You know how in Mexico you order a pizza for X number of people? I remember it always being a hassle because my brothers and dad would want anchovies on theirs and I wouldn't so we would have to ask for half and half, or my friends would inevatibly want to order the "Hawaiana" (ham and pineapple) while I like the "Peperonni Lovers" but I would give in and find myself picking the pineapple off my slices.
Anyway, the idea is that you would order a large or extra large for 3 or 4 people.
The first time we went to a pizza parlour in France I decided to warn André early on about my no-no toppings (anchovies, chicken, egg, etc).... I tried to sound casual (we had just started dating) so as not to seem too obnoxious but he just looked at me as if I was crazy and said, "you can choose whatever you want on your pizza, I'm getting anchovies on mine"... My first reaction was: Eeeiiiiwwww! and my second was to think: "What!? We EACH get a pizza? Is he nuts? Has he not seen the size of my butt???"...
But no, turns out that in France pizzas are served in an individual size. And I'm not talking about the "personal Pizza Hut " size cut into 4 mini slices but real "plate-size" sizes... actually the pizza is served on a plate and you eat it with a fork and knife!! Whoever heard of eating pizza with utensils?!?! But yeah, that's how it's done here... pizzas are not pre-cut so you get to slice into your pizza which ever way you like (I like to eat my way inside and leave a perfectly round and intact crust ring)
And there's no choice as to the dough either.... when my pizza arrived (a lovely fromage-chorizo pizza) I remember thinking "man, these guys are tight on the dough.... it's so thin you would think it was made on a tortilla"... but ever since I've learned that's the real way italians make pizzas and so that's how they're served here! And it's not actually bad either.... you know how when you order a Pan pizza at Pizza Hut or Domino's you're full by the second slice and feel like you just ate 4 bolillos de pan??? Well, here, as you eat your way away you never feel like that... it's like the dough is there in the background but not taking up all the room and you can actually enjoy the toppings....
Now I used to work at Pizza Hut so I know how they make their pizzas.... back then I would have never imagined eating a whole pizza by myself (even a medium size one which is the equivalent of the size they serve here) not only because I would get grossed out just by thinking of eating all that spray butter by myself but mostly because of the calories..... here it's so normal it's almost scary... I mean, calories-speaking what are we talking about??? Well... since pizzas here are made with less dough, natural ingredients (ripe tomatoes you actually SEE in your sauce, fresh gruyère cheese, real veggies) and don't have 3 layers of "spray butter" on them... it turns out eating a whole french pizza is probably the same in terms of calories as 2 slices of your regular Pizza Hut peperonni pizza.... !!!!!
As if that wasn't incentive enough, know that you can order just about anything on your pizza (duck, egg, eggplant, salmon, etc)... or as mamacita likes hers, you can order your pizza without cheese if you want or with sour cream instead (haven't tried that yet but André loves it) .... you can order a simple cheese pizza with oregano on it and as bland as that sounds I assure you it's delicious....
Gosh, I'm getting hungry.... Maybe I should go ask André if he's not in the mood for pizza.....
;)
7 comments:
Oh Fned you are so cute!
All that stuff you said about the Pizza in France seems so normal to me. Coming from such a multicultural place as Vancouver, everything you said seemed "normal" to me.
You'll be happy to know that Papa John's does have a thin crust pizza called a "papa crunch" that you can ordered in place of the thickly breaded pizza.
Isn't a margherita pizza just heavenly though? Fresh simple ingredients can't be beat.
Fun post fned, heehee. I'm with Liz, coming to Mexico it was weird to not have the thin pizza. I lived in Little Italy in Toronto and what you describe is what we ate. A LOT, lol.
Thanks for the tip on the Papa John's Liz, we stopped ordering from there a while ago as the pizza was sometimes not cooked through all that crappy dough and they always screwed up the order. Will try their papa crunch. :)
I find it incredibly surprising that you mention those commercial pizza places as if you grew up eating at them, when most weekends of your childhood were spent making pizzas at home... seeing as your parents began their life together working at Agusto's pizzas in Cancun when Cancun consisted of 3 hotels in the hotel zone (!!!) and learned how to make them Italian style (or so we were told). Don't you remember those crunchy crackery crusts? And how about all the billion experiments to get the sauce juuuuuuuust right?? On the other hand, we never did make individual pizzas, which might have been the perfect way to avoid all the arguments over toppings! But I do agree that the margarita is the best pizza - just tomatoes and cheese with either basil or oregano (always forget which)- plus anchovies!!
Mexico Way and Cancuncanuck: I'm happy to know that I wont go hungry if we ever go live in Canada! LOL And Mexico Way, you're right! The Margarita is a big fave of mine!
Minshap: Ah!!! Busted! It's true that most of the times we made the pizzas ourselves (although I do remember ordering delivery Domino's from time to time when we lived at Nino Artillero).... And it's true too that the "masa" has been getting thinner and thinner every year (remember last time I was in Puebla?) and the sauces more and more technical... now if we could only just put off the anchovies..... :)
Fned.
I went to Paris last summer for the first time in my life and my first meal was pizza! A nice "four-seasons" pizza right on a little plaza on Boul. St.Mich. Although we still share between two those plate size pizzas, yes, which are normal here in Canada unless you go to Pizza Hut or one of those places.
Nice blog fned... I'll drop by again.
Hi Manolo, glad you initiated your gastronomical tasting in Paris with Pizza, some friends from Mexico started theirs with tasting "confit de canard" and spent the rest of their stay in France eating at McDonald's!!! LOL
Drop by anytime!
Fned.
We had pizza a couple times when we were in Playa del Carmen the last couple weeks and they were all on extremely thin crust! I guess it's just what you're used to because I told my hubby that even the pizza was better in Mexico and he had been thinking that the pizza there really sucked! To each his own, right? I guess there's Dominos for him and the Italian place down the block for me when we move there!
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