- We are on Mission Street
in the Bernal Heights neighborhood of San Francisco
just south of the Mission district.
We are heading to a place called Zante Pizza.
We're gonna try some of this Indian pizza,
which is just a mash-up of traditional
Indian flavors with a traditional
Italian pizza as we know it.
So it's gonna be super interesting
and I can't wait to try it.
(upbeat jazzy music)
- When I started, it was only Italian.
So I turned to the Indian--
- [Lucas] There was only Italian pizza in the neighborhood.
- Italian pizza and Italian food.
- Okay. - Yeah.
We started making pizza for the staff to eat
and see how it goes.
So eventually, it went good.
Everybody was saying, "Okay, let's put on the menu."
So I know how to cook back in home in India,
so I put my own dishes and put in the menu.
Then, we tried to make a pizza and (mumbles)
we have the kitchen, so everybody said,
"Okay, let's put on the menu."
It goes very well. - Okay.
And since you started doing that, have you noticed,
have other people also started trying to sell--
- Yeah, there's quite a bit people.
One guy used to work for me and he opened his own.
- Really? - And he copy me.
- That guy.
- But, you know, I have the ingredients
in my dough, he doesn't know.
- Ah. - I have my special dough.
- Okay, you have the special dough
that he doesn't know about.
- He doesn't know about it.
- But when he betrayed you--
- Yeah. (chuckling) - And opened a new...
And you're the godfather.
- Yeah, I'm the godfather.
- And you took him and you kissed him (kissing air)
and you said--
- I know it was you, Fredo.
You broke my heart.
(laughing)
- That's okay. You're okay with that guy.
- [Tony] Indian (mumbles) dough,
with all my spices. - [Lucas] Okay.
Can I touch it?
- Yeah, you can have it.
- Ooh, nice.
- How it feel?
- It feels like a
like a cold, sticky baby.
(laughing)
And you can see in the dough,
it is slightly yellow in color
and you can see all of the different spices
that are sort of dotted-- - [Tony] Fennel.
- It looks like there's maybe a little chili in there
as well. - Chili flakes.
- Yeah, and it looks really great.
So this is the special dough. - Yeah.
- So what do we do with this now?
- Let's go there.
Go like this first.
- Ah, see, you're the expert. - And you make a little--
- Oh, and you're making the little bubbles in there.
- Yeah.
I'm gonna put in the air.
(hollers) (laughs)
- Amazing.
So this one is...
- [Tony] Spinach curry sauce, masala sauce.
- [Lucas] This is the creamy masala sauce.
- [Tony] Creamy masala tomato base.
- And now the cheese.
- I put on half and you do the half.
- [Lucas] So this is the Italian influence still.
(jazzy music)
- Okay, now this is the cauliflower.
- Cauliflower. - All over.
- [Tony] Eggplant all over.
Garlic, fresh garlic.
- Oh, I love that. I want a lot of garlic.
- [Tony] All right.
- [Lucas] Give me extra garlic.
- [Tony] Extra garlic. - [Lucas] Extra garlic.
I love the garlic. - [Tony] There you go.
One half is chicken...
- [Lucas] That's the Tandoori chicken.
- [Tony] This is a paneer masala.
- [Lucas] And then we have some prawns there. Oh, great.
- Coriander, cilantro, and green onion.
- [Lucas] Ah, yes.
- [Tony] All around - [Lucas] Amazing.
Can I put it in the oven? - [Tony] Yeah.
(jazzy music)
- There we go. (claps) Good.
- All right. - All right.
You did it good. - Hey!
- Hey!
One, two, three. - [Tony] (mumbles) Yeah,
there you are.
- [Lucas] Oh, wow. - [Tony] Good.
(jazzy music)
- [Lucas] Let's start with chicken tikka masala.
I'm gonna use the chutneys that
Tony's brought out.
We have a mint and we have a
tamarind, slightly sweet and fruity,
but I'm told this will accompany
the pizza quite well.
And that's delicious.
So you have the traditional
pizza base, the pizza dough, which you would expect
in a traditional pizza.
And then you have the mozzarella cheese,
which you saw we just put on.
And then that creamy tasting of curry
as the base of the sauce and then you have these
tender pieces of chicken tikka.
It makes for a really
nice piece of pizza,
like you would expect from an Italian place
except for the flavors are just completely South Asian.
Totally subcontinent.
Why don't we move on to the
second half of the meat?
This is going to have bits of chicken tikka
and it's also gonna have some little prawns,
which you saw we put on there as well.
I like that a lot.
Where I come from, Chicago,
where people make fun of our pizza,
(bleep) y'all.
That is pizza.
It's not a casserole.
Sorry.
My favorite type of pizza to eat
in Chicago, deep dish Chicago pizza,
is a spinach deep dish.
And so having this
saag spinach-based sauce
is really excellent.
So it's nice,
tasting of spinach, a little bit creamy,
a lot of sharp garlic flavor.
Again, you get these tender pieces of chicken,
which are sort of spicy but also
marinated in yogurt.
So they're very tender and very soft,
vaguely creamy.
It's a totally interesting new way
to deliver Indian flavors into your mouth.
Why don't we just break down this dough a little bit?
You know, it looks like traditional pizza dough,
but it does have a distinct yellow coloring.
It's a bit more solid than a
traditional naan bread would be.
For example, you saw us in the New York season
at the Pakistan Tea House
sticking those naan to the side of that
very hot tandoor oven.
But it's a hybrid.
It still does retain those flavors,
so it does still taste like saffron as well.
And it does sort of raise the question
of why don't people do more with
the pizza dough?
We've seen monstrosities when people
have tried to do things like put
cheese inside the pizza crust.
- We eat our pizza the wrong way.
- Crust first.
- [Voiceover] Introducing stuffed crust pizza
from Pizza Hut.
- [Lucas] Moving on to the vegetarian options.
On the masala side, this has paneer.
It's a non-melting cheese.
If you've ever had cheese curds,
you Wisconsinites, you midwesterners out there,
I know you're watching.
You know what I'm talking about.
They're delicious, they're totally delightful.
They don't melt, however,
like a traditional cheese,
like a mozzarella cheese.
Anyway, so that's what's on this side
along with the masala sauce.
You know what I'm gonna do?
I'm gonna double-up on the chutneys.
I'm gonna put that on a shirt.
"Double-up on the chutneys."
And I'm gonna sell it on Etsy.
That is good.
This is gonna be real good drunk food.
This is gonna sop up whatever mistakes
you made last night.
It's gonna make 'em go away.
This is heavy stuff, but it's very, very good.
I'm gonna have another bite of it.
Lots of garlic and cheese and a big
mouthful of herbs that we sprinkled all over.
That is solid. That is really good.
This is wave of the future
and the food is great.
And it's a really interesting
way to present pizza that I've never had before.
And yeah,
I encourage you all to try it.
(jazzy music)
I really hope you enjoyed this episode
of Dining on a Dime from Zante Pizza
in the Bernal Heights neighborhood
of San Francisco, California.
If you'd like to watch more, please click here.
Craig, explain to us,
hanging them, drying them.
They look incredible.