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Photo: L’antica Pizzeria Da Michele Singapore/Facebook
“I am in love — I am having a relationship with my pizza,” Hollywood star Julia Roberts swooned on Eat Pray Love, the 2010 film version of the best-selling travel memoir as she tucked into a slice of a margherita pizza slathered with double mozzarella in a pizzeria in Naples.
That iconic scene was filmed at Naples pizza stalwart L’antica Pizzeria Da Michele, which officially opens its debut Southeast Asian outpost on Monday (15 April). The Singapore outlet is housed at the freshly-minted Mercure Icon Singapore City Centre hotel on Club Street. L’antica Pizzeria Da Michele has outlets in more than 19 countries, including Japan, the United Kingdom and Spain, outside of its native Italy.
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Established in 1870, L’Antica Pizzeria Da Michele is one of the world’s oldest pizzerias and boasts the time-honoured Neapolitan tradition of baking the ‘pizza a ruota di carro’, or wagon wheel pizza. Spanning about 40 cm in diameter, the pizza is so huge that its edges extend and drape over the serving plates.
Traditional pizza flavours include Margherita ($28), which features a delectable array of cheeses such as the Agerola Fior di Latte and pecorino Romano DOP, an aged sheep’s milk cheese with a distinctive aroma and pleasant sharpness. The Marinara ($22) comes slathered with tomato sauce, garlic and a sprinkle of oregano.
In a bid to retain the authentic Naples flavour, most ingredients are specially imported from Southern Italy. They include Agerola Fior di Latte, or ‘flower of milk’ mozzarella cheese from the Agerola region that boasts a mild, delicate flavour and creamy, semi-soft texture, Caputo flour and Armatore Cetara anchovies that are caught off the Amalfi coast.
Like in all of L’Antica Pizzeria Da Michele’s outlets around the world, the pizzas are baked in custom-made Stefano Ferrara Napoli domed brick ovens.
Red & white pizzas
Photo: L’antica Pizzeria Da Michele Singapore/Facebook
The menu in the 70-seat restaurant is mainly divided by red (le rosse) and white-based (le bianche) pizzas. Highlights of the red-based pizza section include Cetara ($34) that has the umami-rich Armatore Cetara anchovies alongside pecorino Romano DOP, Leccino olives and capers, while the Provola & Pepe ($29) has smoked Naples provola and freshly-cracked pepper. Meat lovers can opt for the Spianata Calabra, which features salami from Calabria made with pork meat blended with red pepper and local red chillies before being aged for at least 45 days.
The white-based pizzas include Friarielli & Salsiccia ($36), which features pecorino Romano DOP, Italian sausage and friarelli napoletani, an Italian cruciferous vegetable that imparts a slight bitterness and nuttiness. Starters, pasta and desserts round out the rest of the menu.
The opening of L’antica Pizzeria Da Michele comes after a slate of pizza-related news in Singapore in recent months. They include the opening of Beyond The Dough, which offers Tokyo Neapolitan-style pizzas and the world’s best pizza chef, Diego Vitagliano’s pop-up at La Bottega Enoteca.
