Tasty Travels

Wood Fire Pizza in Nepal – What a Surprise!

Whenever traveling, especially in a country where the culture is completely different from your own, it is very easy to catch a case of “homesickness.”You may start dreaming about your home, the familiarity and knowledge of getting around, the language, and most definitely the food. Whenever I start catching this sickness, one of the best remedies is pizza! “Mmmm…a delicious, greasy, dripping with melted cheese pizza,” I say to myself. The only problem is that it’s hard to find a good pizza in a Third World country like Nepal, where I am currently traveling. There's three main criteria that I look for in a restaurant when traveling; cleanliness, taste, and environment/customer service.

Here in Kathmandu, Nepal there is a little colony called Thamel. It’s where you will find the most foreigners getting ready for the treks up the Himalaya Mountains. The streets and ally ways are  filled with handicraft shops, restaurants, and hotels. After eating a 100 rupee Nepali meal every day for a week, I decided it was time to try and find something else. I usually go for safe food before tasty food when traveling abroad. Safe for me means piping hot food that has no chance of harvesting live bacteria or germs. If I find a place like the 100 rupee Nepali meal that I have been eating at, I stick with it.

Getting a little bored with chapiti (flat bread) and dal (lentils), I decided to look around. Walking to the main road, I waved down a rickshaw (bicycle taxi) to take me around and look for another place to eat. But to my surprise, before getting on the rickshaw, I saw a sign at the top of a three story building which read, “Wood Fire Pizza.” I said sorry to the rickshaw man and immediately headed over to the building. As I was climbing the hollow, unfinished concrete staircase which had no hand rail and one slight step to the right who find you in a free fall toward the filthy cracked street; I was thinking that this is too good to be true.  My head was filled with doubts about the quality and cleanliness of the pizza place. After all, the stair case looked one hundred years old and was painted with tobacco spit marks all the way up; it looked filthy. But, I thought I might try my luck.

As soon as I reached the top, I was impressed! There was a man standing at the glass double doors waiting to open them for me. As I walked in the floor tiles shined and looked like they had just been cleaned; the walls were clear (which is rare for a restaurant here), and the employees were dressed in uniforms. This was definitely a shock. I was immediately impressed by the cleanliness of the pizzeria and even more eager to see the kitchen. I may be annoying, but after catching dysentery, I always ask to see the kitchen because sometimes restaurants in the third world present a clean atmosphere on the outside, but where the food is actually cooked is filthy. Shocking experience number two: one of the cooks was washing his hands and nothing was being prepared on the floor! They were cutting vegetables on the table and using a cutting board. The wood oven was a legitimate one, holding true to the sign that initially caught my eye.

After leaving me with a menu, which was filled with many side dishes like fries, salad, chicken wings etc., the waiter returned to take my order. I knew exactly what I wanted; I came for a pizza! I ordered the margarita pizza, which is my favorite and would be easy for me to compare to other pizzerias I’ve been to on my travels. The waiter swiftly brought my order to the back to the cook. Now all I could do was wait. So far my experience was a very good one. The place was clean; my number one priority in finding a place to eat. All the tables were cleared with not a stain on them. The waiter was super friendly, plus, he spoke decent English. Customer service was great! Things were looking pretty well.

As I was waiting foreigners came in and sat down at the table adjacent to mine; Carolina and Vero from Spain. I noticed there accent and thought I might try my Spanish. I asked them if they had eaten here before and Carolina said, “Oh yes, it’s delicious. We are addicted!” (Jimeno, 2013) Sitting together, both all three waiting for our pizzas, I explained to them how I had my doubts. Of course I didn’t mention this but it’s possible that the pizza in Spain is not that good, so their comparison may be off. I asked Vero what she thought and she had the same reply as Carolina and added, “if you don’t like it we will buy it for you.” (Alvarez, 2013) I laughed and said sure. The pizzeria even had free Wifi, not one of my criteria, but a definite bonus. I thought to check TripAdvisor while I was waiting to see if this place had any reviews. Turns out, it has many! GabiGabs said in her review, " The pizza was large, and came loaded with toppings, it was tasty" (TripAdvisor, 2013).  

Fifteen minutes later I saw the waiter hurrying toward my direction, holding in his hand a steaming dish. It was elevated so I couldn’t see the pizza just yet, but the steam that was pouring from it was very noticeable. He plopped it on my table, bam! I was happy! It was a real twelve inch large pizza, smelling fresh and sizzling with greasy melted cheese. The crush looked perfect; golden brown and thin, just the way I like it. I didn’t even taste the pizza and yet my senses were almost satisfied. I took the first smoking hot slice with my hand and then quickly dropped in on my plate, amusing the girls next to me. I waiting a whole ten seconds then took my first bite. The cheese was perfect and melted in my mouth with a slightly crunchy taste from the crust. I must say this pizza was just as good as any pizzeria that I have had in the States. Plus, it was filling. My homesickness was dissolving with every bite. After eating the whole pie, I was stuffed!

Talk about a surprising experience. I didn’t think that I would find a pizza place as good as Wood Fire Pizza, especially in Nepal. One of the managers came over to ask me if I liked the pizza and of course I said yes. I asked him about the history of the place and he (Ramchandra Parajuli) told me that the pizzeria was started by a Russian foreigner who then taught the art to his workers (Parajuli, 2013). He didn’t mention why the man is no longer there, but he did a great job in his teaching. I don’t know what the pizza is like in Russia, but this was great!

If you’re traveling throughout Asia and happened to end up in Kathmandu, Nepal; head over to the Thamel colony and try out a fresh Wood Fire Pizza for yourself. If you make it to Thamel, ask any rickshaw man or anyone passing on the street, and they will know where you’re talking about.