What is likely to be the most dangerous pizza delivery beat in the world is thriving in besieged Misurata, Libya, where scores of youths shuttle piping hot orders to rebel fighters on the front line.
The fast-growing team of volunteers make and deliver up to 8,000 pieces of pizza daily to the hundreds of rebel fighters on Misurata’s three front lines against Moammar Gadhafi’s forces.
The mastermind is Libyan chef Emad Daiki, 32. For years, Daiki ran a successful pizzeria in downtown Stockholm, selling his 12-inch pizzas.
The wartime pizzeria is hidden in an olive grove, within shelling range of the western front line. In the side room of a farmhouse with decor reminiscent of an old English country home, burly young men don chef aprons and knead giant balls of dough. Boys sprinkle the cheese and tomato sauce on the bases.
When he returned to his home in Misurata one month ago, Daiki made it his mission to feed the revolution: “I heard on Free Libya radio that the fighters needed food, so I decided to set up this restaurant.”
Daiki brought industrial ovens from the city’s bombed-out hotels and charmed shop owners for ingredients.
“Most people, when they heard it was for the fighters, gave many onions, tomatoes, tuna and olives, all for free,” Daiki said.
The fare is turned over to men such as Mohammed Ali, 21, whose beaten pickup truck has a bullet hole in the windshield, and metal work that is dented and torn by shrapnel.
Cooking is also a perilous practice: the rip and boom of incoming rockets often shakes the cooking pots, and mortars regularly fall nearby.
In the holes and sand banks that make up Misurata’s stalemate front lines, rebels wait and watch the enemy stationed across the fields. Tea pots, blankets, guitars and shisha pipes are strewn on the ground after more than a month of inhabitancy. For them Daiki’s piping hot slices are manna from heaven.
“We have to keep the fighters strong and their morale up; they cannot just eat bread,” Daiki said.
Source: Edmonton Journal
Great story keep feeding the troops and you will have your Freedom to enjoy cooking lots of pizza’s in the near future for your free Libyans that will soon be living in peace without Gaddafi and the rat regime that he has backing him.
send some over to the Gtroops so they can have a taste of what freedom theyre all missing
Oh this is such a great story…I hope I get to taste Daiki’s hot piping slices someday :) Go Daiki’s Pizza! Love this story :)
Just reading it made me hungry.Cant wait to taste a slice of freedom!
This is amazing, you have to love the rebels, they may be fighting a ruthless, murderous tyrant but they still get to enjoy a top quality homemade pizza
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