In search of the tastiest pies at Jakarta pizza joints

By Becky Mowbray

JAKARTA (JP): What makes a pizza great? Where's the best pizza in town?

These questions have stirred up many a bar-room spat around the globe, but one thing is certain: the way in which the pizza is cooked makes a difference.

Legend has it that pizza, a baked delight usually consisting of a dough crust, tomato sauce and cheese, was created by a royal baker in Naples, Italy, in the 1700s. Migrants brought the Neopolitan special to other parts of the world, where pizza was further adapted to different tastes. Today, pizza is found in so many different forms that it can no longer be deemed exclusively Italian.

Wood-fired pizza, considered by many to the gourmet of pizzas, is available at four restaurants around Jakarta, a healthy sign that pizza culture is alive in Indonesia.

Brick-oven pizza, as it is also known, is especially crisp and flavorful because it is smoked directly on the brick hearth of an oven heated by wood.

The oven is shaped like a shallow tunnel or dome, allowing the heat to flow evenly, and is powered by the smoldering coals of slow-burning hardwood along the edges of the oven, which heat the brick and cook the pizza indirectly. Often the wood is fruitwood -- Zigolini's uses pear, apple, cherry or olive, and Pizza Boat uses rambutan, jackfruit or sawo -- whose smoke gives the pizza a sweeter, more interesting flavor. Because the pizza is cooked without a pan, each one is a unique shape.

Gourmet pizzas are more expensive than assembly line feed-the- crowd pizzas, but a pizza for two at these restaurants averages Rp 15,000 to Rp 19,000. All of these restaurants will make pizzas extra pedas (spicy) on request, though only Komodo Airways bars all pork products from its menu to make its pizza halal.

These restaurants are aware that they're introducing pizza to people who've only experienced the fast food variety and to a culture where ovens aren't traditional kitchen equipment. As Cameron Ward, an Australian pizza consultant at Komodo Airways says, "They (Indonesians) think Pizza Hut is a standard pizza."

Definitely not. Each element of a pizza -- the dough, the sauce, the spices, the cheeses, the toppings, their freshness and blend -- contributes to the overall effect of the pizza, which should be greater than the sum of its parts.

That said, no single restaurant or slice of pizza made our toes tingle, but our team of reviewers agreed that Jakarta has very good pizza.

Toscana in Kemang makes an understated traditional Italian pizza with a crust that was the thinnest and crispiest of all sampled. "A lot of pizzas are too chewy -- chew, chew, chew your bubble gum, but not this one," said one reviewer. The tomato sauce -- "tangy, light -- you can tell it's homemade" -- was similarly the best sampled. However, the cheese was generous to a fault and the lack of spices became especially evident in the simple Boscaiola mushroom pizza. But the mixture of blue and Emmenthal cheese on the 4 Formaggi was a "cheese lover's delight". The Cervino, with smoked salmon and melon, was the most creative pizza on the menu. Though our reviewers found the salmon a bit overpowering, the cool, thinly sliced honeydew melon was a nice addition to the pie.

Zigolini's, at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in downtown Jakarta, makes pizzas that are light and subtle in their use of fresh toppings and cheeses imported from Italy. Our reviewer called the pizza "intelligent" though it "fell below expectations on flavor". But what was pleasantly understated to us was lightweight to two customers at a nearby table. "It's plain bread, it's not spicy and there's not enough cheese," they said.

While cheese was used sparingly to accent, not dominate, the crust and other ingredients, Zigolini's had seven different cheeses dotting its pizzas. These included the bold Gorgonzola, goat cheese and feta, as well as the more mellow Fontina and bell paese.

The mystery of Zigolini's was the missing stripe of the Italian flag, the much-needed zing of piquant tomato sauce, which was featured on only two pizzas. A flavorful sauce made with ripe tomatoes, fresh garlic and spices and olive oil is what makes pizza, not just cheese melted on pita bread.

Pizza Boat in Pondok Indah has been tossing its flagship item since 1986. It straddles the worlds of gourmet and take-out as the only wood-fired pizza restaurant to throw its pies in three sizes, and then throw them on the back of a motorcycle for delivery to your home.

Our team of samplers agreed that the Indonesian-made mozzarella cheese was exuberant in quantity but bland in flavor, to the detriment of the fresh ingredients lurking below. We were divided on the dough. One panelist found it undercooked and lacking in spring or crispiness, while another ventured, "It's good dough and I'm not usually a dough guy".

The clear favorite of our sampling was the Pizza Firenza, whose sauteed fresh spinach gave the pizza texture, while garlic, red onion and olive oil imparted the zing. "It's kind of juicy," said one reviewer.

The Roasted Garlic Chicken pizza had onions which were indeed sweet as billed on the menu, though our reviewers felt the pizza would have been enhanced with more tomato sauce, or perhaps even barbecue sauce, to moisten the pie.

The Shrimp Pesto pizza was "unsingular" with pesto that, where it could be found, was bland. It was also "too shrimpy" with small crustaceans that had a frozen consistency and smell.

Wood-fired pizza at the new Komodo Airways restaurant at the Hotel Atlet Century Park near the Senayan Sports Complex proves that pizza is an international food, adaptable to different host cultures.

The 10 pizzas at the Komodo borrow from Indonesian specialities and place names to create pies. The Pizza Padang is topped with the rendang beef dish of West Sumatra and is spiced to order, the Pizza Manado bears the delicacies of the sea, and an upcoming pizza special will have fried noodles baked into it.

The crust at Komodo was not crispy enough for our tastes. This was particularly apparent with the Pizza Sulawesi, which was actually a calzone. But with mushroom, sundried tomato, pineapple, sauteed onion and fresh basil, the flavor of this pizza was sweet, pert and satisfying.

The Pizza Lombok, with squid, clams, onions, eggplant and spicy tomato sauce, was not particularly memorable. The clams added a nice flavor, though the squid was overcooked, and the tomato sauce was pleasantly spicy.

The King Komodo Pizza, which fused Indonesian favorites of chicken and beef sate smothered in peanut sauce with traditional pizza ingredients, melded into a warm thick comfort food. The peanut and tomato blended well, as in West African cuisine.

Despite the creative ingredients of these pizzas, the flavors didn't fuse together in a memorable symphony. As one reviewer put it, "overall it's fine pizza, but it's not distinct".

The reviewer also felt it was a tad greasy. Part of the problem may have been the abundant cheese, which, like at other restaurants, missed an opportunity to add a new flavor to the pie and masked the surprises scattered across the crust.