It’s NaBloPoMo, National Blog Posting Month. For the month of November, I’m going to post every day. This is day 26.
It’s the day before Thanksgiving. How can I write a post about food if it’s not a Turkey-Day menu item? Unfortunately, I don’t have anything special for your holiday menu. And if you’re just now searching for menu ideas, then you probably need more help than I can offer. So seeing as I you should be all set for your big meal and will spend so much time discussing, eating, and recovering from the Thanksgiving feast, I thought I’d talk about another food.
How about pizza? A very un-Thanksgiving food. I read an article the other day about not loving pizza and it made me laugh and in some places, nod in agreement. So I thought I’d share my sordid history with the “other” pie with you.
As a kid, I was an extremely picky eater. I had a good appetite, but was very particular about what I ate, which foods touched, and some other strange requirements. At birthday parties, I was the awkward girl drinking water, because I didn’t like soda, pizza, Doritos, or any of the other standard party fare.
Pizza was a challenge. I didn’t like red sauce so I think that was the big problem for me. I started out by eating the crusts that my sister would leave behind. This slowly helped me warm up to the flavor of the crust. Once she even paid me one dollar to take a bite of her pizza, just to laugh at the funny faces I made in disgust. True story. As I approached high school, I started to like tomato sauce in small amounts on pasta. I guess from there, I expanded my palate and learned to like pizza. I went from not touching it with a 10-foot pole to celebrating my sixteenth birthday at a local pizza place with a few close friends.
When I lived in NYC, pizza became elevated to an entirely new cuisine. Every other corner seemed to sport a pizza shop: Ray’s Pizza, Famous Ray’s Pizza, Ray’s Famous Pizza, the choices were really varied. 😉
So I started sampling them and learned to eat slices while huddled on the corner with friends after a late night out, or grab a few slices for a quick and cheap lunch from the place near work. Each neighborhood had it’s choices and I learned my favorite options. My sister and I even spent time seriously testing all the top places to decide if we preferred Lombardi’s, Patsy’s, John’s on Bleecker (or Times Square), or Grimaldi’s pies. Deep discussions on crust quality, cheese, and sauce would always follow our initial bites.
As a converted pizza lover, moving to Boston wasn’t so bad. We discovered Regina’s, Bertucci’s, Penguin Pizza, and luckily Bella Luna. I say luckily, because Bella Luna makes delicious vegan pizza. So vegans, dairy-allergies, and lactose free folks like me can rejoice and still enjoy the delicious experience of pizza night. Simple pleasures. I’m thankful for all of these experiences, for my many taste experiences in the past and still yet to come, and for amazing restaurants that continue to create, inspire, and feed the hungry, regardless of their food preferences, limitations and allergies.
With that, I’ll leave you to enjoy your Thanksgiving feast.