the Green Door, works from a three-foot-cube "pizza pit." In the hollow with him is a wood-fired oven (powered by a combination of olive wood and lemon wood); the oven's opening and Mr. Ali's waist are level with the restaurant floor. Talk about working in the trenches.
[Lithuanian company] Cilija, which owns dozens of pizza parlors in Lithuania and neighboring Latvia, has asked the national patent bureau to register the intellectual property rights of the scent. The agency did not comment on the trademark request.
If the request is granted, it does not mean that other pizzerias would have to stop making the oven-baked dish, but only Cilija would be able to make the claim that its food smells like freshly baked pizza.
"Taylor Street, the late 1890s. The neighborhood of Italian immigrants, largely from Naples, is packed with handcarts and makeshift stands selling fruit, vegetables, olive oil and bread. Speaking mostly in Italian, they buy, sell, argue and barter, when suddenly a man walks onto the street pushing a cart holding two copper washtubs. Their bottoms are packed with charcoal, keeping round pies of bread, tomato, spices and cheese hot. Walking near Taylor and Racine, he sells these pies for two cents each, and the people seem to like them. Little does he know that he is America's first pizza vendor, and in a hundred years those few cents would turn into a multi-billion dollar industry." A Pizza History: Charting the rise of Chicago's pie [NewCity Chicago]
"Michael Altenberg, chef and owner of Lincoln Square's Bistro Campagne, will open Chicago's first all-organic flatbread pizza restaurant, called Flat Earth, in Wicker Park in mid-September. The menu is '100-percent organic' and includes 'flatbread pizzas, salads and sandwiches,' according to managing partner Greg Christian." The Local Pizza Place [NewCity Chicago]
New Zealand pie chain Hell Pizza has box that turns into coffin for your slices' "remains" (pictured). [Boing Boing]
Totino's makes lean Pizza Rolls. Because people who eat Pizza Rolls are really big on dieting. [Fort Worth Star-Telegram]
Satire: "Domino’s Pizza (DPZ) announced that it is teaming up with Federal Express (FDX) to provide nationwide pizza delivery. In a move expected to revolutionize the food distribution business, the pies will be assembled on-site in FedEx’s Memphis distribution facility, and loaded directly on airplanes for next day delivery." [TheSpoof.com]
From yesterday's "Weird But True" in the New York Daily News:
The Brazilian aviation authority has been ordered to pay $17,500 and a slice of pizza to a worker who said he was humiliated when his boss labeled him a "trash picker" for retrieving a slice of pizza from a trash can.
Slice is happy to bring you another excerpt from Ed Levine's book Pizza: A Slice of Heaven. This time, Ed's trip to Naples. Be sure to click past the jump for a list of some of Napoli's—and Rome's—best pizzerias.
The pizza police, dedicated to the proposition that authenticity is everything, tell us that you cannot judge or taste pizza properly without having eaten it in Naples. Pizza wasn't invented in Naples (there have been flatbreads with toppings for thousands of years), but it is the place where pizza became popular, and where this perfect, simple food burrowed itself deep into the consciousness of Neapolitans of every class and neighborhood. Naples, they say, is where the modern pizza-eating rituals first flowered.
In 1830, the world's first pizzeria, Antica Pizzeria Port'Alba, opened its doors in Naples, and an industry was born. Antica Pizzeria Port'Alba is still in business, by the way. Fifty-nine years later, a pizzaiolo named Raffaele Esposito was invited to the Italian royal palace to make three pizzas for the visit of King Umberto and Queen Margherita of Savoy. The queen was apparently no dummy when it came to politics, so she declared her favorite pizza to be the one with the colors of the Italian flag: red (tomato), white (mozzarella cheese), and green (basil). Thus, Pizza Margherita was born.
Right around the time Esposito came up with the Margherita, Italians started coming to America by the millions, driven by the prospect of improving their standard of living. According to author Pamela Sheldon Johns, five million Italians made their way to America by the turn of the twentieth century, 80 percent of them from the south of Italy. Thus it was almost inevitable that a Neapolitan immigrant named Gennaro Lombardi would open the first pizzeria in America—on Spring Street in lower Manhattan in 1905.
Every food writer and historian worth his or her pizza crust has made the pilgrimage to Naples to taste pizza at the source. When I went, I was armed with clippings from many of the illustrious "foodies" who had gone before me—David Downie, Alan Richman, and Jeff Steingarten . To bolster my credibility and to guide me through that stunningly beautiful city, I persuaded Maurizio DeRosa to come with me. Maurizio is a Neapolitan native and the former owner (along with his mother and brother) of the now-defunct DeRosa, the only Neapolitan restaurant ever given three stars by Ruth Reichl during her stint as restaurant critic for the New York Times. We stayed at his mother's in the Vomero section of Naples, and set out to eat at the fifteen best pizzerias in the city. I actually would have gone to more, but Maurizio assured me that fifteen pizzerias in five days would be his limit. What did we find? Well, I hope Maurizio doesn't banish me from Italy for saying this, but what I found is that the Neapolitan culture of pizza is in many ways more interesting than the pizza itself.
Posted by Adam Kuban, September 7, 2005 at 10:51 AM
Dear Slice,
I was wondering if you know where I could find a decent slice in Paris.
I've been dying for some New York–style pizza.
Best regards,
Viktor
A: Hmm. Like so many of the questions we get here at Slice, we simply don't know the answer. I've never been to France, much less Paris, and I don't think Seltzerboy has, either. I'm pretty sure E-Rock's visited, but he was probably too far gone on wine to bother with les pizzas.
So let's open it up to the international community of pizza lovers: Does anyone know if there's a New York–style pizzeria in Paris?
During our "quiet time," last month, we spotted a post from our man in Saigon, Graham Holliday, freelance journalist and proprietor of the street-food-obsessed blog noodlepie. Mr. Holliday reported on the impending opening of a pizzeria called Pizza 'n' Chick, no doubt the Vietnamese equivalent of New York City's own various Kennedy Pizza Chicken joints. Says Holliday:
The name intrigues me - Pizza "n" Chick. I wonder if the 'Sale off 15%' offer applies to the chicks or the pizza or both?? Were the chicks trained by the Italian chef too? Do they have a 'Buy one get one free' offer. The SliceNY crew would go weak at the knees for a bit of pizza "n" chick action. Blimey.
From the New York Times Going To column—this time Marseille:
Nearby is Pizzaria Étienne, (5) 43, rue Lorette (no phone), which opened in 1943 in its now-dilapidated stucco house. Locals swear it's the best pizza in the world. It was packed and raucous even at 11 p.m. on a weeknight, the waiters all seemed to have tattoos, and there were old photos of famous footballers covering the walls. It was worth waiting for a table in an awkward line by the bathroom. The pizza ($9), which comes with either cheese or anchovies, ranked high on my best-ever list. (Dinner for two with wine was $75; cash only.)
Posted by Adam Kuban, February 25, 2005 at 1:08 PM
Photograph from the New York Times
We at Slice never went through that whole hate-the-French thing, but if you did, check this out: The French aren't so bad; they like pizza, too. And it looks like there's even such a thing as French–style pie. And we're not talkin' Stouffer's.
Nice, France — FRANCIS CRESCI'S decision to ban mozzarella at the pizzeria he opened here in 1956 was less a matter of taste than conviction. It echoed the insistence of his grandfather, an immigrant from Umbria in Italy, that nary a word of Italian be heard in the family's new home in Nice. The young Mr. Cresci thought his pizzas should speak either French or, like his grandfather, Nissart, a dialect with Italian and old Provençal influences.
"In every region of Europe the locals were eating foods produced on their land," recalled Mr. Cresci, now 78. "I reckoned there was enough cheese to choose from in France."
The nutty, buttery flavor of semihard cheeses like French Emmenthal and Cantal distinguishes much French pizza from Neapolitan-style pies made only with milky mozzarella. When the cheese is spread over a thin round of dough coated with tomato and herbs and then subjected to the relentless whoosh of heat in a brick oven, the result is a bubbling, molten masterpiece.
"C'est une pizza qui vive," said Mr. Cresci's son, Ludovic, who now oversees La Pizza, his father's business. Sure enough, that pizza is alive.
The story traces the French style pies to the 1940s, at Chez Etienne in Marseille, and explains why people might not often associate the French with pizza:
"Many of the people who go into the business are only looking at the profit margins," lamented Julien Panet, president of the Association of French Pizzerias. "They see it as requiring minimal investment and savoir-faire. There's no pride, there's no passion for culinary art."
Heh. Sounds a lot like most Gotham pizzerias. But in the south of France, it's different:
First, they are raised on a Mediterranean diet: they understand tomatoes, basil, olive oil and anchovies. Second, the region's proximity to Italy and its influx of Italian immigrants, vacationers and retirees has, over the decades, provided a steady supply of pizza cognoscenti.
Maybe there is also something in the rocks and the trees. The custom-made ovens first installed at the original La Pizza on the Rue Massena in the heart of Nice, and at a second, 400-seat locale that opened on the Quai St.-Pierre in Cannes in 1960, turned those meccas of people-watching into ones of pizza-watching. The baking stones were constructed, like many of France's finest bread ovens, with volcanic ash quarried in the region. Their fires were set ablaze with logs from the Riviera's lush pine groves.
Posted by Adam Kuban, December 7, 2004 at 12:48 PM
A Saigon Pizza Kick:Freelance journalist Graham Holliday has been scoping out the best pizza Saigon (aka Ho Chi Minh City) has to offer and reporting about it on his blog, Noodlepie. Above are photos from his first round of Vietnamese pizza reportage, delivery from Cappuccino Ristorante.
PIZZA IN VIETNAM Saigon-based freelance journalist Graham Holliday has been searching for the best pizza in the city that was once referred to as the Paris of the Orient. Click on the pizzeria names below to visit his blog and get the whole scoop.
CAPPUCCINO RISTORANTE Location: 86 Bui Vien Street in District 1; 39 Vo Vuong Toan Street in District 2 Phone: 089203134
The previous item we posted (Deep-Fried Pizza) reminded us in two ways of an entry we've been meaning to make for a while. First, because it that post was about pizza in a foreign land. Second, because Pieman commented on the entry and chided us for goofin' on the Scots' deep-fried delicacy.
Pieman, aka Graham Holliday, is a freelance journalist living in Saigon. Though his weblog is called Noodlepie, he probably wouldn't mind that we at Slice read a pizza reference into his nom de blog. That's because Pieman alerted us a couple months ago to his entries on pizza in Vietnam, thinking we'd be interested in sharing his quest for the best with you.
Of course we were. So let me cut to the chase. Pieman has visited two pizzerias so far, Cappuccino Ristorante (his favorite) and Pomodoro Italian Restaurant ("the best service of any restaurant I have visited in Vietnam," he says). I could recap his findings, but let's let him speak for himself:
In my experience, bagging a decent pizza in Saigon has been more miss than hit. [Cappuccino] churn[s] out the best I've found thus far. Tonight we're talking Pizza Chorizo, No. 98 on the menu. Pasted in among the mozzarella are bell peppers, chorizo and olives. Cappuccino pizzas normally arrive slightly moist and greasy on the surface, which I like. For some reason tonight's was dry. I do like my pizza with a burnt underbelly. Hint of char adds a scofftacular harshness to the cheese and other toppings. Simple seems to work better than all-singing-all-dancing pizzas in Vietnam. I was a fan of this joint's Pizza Mexico, No. 88. It came oozing with Chill con carne, bell pepper, onion and served with salsa, guacamole & sour cream on the side. Fab, fat scoff, but you should be able to turn a good pizza over with none of your topping heading southwards. Try that with a Pizza Mexico and you'll end up with your breadbase in one hand and something resembling a placenta splat down below....
You get one piece of 'seasonal fruit' free with every order - bananas appear to be in season year round. Order a large pizza and you also get a free Coca Cola. This (large) Pizza Chorizo will set you back 61,000VD or around $4 including delivery, although a tip is polite for your motorbike boy. The most expensive pizza on the menu is a Pizza Pepperoni for 71,000VD. One last hint - There are two phone numbers for Cappuccino. If you don't speak Vietnamese, use this number only (Tel: 089203134). Never had to repeat anything to this guy. Not only the best pizza I've found here, but the best English speaking telephone delivery service.
Two months later, Pieman tried Saigon's Pomodoro Italian Restaurant:
... there's not a whole lotta blindin' pizza action going on in downtown Saigon. However, there's far worse to be had in this town than the Pizza al Gorgonzola pictured [below left] that had me choking on cheesy fumes at the popular Pomodoro Italian Restaurant at 79 Hai Ba Trung Street in District 1. The Pomodoro opened four years ago and serves 12 different pizzas along with pasta dishes, Parma ham with a spicy tomato chutney, a fab French onion soup and a decent wine selection. It also has the best service of any restaurant I have visited in Vietnam.
Carrying on the superlatives theme, the crust is the thinnest I have found in Saigon. It can be somewhat dry and over toasted around the edges resulting in an over crisp teeth cracking perimeter, but the all important char taste is ever present. Gorgonzola cheese, or any blue cheese to my mind, is a winner on a pizza and the Pomodoro slaps a healthy splodge of Milan's finest in the middle and lets the goodness spread over the mozzarella and crispy dough. Like the bread base, the topping is also on the thin side and the bizarre addition of tomato slices can be annoying. But, maybe that's authentic Italian style? I've no idea. This large size pizza is enough for one greedy guzzler to start thinking about unbuckling belts. It would do equally well for two on a diet. The salads at Pomodoro are patchy, so are the 'daily specials', but the pasta is good, the Lasagne al forno especially so, and their Italian espresso is the best in Saigon. Pizzas go from 40,000VD - 90,000VD. Here's the delivery menu and further restaurant details.
If Slice ever visited Vietnam, we'd probably stay away from pizza in favor of the native cuisine ... Oh, OK—we'd have to do at least one pizzeria, to oblige our readers. Now we know where to turn if that ever happens. We'll keep an eye on Noodlepie from here on out and will highlight the Pieman's future pizza entries.
The house of worship's pastor urged his flock to pony up and "give the guy the biggest tip he's ever had."
Hong Fei Li, the congregation's benefactor, is part-time Pizza Hut driver and a hospitality student at the New Zealand Management Academy. He plans to use the money for student-related expenses.
The pastor was also motivated by the fact that pie delivery is a dangerous job and he wanted to do something nice for a pizza driver.
Posted by seltzerboy, February 23, 2004 at 4:32 PM
Since you know my feelings about pineapple pizza, you can imagine my displeasure at the notion of "tikka masala pizza." At least in London there is now an arbiter to settle these matters. He goes by the name of Luigi Amaduzzi (right), Italy's ambassador to the UK. And he's urging Londoners to forsake non-Italian Italian food.
Maybe this would be a good time to launch a campaign for a New York City commissioner of pizza.
Some choice quotes from the article: Amaduzzi: "Even the kind of pizzas that are considered 'Italian' - which have salami or prosciutto toppings - are all new additions. Some of these I don't like. I tend to be traditional in my tastes. Food is an art. It should be about creativity, but within limits."
Giorgio Locatelli: ""It is very personal. If you want spaghetti lobster with parmesan, I can merely suggest that it would be better without, but what you put in your mouth is ultimately your business." He added: "I wish I had had the idea to put pineapple on a pizza, I would be a millionaire by now."
Posted by Adam Kuban, February 6, 2004 at 10:59 AM
From the Inland California Press-Enterprise [registration required]. Seems Kip Keune, a special forces retiree now working as a consultant in Iraq, is fostering a pizza-based cultural exchange in Baghdad. We wholeheartedly believe in the power of communal breadbreaking to bring people of all stripes together, but come on, New York G.I.s: Represent! This guy is bringing California pizza to the people of Iraq.
They deserve better from us.
As evidence, this passage: "Baghdad pizza is every bit as good as Murrieta [California] pizza, Keune said."
Say what?! If that had been said about New York pie, there would have been no comparison.
Injury, meet insult: The Iraqi pizzeria is thinking of renaming itself California Pizza Experience in honor of the Murrieta shop.
This reminds us: If you want to send some pizza to the troops over there, hit up G.I. Pizza. We can't vouch for its quality, but I'm sure the little slice of home would be appreciated nonetheless.
Posted by Adam Kuban, January 22, 2004 at 12:36 PM
Happy Lunar New Year to any and all Slice readers who celebrate it! We were happy to find this pizza-related story so as to make mention of this auspicious day. Seems that, in Thailand, where there's a large ethnic Chinese population, the avian flu scare has prompted celebrants to leave pizza instead of chicken at temple altars [via the Times]. That's a deviation from tradition that we stand fully behind, though we can't for the life of us figure out why pizza would be so popular with ethnic Chinese in Thailand that it would warrant an altar offering.
If you're thinking about heading to Chinatown to catch any of the festivities, check out this page for background info. [Via Gothamist.]
Port Macquarie has proven itself the most pizza-lovin' town in Australia. Forget about who can run fastest, jump highest or throw furthest because Port Macquarie residents and visitors can eat more pizza in one day than any other town in Australia.
Now that's an achievement.
An achievement ... yeah. Uh, we couldn't say it any better
Posted by Adam Kuban, December 15, 2003 at 9:00 AM
Mr. Feldman's photo of the Italian pizzaman in Stockholm prompted me to dig through my own photo archives for this picture. Taken in Kurashiki-shi, Japan, during my latest visit with a longtime friend who now lives there, it shows Mr. Sekizen Kohara at the prep table in his shop, La Cenetta.
Pizza in Japan actually isn't that hard to find (click the Pizza Royalhat image at right for a menu from a Japanese pizzeria). But good pizza is. Sekizen's pie falls squarely in the former camp, and it's what makes his shop popular with Western ex-pats living in the area as well as Japanese.
His skills come from time spent studying in Italy; numerous awards and certificates lining the walls prove it. And with his retro-ish black-framed glasses and jaunty cabbie hat (which he usually wears but wasn't the day I shot this), it's not hard to picture him in some post-War Italian cinema classic.
Sekizen-san uses a small wood-burning oven to make small (ten-inch) thin-crust Neapolitan-style pies. It's been too long (I was last there in March of this year) to give a thorough assessment, but I can say without hesitation that La Cenetta was better than most of the run-of-the-mill slice joints I've tried here in New York City.
I remember trying a plain pie (to use as a benchmark), one with peppers and onions, and one with sausage. All good, except the sausage that Sekizen used tasted less like a good sweet or hot Italian sausage and more like the breakfast sausage you'd find here in the States. Prices started at ¥1,000 (about US$8.50) for a basic plain pie and ranged upward to about ¥1,400.
A couple observations. First: La Cenetta does not slice its diminutive pies. You have to manage this task at table, with a fork and serrated knife. I'm not sure if that's common practice in Japan, as I didn't eat at any other pizzerias while there. Second: The Japanese there ate their pizza exclusively with knife and fork, no matter that the tiny slices were in no way unmanageable. Again: I don't know if that's standard practice everywhere, but it seemed to be the case at La Cenetta—and I got funny looks for eating with my hands. Oh well, sho ga nai!
Posted by Adam Kuban, December 15, 2003 at 6:00 AM
Ian Feldman, a reader in Stockholm, sends us a photo he took while a student of photography. This is a picture, Ian says, "taken on 15th Oct 1971 of Salvatore Versace, a baker in a fancy pizzeria called Piazza Opera, at Gustav Adolfs Torg in Stockholm, Sweden. Salvatore doesn't live here any more, so, apparently, he hasn't followed the path taken by many a cook here back in those days who bought up their outlets and became restaurant mini-moguls. Nowadays pizza parlors here are the domain of folks of Middle-Eastern origin, while Italians cater to more lucrative segments of the eatery market. Still, pizzas are mean and yummy.
Thanks, Ian. Though we try to maintain a New York focus, we're always eager to hear about pizza from around the world, especially when accompanied by such a nice picture. We owe you a slice next time you make it to New York! Tack s mycket and adj!
Posted by Adam Kuban, November 11, 2003 at 11:43 AM
A man has opened a pizzeria in Baghdad, the New York Times reports in an AP story apparently picked up from the Wall Street Journal.
Walid Mahmoud learned his chops working in a family pizzeria in Rome. When the Americans came to town, he cobbled enough cash money together to open a pie joint. "The Wall Street Journal reports on a good day he sells nearly 200 pizzas," the story says. "But orders can drop to a handful depending on terrorist activity."
I bet. Not only that, but if Mr. Mahmoud offers delivery, he has to contend with some pretty mean and confusing streets. Like this one at left, from Baghdad blogger G.
Israelis in Tel Aviv have cooked what they hope is the world's longest pizza. Channel News Asia reports, "The labour of love included 30 hours of work, 25 cooks, 150 kilos of dough, 50 litres of tomato sauce, 60 kilos of green olives, and 80 kilos of mozzarella cheese."
Palestinian spokesmen vowed to retaliate with an even longer pizza.
Pizza delievery in Tehran: I would have thought it unlikely. Heck, I didn't even know Iran had pizza. A trip to the movie Crimson Gold might do me some good then. A.O. Scott writes in the New York Times:
Mr. Kiarostami, the lion of contemporary Iranian art cinema, and Mr. Panahi, who has established himself with "The White Balloon" and "The Circle" as one of Iran's leading urban filmmakers, set out to explain what drove the robber, a pizza deliveryman and a veteran of the Iran-Iraq war, to his desperate, self-destructive act of violence. The answer is not altogether surprising, and at times "Crimson Gold" exhibits a finger-pointing didacticism as it exposes the cruelties and inequities of a society sharply polarized by class and corrupted by selfishness, snobbery and cynicism. But the occasional obviousness of the film's themes is more than balanced by the subtlety of its methods, and by the stolid, irreducible individuality of its protagonist, Hussein.
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I'm a federal civil servant currently on a four-month detail to Lusaka, Zambia, and until recently I had accepted that I'd be without good pizza during that time. Lusaka is the capital of a very undeveloped country, and the options are very limited even in the city. There are a couple fast-food pizza joints here (South African chain Debonairs and Pizza Inn), but they're terrible.
"Michael Altenberg, chef and owner of Lincoln Square's Bistro Campagne, will open Chicago's first all-organic flatbread pizza restaurant, called Flat Earth, in Wicker Park in mid-September. The menu is '100-percent organic' and includes 'flatbread pizzas, salads and sandwiches,' according to managing partner Greg Christian." 
During our "quiet time," last month, we spotted a post from our man in Saigon, Graham Holliday, freelance journalist and proprietor of the street-food-obsessed blog 
Since you know my feelings about pineapple pizza, you can imagine my displeasure at the notion of "tikka masala pizza." At least in London there is now an arbiter to settle these matters. He goes by the name of Luigi Amaduzzi (right), Italy's ambassador to the UK. And 
Amaduzzi: "Even the kind of pizzas that are considered 'Italian' - which have salami or prosciutto toppings - are all new additions. Some of these I don't like. I tend to be traditional in my tastes. Food is an art. It should be about creativity, but within limits." 
From the Inland California 
Happy Lunar New Year to any and all Slice readers who celebrate it! We were happy to find this pizza-related story so as to make mention of this auspicious day. Seems that, in Thailand, where there's a large ethnic Chinese population, the avian flu scare has prompted celebrants to leave 
Mr. Feldman's photo of the 
Israelis in Tel Aviv have cooked what they hope is the 
