Top Toppings: Jasuben nu Pizza

I'm not sure what my hang up was before, but in all my years growing up in Ahmedabad I did not eat Gujju Pizza. Maybe I was too much of a snob as a kid, turned my nose up to the idea or maybe I love Pav Bhaji too much. Plus- I grew up on Smokin' Joes when it was only available to us South Bombay kids- or the first Pizza Hut in which the staff got together and did the Macarena. Oya my pizza eating experience was very Americanized even before I made it to the great country. And then Chicago Deep Dish happened. Holy cow! Its amongst the top 5 things Chicago is well known for. Deep dish pizza which has a super buttery crust and filled with sauce and toppings. The heaviest meal ever. 

So when Chandni, my lovely host in Ahmedabad, asked me if I had Jasuben's Pizza she could not believe her ears. As usual I got the - 'What kind of food blogger are you?' look. (I seem to be getting that look a lot more often now). That's it dinner plans were laid. We drove up to the one location near her house on the highway. I insisted on picking up some pav bhaji (old habbits die slow).

We sat on some chairs on the sidewalk with a hundred others loudly chatting and chomping on little quartered pieces of cheesy saucy bites.  There was a little stall with a vertical oven, a sandwich press and a blender. Three boys whipping out a dozen pizzas by the minute, grilled sandwiches, cheese toasts, and cold coffee to go with it all. Serving a hundred people by the minute and this too on a Sunday Night. And they kept on coming.

Ok let me tell you- Jasuben's Pizza is a pilgrimage. Its a tourist destination. Any foolish notion I had of what a real pizza should be and granted pizza is Italian, it all flew out of my mind when I took my first bite. The crust is biscuity, crunchy, buttery almost like a bhakri. The bubbling hot tomato sauce is a close cousin of tomato ketchup just as sweet but quite spicey. The toppings are simple- no fancy pick your own toppings. No fancy mushrooms, corn, olives, jalapenos. Huh? What are you talking about? Stick to simple finely chopped onions and capsicum ok. Top it with loads ( and I mean large amounts) of grated local white cheese. The singular cheese we grew up- the Amul's white cheese. This is way before the cheese and wine revolution hit us. Simple and yummy are the keywords here.

The crust is baked in the vertical makeshift oven, red sauce spread, then back in the oven, then quickly topped with onions and capsicum and then topped with the grated cheese.  

Any Amdavadis reading this do holler and tell me why you love Jasuben's Pizza. I am a convert- Gujju pizza I love you. Whenever I think about this pizza meal I feel like I could have broken into a moves like Jagger, a rock n roll strut, a bit of knee twisting, pelvic thrusting, sliding in a moonwalk across the floor. Oya!

This is how I felt after my very first Jasuben Pizza:

Amdavad ka Pyar- Uttarayan Day 2

These photographs were too beautiful to pass up the opportunity to post them.  I was in Ahmedabad during Uttarayan to celebrate with my friend Prashant the completion of his latest feature film- Patang which I hear was very well received in the Berlinale this year. Read my previous post on my 4 day experience with the film crew and cast in Amdavad.

On the second day of the kite flying festival, Uttarayan,  I wandered through the streets of Raipur Khadiya walking into Pol house enclosures. Closely looking at the details of the exquisite woodwork.  The rich history of the old city, the gorgeous crafts all comes alive in these old ancestral homes. My friend Jai Thakkar has written a beautiful book called Naqsh in which he has painstakingly studies, sketched, drafted these gorgeous carvings and details and the overall heirarchy of the Pol architecture. The book not only has wonderful images but also is beautifully designed- great collection for the libraray.  We visited the miniature Kite Museum which was run by this lovely organization called Vaarso. It was great just wandering through the old city. My mind was alive with memories of days spent in CEPT when we would grudgingly step into the old city. Over the years, we opened our minds to wonders of these streets. Just when it started to feel like home, it was time to move on. For me- I left the country. Coming back after 10 years to my favorite city, I could not help observe how calm its residents are in all this excitement. Happy to welcome you into their homes, their lives, try a chikki here, chat with a couple of kids there, sit with the pujari of the temple while she undoes a mess of dori and for me- I made shy eye contact with many style bhais on the roof top ready to start a second day of the kite flying madness. I again shadowed Gopal of Mumbai Paused, watching him in action, as he chatted away with the various people, photographing them, listening to their stories. People start to comfortably pose for the camera as you make it more about them and not just a random click. We went to this very tall building, to see the view of the city below. It was absolutely beautiful. It seemed to be tallest building in the old city. The random overlapping grids of the streets, the chaos of the old city, layered with the colorful kites in the sky, speckled with people on rooftops, music blaring, merging into familiar Bollywood songs blending, the chatter, a general air of celebration and joy.

As I make this post, I read online that today on Feb 26th, Amdavad celebrates 600 years. So sharing with you this wonderful city at its best-

 

See the Picture that Gopal clicked here

I also made a drawing for Prashant of the view of the rooftop we were flying kites on. I did not document the final sketch but Gopal clicked a pic of me starting to draw.
Maybe Prashant can scan me a copy so I can put it up here.