Young, predisposed to martyrdom, he ventures into low-cost Japanese pizza
Young, predisposed to martyrdom, he ventures into low-cost Japanese pizza

Video: Young, predisposed to martyrdom, he ventures into low-cost Japanese pizza

Video: Young, predisposed to martyrdom, he ventures into low-cost Japanese pizza
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In my humble and limited experience as the founder and curator of a blog reviewing discount products, I discovered one thing. Call it electrocution, illumination, revelation … what matters is that at the moment of the epiphany, I felt like Saint Teresa in the midst of that mystical-erotic ecstasy expertly sculpted by Bernini.

This little rubricetta is called "I'm with Murray" and to find out the reason - if you haven't done it yet - you have to reread the first post I started with, here, on Dissapore.

What would this truth be? You will ask yourselves and I will now explain it: the sublime art of legitimizing and giving dignity to the last ones (discount products, tarot cards, industrial and ugly ones for example), can be applied to any area of our life. When I say “I'm with Murray,” referring to the character of Don DeLillo in “White Noise,” I'm shouting loudly, “I'm with the last ones. I'm on the side of the pariahs, the neglected, the unmentionable …"

Here then, that my mission (and my predisposition to martyrdom) now leads me to try to tell you, in the most dignified way possible and with the utmost respect for the case, something that will make the most shiver and that is …

PIZZA. LOW-COST… IN JAPAN!

Pizza in Japan has a name and a surname. That name is Salvatore and that surname is Cuomo; Salvatore Cuomo: pioneer of pizza in the land of the rising sun, he has now built an empire of restaurants and bars scattered here and there between Tokyo and Osaka.

The real Neapolitan pizza with the best ingredients, in a familiar and comfortable environment, which I have never experienced. Because? Because for a “da Salvatore” margherita, you have to budget about fifteen euros for a pizza the size of a vinyl 45 rpm single. And then I admit, it would have all been too easy to start with the best.

Instead I, a masochist of the fork in a foreign land, I decided to stay on the side of the plague and the last. Like that time in that Korean izkaya (a pub where orders are made through futuristic touch-screens installed on the tables) … I still remember that obscene thing - impossible to call it pizza - that still populates my nightmares: Fillo dough (I swear), a squeeze of tomato, a parmesan-like dish and pesto. Yes, pesto! To make up for the lack of fresh basil. All strictly charred. Cost: 3-4 € / Rating: absolute zero.

Or the small and kawaii Cheese Pizza, purchased for less than € 1.50 in a “combini” (convenience store open 24 hours a day). Tender in its roundness and with that quirk, like freckles, of fresh tomato cubes in the center. Even better than the more or less Italic Speedy Pizza - I guarantee you - with which we ruined hordes of toaster in our youth.

pizza in japan
pizza in japan

But returning to what can be called "pizza" in Japan, the age-old question of size (of pizza, beds and hotel rooms) is something that has characterized a good part of my Japanese travels.

With a rumbling stomach and an atavistic need for carbohydrates-tomato-mozzarella, my travel companion and I, we stopped endless minutes in front of the bright windows of the restaurants that host the replicas of the dishes served. They are called replica food, they are made of wax and are used, precisely, to demonstrate the culinary offer.

In pro-Italian places that sell the "real" Neapolitan pizza, for example, the diameter of the pizza is always shown below the replica, which rarely exceeds 25 centimeters. A rare exception: in Osaka, in the Umeda district, in the semi-Italian restaurant "La Boheme", we found a margherita of dignified size, but of criticism. Cost: € 8-9 (water and cover charge included) / Rating: 7 + an applause for the background music of the Italian beat of the seventies.

We talked about the largest and now let's talk about the smallest. We are always in Osaka in the very central Namba. Between a noisy pachinko, a gashapon shop and an internet café, here is a place that boasts pizza and Italian soda on the menu. The pizza (it should be said) is smaller than my hand and costs around three to four euros. Not bad. And the wheel with which I was served is almost tender.

In Japan every pizza, even the smallest one, is served complete with a pizza cutter, sometimes resulting in an involuntarily comic effect. Cost: 3-4 € / Rating: 5 (does not reach enough due to the modest size).

In addition to the wheelset and small size, I have found that Japanese pizzas are often accompanied by a generous handful of corn. As you can see in almost every pizza packaged for resale in the combini and, even, in the abomination generated and not created by the god of fusion cuisine: a buozi (Chinese steamed bun) stuffed with pizza (Italian) and corn!

Another chain, another pizza. With my credit card blocked, the last days of my second trip to Japan were characterized by an obsessive prudence in spending and a religious austerity in consumption. However, we decide to allocate thirteen euros to taste a pizza (suggested by internet users) in Asakusa, a small and traditional district of Tokyo, famous for the large Senso-Ji temple and for the presence of members of the Yakuza that I discovered love to terrorize foolish gaijins (foreigners) like me and my boyfriend, mocking them for their tattoos.

Ignored the taunts of the Yakuza, we hole up in the "Miami Garden" restaurant-pizzeria and grab a margherita. Microscopic - he had not yet learned to read the actual centimeters - with four large basil leaves harpooned on what should be mozzarella and sauce. Sauce with a lot of sautéed! Cost: about € 13 / Rating: 4 (due to the excessive cost, the small size and the arrogance of the sauce on the pizza).

Third trip to Japan. Let's give up on this crazy game to the massacre of finding good and cheap pizza. We wander around Osaka in search of food and, like Isaac a moment before being sacrificed, the father's hand stops and graces us… we discover Saizeryia! Pro-Italian chain present in almost every district of Tokyo and Osaka. Very low prices for decent meals and free drinks.

Let's taste the pizza (come on?) And it's good! Small, but very very tasty. Also this served with a lot of wheel in different versions: margherita, anchovies, mushrooms and squid. And it is also open 20 hours a day. Cost: 2, 5 - 4 € / Rating: 7 + an applause for the Ricchi & Poveri, Mario Merola and Domenico Modugno sent in loop even to the toilet.

Pizza in japan
Pizza in japan

But it is in Koenji that I ultimately find faith.

A handful of metro stops from the central Shinjuku here, in the most humble and modest place (like a manger in Bethlehem), I eat the best low-cost pizza in all of Japan.

The place is called "ALWAYS PIZZA - Da Giovanni" and is a non-place without walls, where the tables are made of raw plywood, the dishes are disposable and the drinks are taken directly from a vending machine. A verse from Mozart's "Don Giovanni" decorates a wall. Neither wheels nor cutlery are provided. Twenty-five centimeters in diameter, for an excellent pizza cooked in a wood oven, capable of converting even the most rational agnostics and atheists. Excellent tomato sauce, (I assume) mozzarella, extra-virgin olive oil and basil.

All perfect. All good, as the world itself should be. Simple and yummy. Cost: 2, 5 - 4 € / Rating: 9.

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