Story and Photos by Harris Mowbray (Special to PMQ Pizza)
Mass Italian immigration in the early 20th century brought pizza to the Americas. This is most readily seen in the epicenter of Italian immigration: New York City. These new arrivals from Italy found themselves in unfamiliar environments far from home. They adapted local ingredients and ovens to craft new varieties of pizza, including many contemporary favorites like New York-style and Chicago-style pizza.
In addition to the classic New York City slice, many New Yorkers are familiar with other regional styles such as New Haven pizza and Grandma pizza. Some local pizza connoisseurs have even had the chance to savor styles cooked by more recent immigrants from Cuba and Uruguay. With an origin story similar to that of the classic New York slice, these styles are products of Italian immigration to Latin America.
But several months ago, a new pizza restaurant set up shop in Brooklyn, offering a pizza style that’s entirely unfamiliar, even to self-proclaimed experts like me. Hailing from the ancient Silk Road metropolis of Tashkent, Sariq Bola Pizza is ready to introduce the phenomenon of Uzbek pizza to America. For the small minority of readers who are unfamiliar with the glorious Republic of Uzbekistan, or how pizza might have gotten there, here’s a quick summary:
Uzbekistan is a Central Asian republic with a population of nearly forty million. The principal religion is Islam, and the main language spoken is the Turkic Uzbek language. Apart from a brief visit by Marco Polo, Uzbekistan has a negligible Italian presence. This begs the question: how and when did pizza take hold in Uzbekistan?
When tens of thousands of ethnic Uzbeks started migrating to America around the 1960s, most arrived in New York City. This is where the majority of the Uzbek-American community lives today. At some point, Uzbek-Americans inevitably brought the New York style of pizza back to Uzbekistan. In Tashkent, it was baked with traditional Uzbek ingredients and became a popular street food among young people.
A few years ago, Jahongir Xo’jayev, an Uzbek internet comedian known as “Sariq Bola” (meaning “yellow guy”) decided to capitalize on pizza’s popularity among young people. The popular pizza chain he developed has rapidly grown to hundreds of locations in Uzbekistan.
Earlier this year, Sariq Bola Pizza made the bold decision to test a location in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, a quiet neighborhood north of Brighton Beach with a significant Uzbek-American population.
“I really miss Uzbek food, and no other restaurant here makes good halal pizza,” a diner told me. Making pizza with halal meat—that is, in conformance with Islamic dietary law—is not new in America. Jumbo slice joints in Washington, D.C., for example, often substitute pork-based pepperoni and ham with an American alternative: turkey.
In contrast, Sariq Bola uses halal meats familiar to the Uzbek population, such as döner (or donair, a seasoned beef preparation) and lamb, which are among the most popular proteins in Uzbekistan.
(If you’re not sure what halal means, here’s a quick summary: Halal meats come from animals that are permitted under Islamic dietary law and are slaughtered according to religious guidelines, including strict standards for handling and preparation.)
Toppings aren’t the only unique attribute of Sariq Bola’s Uzbek pizza. As the owners will tell you, their dough is special. Merely by looking at the Uzbek pizzas, it’s evident that Samarkand non, a traditional Uzbek bread, inspired the development of Uzbek pizzas. Just like non, Uzbek pizza is thin in the middle, with a puffy ring surrounding the edges. This airy and spongy outer layer will delight even the most anti-crust pizza patrons.
You definitely don’t need to be Uzbek to enjoy Sariq Bola’s pizza. I thoroughly enjoyed several types of Sariq Bola’s pizza and will definitely return for more. Delicious flavors aside, I believe that the arrival of Uzbekistani pizza in New York City represents the advent of a new era of pizza globalization. Pizza’s ubiquitousness in Western culture in the modern era has allowed new styles of pizza to emerge even without the presence of an Italian immigrant community.
