“Life...happens...when you are busy making other plans.”
—John Lennon
The invitation was simple but the execution was another matter. Our friend Sophie and husband Bernie invited us and friends Lucy and Larry to join them in trying Napolitana’s Pizzeria in Mountain View. Over appetizers of cheese, olives, crackers and a glass of wine at their home Sophie held up the review in the San Jose Mercury News which read: Napoletana’s wood-fired pizza still the real deal. “They import the gelato and pastries from Milan,” she said. We were psyched. Someone said, do you think the six of us can fit in one car? This meant four in the back seat. I sat in the front passenger seat, so I was safe. But, in order to fit, Bernie had half of his butt on the seat and the other half on the door handle. Yikes! But, judging by the smile on his face, he seemed to be having a good time.
By the time we got to Napolitana’s, there was a long line out the door and we were told they ran out of dough. WTF, who ever heard of a pizza place running out of dough? It was beginning to feel like a Seinfeld episode. The pizza and other dishes patrons were eating looked great, but alas it wasn’t meant to be. We spent a little too much time schmoozing at Sophie and Bernie's and now had to come up with a Plan B. Two doors down was a restaurant called Kabobs and Pupuseria: A Salvadoran and Middle Eastern restaurant. Huh? It seemed like an odd combination—like a restaurant having an identity crisis. As the story goes, 30 years ago it was a doughnut shop, but many customers were of Salvadoran descent and they began to crave something more savory. They requested papusas, those thick, griddled masa cakes that are stuffed with cheese. The owners agreed. But, then the neighborhood changed as the many Salvadorans moved away. Business slowed and a new owner Rashami Mulge needed to make a change. A customer who once worked as a chef at a Persian restaurant offered to make Kebobs. Rashami liked the idea. He removed doughnuts from the menu and set up a kitchen with two chefs. One was assigned to make Salvadoran dishes and one to prepare kebobs and with that the name of the restaurant became Kabobs and Papuseria. We ordered Chicken Breast Kabobs with Basmati rice and salad, Chicken Curry, Cornish Hen Kabobs, Felafel with Pita and rice, and fried plantains, sour cream and beans.
We decided we would go to Napoletana’s restaurant for desert. As it turned out, they didn’t run out of dough. Apparently, some of the people we saw on that long line got tired of waiting and left. So we ordered Tiramisu and a frozen lemon desert and I ordered a pizza margarita to go, but had the waitress remove a few pieces so each of us could have a taste. I introduced myself to the owner, Costas Eleftheriadis who was slowing slapping the fresh dough into pies. He was wearing a tight fitted black head scarf and a bright white chef’s jacket. Costas is a Greek-Italian and vacations in both countries every year. I stood watching him positioning himself around the wood oven. I could see and smell the colorful, fragrant award winning Neapolitan pizza I remember from my youth when visiting family in Italy.
At a temperture of 900 degrees F, the thin pizza cooked to perfection in 60-90 seconds. As we sat and tasted the pizza, I realized this was no cheap imitation, and was indeed “the real deal,” as Mary Orlin reported in the Mercury News. At long last we got to have our pizza and eat it too. But the best part was going with the flow and laughing with our friends along the way—detours and all.
