I had a Pizza baked in a Wood-fired Clay Oven in this tiny Village of Rajasthan, and it was Mind-Blowingly Good.
I had a Pizza baked in a Wood-fired Clay Oven in this tiny Village of Rajasthan, and it was Mind-Blowingly Good.
Ranakpur in South Rajasthan's Mewar region does not even appear on the Census of India, but serves better pizzas than most shops in metropolitan cities do.
To say that the erstwhile Kingdom of Mewar is a magical place would be a disservice to it. This region in Southern Rajasthan, separated from the dry and barren Great Indian Desert by the densely forested Aravalli mountain range, was ruled by the Sisodia Rajput dynasty for over 1000 years. Undoubtedly, it is a wonder to be in, and to me, the joy in exploring the area is the constant sense of wonder and curiosity that comes with every bend of the road, with the lush Aravallis altering perspectives with every hill crossed, doing a wonderful job at making the area feel larger than it is. The sprawling fort in Kumbhalgarh, boasting the second longest contiguous wall in the world (the first being the Great Wall in China), is barely visible to an onlooker until the road that arrives at the fort has ended, and once one has parked their car and spared a second to adore how stupendous it is, you end up wondering, how on Earth did this not catch your eye at all on the entirety of the journey? There is mystery behind each corner, and every village desires something to be explored.
One of these mysteries is the tiny village of Ranakpur. A short detour of around 45 kilometres off NH27 leads you to this settlement, concealed behind the dense Aravallis and located on the banks of the Maghai river. But there is much mystique to this otherwise inconspicuous village. As legend has, many centuries ago, Dharana Shah was a minister in the court of Rana Kumbha of Mewar. A dream came to him at night, images of a celestial flying palace with pillars, and upon consulting his Guru Somasundarji, he was advised to build such a temple in the shape of the vimana, which, with the help of the king, he did. The Jain Temple of Ranakpur is one of the grandest structures you’ll encounter in this region. They are intricately crafted with white marble, their interiors featuring wall carvings and pillars that depict various deities, ancient maps, natural wonders and much more.
The bigger surprise about this place was the number of eateries advertising freshly baked pizza pies on roadside billboards. This is extremely peculiar for a village that is so tiny in number that it does not even appear in the Census of India. When I’m usually in a small town in India, I tend to avoid locally-produced western food consumables such as pasta or burgers, as the end product almost always ends up being a poorly Indianised, low-quality, hogwash of flavours. Even metropolitan cities get this horribly wrong all the time, prime example being the “Gupta Burger” stalls scattered across Dilli. But I was too intrigued by the availability of the dish in this town to care about that rule of mine, and shoved it aside for a night.
We went to Olive Pizzeria, for no particular reason other than it was located on our drive from the Ranakpur Dam to our stay. They had a good assortment of pizzas, but we went for the simple thin-crust margherita to test waters. The thin pizza base was decked out with a marinara sauce, some schezwan chutney for the “spice” and fresh basil leaves, followed by a healthy sprinkle of mozzarella cheese. The pizza then goes in a domed clay oven, which has got warm by now thanks to the heat produced by ignited wood. The oven is sealed and the pizza continues to bake. When its finally done, the chef takes the pizza out onto the serving tray and chops it up for us. The pizza exceeded my expectations, in fact, I dare it was much better than what most pizzerias in modern Indian metropolises pass off as Italian or Italian - American cuisine these days. The ingredients used were fresh, the dough wasn’t chewy or heavy, it was perfectly light, which helped the core ingredients, and their quality, shine.
But why does Ranakpur, a town with a population so small, serve lip-smacking pizzas that put Dominoes and Pizza Hut to shame? The answer lies in its temple. The temple at Ranakpur is so magnificent that it draws in tourists from all over the world, from Italy, France, Germany, Europe and Israel. This quaint town at the banks of the Maghai is a perfect little stop on the journey to Udaipur, and as a result, it houses multiple resorts that foreign tourists end up staying in. This is what led to the demand of Western food growing, as homesick travellers long for a taste closer to home. While Italians aren’t the most represented nationality amongst the tourists, my theory is that Italian food is both something that is easy to generate with Indian ingredients, and able to be authentically served in a vegetarian variant, the latter being necessary due to the droves of Gujarati tourists (mostly vegetarian, and very often stingy about the restaurant they dine in not serving meat as well, as it would clash with their purity beliefs), that flock Udaipur and Southern Rajasthan every tourist season, and perhaps with locals also being more comfortable preparing vegetarian dishes than meat, though I must confess that I am not the most educated on the dietary practices of rural Mewar. It also helps that Italian food is popular both in India and worldwide, and is something that restaurants in the region have some sort of familiarity with, as opposed to a Coq au Vin from France or a Pelmeni from Russia. While there were many highlights of my recent trip to Mewar, the most unique experience has to be having authentic wood-fire pizza baked in a clay oven in a village of around a thousand people. I implore you to make the detour to Ranakpur in the region, and urge you to not shy away from having the dish.
Recommendations:
Pizza (8.75/10)
Location:
Ranakpur Hill Resort, Ranakpur Road, Sadri PO, Pali District, Ranakpur, Rajasthan 306702
Note that "Olive Pizzeria” is not mentioned on Google Maps. To the best of my memory, it is located inside the resort linked above. Other pizza places in Ranakpur do feature on Google Maps, and I don’t think there’s much of a difference in quality to be expected.
Thanks to Vaibhav for reviewing this piece.