The French and The Pizza!

So there I was, 2011, a new chapter of my life (one I had dreamed of since childhood) – I moved to Paris. Paris of the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, Belle Epoque, Hemmingway, Balzac, Van Gogh, Dali, Proust… Yes, I moved to Paris, bag and baggage with my cheese allergies and red wine allergies and a general dislike for all things sweet. And the past two years have been an interesting culinary adventure since the usual French delicacies are pretty much out of the question. I discovered Turkish kebabs, mussels & fries, violette ice cream, …rediscovered lemon tarts (the only exception to my me-no-like-sweets rule), black black coffee, rare steaks…and, to my surprise, the immense love the French have for Pizzas. They can be found everywhere…in all shapes and sizes…with all kinds of flavors and sauces. Yes, unfortunately they really can be found with all kinds of flavors and sauces. ‘Unfortunately’ because I am an Indian – we do have pizza hut, dominos and Papa John’s but we are very very far away from the classic pizza – Italian or American! We love spice, keema, tomato sauce (ketchup), paneer and lots of onions on our ‘very thick pan’ pizza. We like our pizza very very cooked and God Forbid you do not offer a good vegetarian version or if you do not give us FREE oregano and chilli flakes. All of the above are also reasons why I never liked pizza (especially the tomato sauce). 

Crash and Burn Pizza!

Now, here I am in France surrounded by Pizza at every corner and when I happen to be in the south of France literally every restaurant has pizza on the menu. And what pizzas – with tomato sauce (read Italian but still processed sauce) or cream if u please…a half fried egg (why not)…all kinds of cheeses…mussels too if you like…and they do have a vegetarian one too – margarita! After managing to make me dislike pizza even more than before Paris decided to smile down at me and lo and behold! There was suddenly a Dominos next to my house! I was delighted! Mostly because I was bored of eating McDs or kebab every time I was lazy and did not want to cook, but also because my darling boyfriend loves pizza and I thought well here is a compromise – I can get the safe and time tested pepperoni and cheese pizza :D There was me prancing and dancing my way to Dominos for (finally) a good pizza until the menu hit me like a ton of bricks – there was no pepperoni and cheese! No, there was Indian pizza with curry sauce and some strange Turkish version with chorizos and all kinds of French ones and even a couple vegetarian ones… but no pepperoni and cheese! Sigh! Well here I am again in this mean old town with no sign of relief from the French Pizza!