October 2011 Vol. 3 No. 7 © ISSN:2009-5981 FOR THE L aT el peek iiiccontme cl a Rene ee eet ea iter simone ussucss NEVER GO HUNGRY IN ro) 1218) pe metic oui errno en Queen City Cheeta p2ese) Rey STOPS Pern etre Sod Pert Cas rrany Sandari BatulaoEXPLORE / EAT The Pizza Pec) Piper of Manila Text and photos by Annabelle Sanchez ollow the piquant pizza trail of Manila and satisfy those hunger ‘pangs for an all- time Italian favorite, . am your Pizza Pied Piper. Let the aroma of meat, visions of melted mozzarella cheese and the sensation of new? baked erust meeting teeth bring you to your feet and follow me. Do not fear, I bring you no ha(e)mn. Except, for eraving pangs that can only be quelled by having you chase earbs around the Metro. In which case, this article is more than a review of some of the best pizzerias in town—it's a map ofthe great pizza trail of Manila, Ristorante D'Amore (Citystate Tower Hotel, Manila) 4 0-inch piece of Maly with a dash of Filipino familiarity, Ristorante’s fag carrier pizza was made of honey cured sreen bell peppers, pineapple and moz the once still air in the lobby was beating with ils the streets of Manila that surrounds if, it's sli¥® ‘ham, beef tenderloin sautéed in red wine, tomato sauce, mushrooms, red and zarella cheese over homemade dough. And as soon as it was served, Italian-inspired flavors. It was the pulse of Ristorante and just like) S&R Pizza (Puregold, Cubao Branch) @ Maybe it was the fluorescent starkness at S&R and ices, no, slabs of S&R’s cheese and combo pizza that 1 my plate that reminded me of my teenage years, wen the eoneept o' ‘was non-existent, when the ic of carbohydrates was sol for science class, when w think you can do anything like finish a colossal slice of a1. Oh youth's folly Gino's Brick Oven Pizza ‘The color theory says that the color red makes you feel hungry. with its fire engine red walls, knew this and is using the tricks of eolorimetry on us. At the risk of arguing with the greatest thinkers the world’s ever known, I don’t think Gino’s needed their scientific theories to get customers to eat, not with pizzas slathered with Nutella, No scientific theory can contend ‘with the simple fact that you ean never go wrong with Nu- tella, And that the ted at the wall only stood for love, with ‘owner Jutes Templo naming the store after bis litle boy. If there was anything scientific about Gino's Brick ‘Oven Pizza it’s the formula that a well-thought of menu + ingredients straight from Italy + reasonable priees x loving what you do = hungry customers wanting more pizza. Another restaurant subseribing to the color theory, Pizza in Katipunan had their red walls up and 4. Sandy's Pizza (White Plains Branch) © San ready, waiting for customers to get hungry. But aside from firing up your gastronomical impulses, red also makes you willing to take risks, which would probably explain why I ordered their Laing pizza, ‘While waiting, a family who ordered take away didn't have the patience to wait until they reached their home to feast on the selection of pasta and a 14-inch sized pizza and ended up eating it right there and then. I watched the color theory in motion. Red does work, ‘What doesn’t work however, was Laing with cheese. ‘No matter how red the walls are. if