Photo By Sgt. Lizette Hart | Capt. Rinaldo Manago, Base Defense Operations Center commander, hands a freshly made...... read more read more
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BAGRAM AIR FIELD, Afghanistan – The line of customers spills out the door and snakes around the side of the building. Some of them hold a cup of vegetables in their hand as they chatter among themselves. As they eagerly await their turn to place their order, their eyes light up as the person in front of them passes back a plate of warm, sugar-coated sweet bread; some of them temporarily satisfy their appetite with a freshly made s’more.
Capt. Rinaldo Manago, Base Defense Operations Center, Officer-in-Charge, Combined Joint Special Operations Task Force – Afghanistan, has the privilege of making personal pizzas that are specially made for the residents of the camp.
The idea for a pizza night was sparked after Aziz, an Afghan man, opened an Afghan-owned and operated restaurant outside of the CJSOTF-A base camp. Aziz had the honor of being the owner of the first authorized Afghan restaurant on Bagram Air Field. The opening of this restaurant and other small businesses helps sustain and improve the economy in Afghanistan.
The menu includes a large variety of items including a variety of naan, a local style of an unleavened flatbread. The naan is used as the foundation of Manago’s pizzas.
“[Our need] provides him a consistent business; there’s a steady request for at least 150 slices of bread every [week],” said Manago.
“We’ve been averaging over 150 pizzas a night. Aziz will make 150 plus another 10 to 15 of another type of special bread. We don’t run out of the naan, but we will run out of the toppings.”
Manago had a variety of reasons to begin a weekly pizza night, one of which was creating an environment for people to come together. He believes it’s about enhancing and building camaraderie among the people who work on the camp but don’t always have a reason or the time to leave their office.
“The job that 1st Sgt. and I have is the safety and security of the camp, but also the health and welfare of everyone,” said Manago.
“It’s hard to get a good gauge on 700 people, so we give everyone an opportunity and provide an environment for folks to come out and socialize with one another.”
Manago decided to use a building that was used for storing metal wall lockers as his new pizza parlor. Navy Seabees assisted in the renovation of what would become the Fallen Heroes Memorial Club. It took approximately two weeks for the makeover to be finished, complete with tables, chairs and flat screen televisions anchored to the wall.
The first pizza night was held in January, and was an instant success. It was followed by intermittent nights until it became a regular event two months later.
On an average night, Manago sets up shop and his loyal customers immediately begin to line up, sometimes with a cup of toppings from the dining facility in hand to add to what Manago already has available. Everything that is put onto the pizza is ingredients that are easily acquired from the dining facility. The regularly available toppings include ham, pineapple, salami and gyro meat.
An assistant uses a metal rod to hook the naan onto to toast it over an open fire. Once the bread is warm and toasted, he passes it to Manago, who takes an order from a customer. He spreads tomato sauce onto the naan, tops it with slices of provolone cheese and adds the toppings to the pizza. If the customer has additional toppings, Manago quickly chops them and evenly distributes them onto the pizza.
“You get to know the folks in terms of what they order,” he said. “I think adding the gyro meat was a different and innovative way of adding yet another topping to this enterprise.”
The pizza is then transferred to one of the two grills that stand behind Manago. At any given moment, there are about a dozen pizzas cooking on the grill. Once the pizza is thoroughly heated and the cheese has melted, he removes the pizza from the grill, cuts it into pieces and places it onto a plate as the customer eagerly waits to receive it.
Pizza isn’t the only thing that comes out of the oven. A dessert pizza is also created. The naan is generously covered with brown sugar and powdered sugar. It is heated in the grill and then passed down the line so that it’s shared by everyone waiting in line. To the delight of most people, an addition of s’mores made an appearance recently.
Although it is still a fairly new operation, Manago would like to see it progress into a more developed setup.
“I would like to add a pizza oven, a real pizza oven, as opposed to using the grill, because it’s a lot more consistent in heat,” he said.
“We could try to make the naan right there in the oven instead of just warming it up.”
The weekly pizza night is a hub for everyone to get together and frequently gives rise to other events. Volleyball games and tournaments in the court behind the club are a regular activity, and usually last the many hours that the pizzas are being made. A recent addition was karaoke.
“One of the things that was introduced by a couple of people, that was sketchy at first, was karaoke night,” said Manago. “We were taken back at first, but then we realized that some people really had nice singing voices, and it was a neat thing to see. There are some really talented people within the [organization]; a myriad of talents.”
Overall, Manago is satisfied with the continuous turnout and support of the weekly event.
“You have your usual suspects who come out, but then you have your other people who will use this opportunity to bring guests in,” he said. “We never thought it would do this. It grew to a point where it went beyond what we thought it would be.”
One Afghan man’s desire to open a restaurant to cater to the residents of a military base paved the way to a weekly social event that revolves around one of everybody’s favorite comfort food: pizza.
Every pizza night, the base camp residents walk away from the Fallen Heroes Memorial Club with full stomachs, sore throats from singing too loudly, arms aching from hitting volleyball and sometimes smelling of smoke, all while having big grins in their faces.
| Date Taken: | 07.03.2011 |
| Date Posted: | 07.05.2011 06:24 |
| Story ID: | 73238 |
| Location: | BAGRAM AIR FIELD, AF |
| Web Views: | 1,077 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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