Naan Pizza, the Original?

The other day I was searching my brother's freezer for some ice and came upon this item. He recently purchased it during a shopping expedition in Jackson Heights in Queens, NYC.

The Naan Pizza, immediately sparked memories of an invention that my Mother's friend Hansa Auntie, called "Kulcha Pizza". Kulcha is better known as Naan these days. The recipe called for Ragu sauce and grated Velveeta cheese. All baked in a toaster oven with a total preparation time of 10-15 minutes. The flux in time is based on how fast you can grate the cheese? It was one of those inventions that allowed for a quick meal when both parents were working.

Back to, "The Original Naan Pizza". How can "Deep Foods" call this the "original" when Hansa Auntie was making these back in the early 80's? Being that this recipe was most likely shared at various gatherings, I am sure that there are many aunties out there, that would find this preposterous! Okay...maybe not, as the $1.99 price tag makes this an easy sale and much easier to make that Hansa aunty's recipe. Quicker to feed the hungry children.

I then began thinking about my summers in, Ahmedabad, India where pizza was introduced when I was around five or so. The place is called, "Jasuben Pizza" and I was really excited as it was an alternative to traditional Indian food. The issues with this pizza were about to unfold.

Jasuben Pizza consists of the following, ketchup, bakhri (Gujrati bread) sized "thin crust" base, Amul cheese, onions, tomato and chillies galore!

The killer for a five year old, that is used to Pizza Hut, were those chillies and ketchup. What were they thinking and couldn't they get the proper ingredients?

Sounds kind of nasty but today I crave Jasuben's Pizza, for it's an experience of the road side cart, that shouldn't be missed when you are in Ahmedabad. It has become an institution that serves up its own "original pizza" They don't use Naan or Kulcha for that matter but the argument still stands that there is nothing original about, "Deep's" product. They even have a Facebook page.

Maybe we can facilitate and alliance of Gujarati Aunties and Jasuben as their leader to make "Deep" get rid of the "original" from the name? Even New York City is no stranger to the pizza soap opera. There is the controversy of "Ray's Original Pizza" and who was the original?

May the best Pizza win!