If you’ve ever ordered late-night takeout with your friends or scrolled through Hinge for more than five minutes, chances are you’ve been asked the question “Does pineapple belong on pizza?” Whether you’re passionately for it or vehemently against it, you can probably agree this debate has grown stale. These days, a far more interesting question plays on my mind: what about paneer?
Fusion food can be a contentious topic. Some people believe it to be a bastardisation of authentic flavours, suggesting we should leave pizza to the Italians, with their heirloom tomatoes and fresh mozzarella. But there’s also something special about how food can be used to bridge cultural divides; cuisine isn’t a rigid form of categorisation, but an ever-evolving representation of our pasts meeting global futures.
Based in Los Angeles, Pijja Palace is the culinary epitome of the first-generation immigrant experience. Pijja Palace’s menu swaps convention for familiar flavours, offering everything from Malai Rigatoni to Samosa Pijja and Dosa Onion Rings. Its founder, Avish Naran, told the New Yorker that the restaurant’s menu wasn’t planned as a gimmick to draw in new audiences, but rather, as a representation of how his family cooked growing up. He said, “My parents would make American things with Indian flavours, like pizza, lasagna, meatballs. Samosas, they’d do the reverse, and fill them with cheese and jalapeños.”
Stopping by a sports bar to grab a beer and holler at a television screen with your friends is a quintessentially American experience. There’s also nothing more American, especially in a city like Los Angeles, than the concept of the ‘melting pot’. Los Angeles' culture and beauty stem from its rich immigrant community, and its food scene is no exception. Pijja Palace draws from these elements, transforming Italian classics with Indian flavours, all to be enjoyed while watching a Knicks game on one of their giant flat-screen TVs.
Follow Pijja Palace here.
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