Chicken Tikka Pizza To Go?

chicken tikka pizza
Chicken tikka pizza (Chris Duffey)

The East Bay Express has praise for Fremont, California’s Mirchi Cafe & Masala Pizza, a two-year-old Italian-American-Indo-Pakistani eatery.

What’s remarkable about Mirchi’s blended flavors is how comfortable they seem with each other. Take that chicken tikka pizza, spread with a creamy masala sauce that tastes far better than most Italian-American red sauces…It supports a plush mat of melted mozzarella, green peppers, cubes of yogurt-and-garam-masala-marinated chicken tikka, and leaves of cilantro…and the crust is perfect. (“Ital-American Indo-Pakistani, Fremont’s Mirchi may be the East Bay’s ultimate hyphenated restaurant.”)

The recipe for that perfect crust comes from Lisa Ahmad’s grandfather, who had a talent for pizza making. Born Lisa Lucia, an Italian-American who grew up working in her family’s local restaurant, where she met co-worker and future husband Khursheed Ahmad, she was inspired to obtain a culinary degree and pursue a restaurant career.

When she was ready to open her own place in 2004, she “grafted Indian and Pakistani flavors onto the Italian-American food she grew up with. And she tried to re-create the simple restaurant dishes she tasted on twice-yearly trips to Pakistan with her husband.” In addition to its pizzas, Mirchi offers desi style Chinese (Pakistani-style Chinese stir-fries) and desi burgers (the Lahori beef and Punjabi chicken).

Related:
Zante Pizza & Indian Cuisine
Uttapam

— Pavani Yalamanchili
January 27, 2007

Previous | Next

Comments (1)
Print Email Del.icio.us Facebook RSS 2.0
  1. September 3, 2008, 3:53 am Henry Root

    I am looking for a recipe for Nirali Chicken, a very special creamy dish with many spices.

    Can someone post this, please?

    Thanks

Post a comment // Please be respectful

Required

Required

XHTML: You can use these tags: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <code> <em> <i> <strike> <strong>

back to top

Advertisement

About The Daily

The Daily is so much more than just 's weblog. You'll find roundups of news, musings from our staff and fascinating short pieces featuring smart, original reporting. So check back—well, daily—to get your fix in between issues.

Subscribe to The Daily's RSS feed here.

Recent Comments

Archives by Category

Sites We Love

Most E-mailed Stories

Join the Mailing List

Get a newsletter twice a month with news of issue installments. We do not share your information with any third party under any circumstances.