my new found love for pizza!

“I love my pizza so much, in fact, that I have come to believe in my delirium that my pizza might actually love me, in return. I am having a relationship with this pizza, almost an affair.”

― Elizabeth Gilbert, Eat, Pray, Love

Now, cannot all you readers agree with this statement? I do, every bit of it. There was a time when I would detest the slightest idea of whittling down a slice of pizza. It made me nauseous. But then came teenage, living in a country that contradicted the smallest food value in mine. My country serves the best of herbs and spices. Russian food was B-L-A-N-D!!! And how.

I remember this chilly, Wednesday morning. I loathed waking up early, which is an every day feeling. After attending my class without good breakfast, I was starving by early noon. I happened to come across a small, dingy, dull-lit mini mall. I didn’t bother before ordering a pork pizza! Well, they served nothing else. It was a small, not-so-fresh, cheese and pork pizza.

I don’t know or rather refuse to believe that it was my hunger more than anything else that I relished every tiny piece of that food I ate. And ordered again. And again!!

The moment I laid my semi-frozen fingers on that piping hot, 4-sliced mini meal and carried it to my equally frozen, dry lips, the aroma of the wood-smoked, half melted, velvet-textured cheese stimulated the very last nerve ending of my nose.

The process of salivation began. Then and now.

The pizza base made out of sheer salted flour and water, layered with butter, melted in my heavily salivating mouth.

The pork, lightly soaked in basic herbs, probably basil and lemon grass, as I distinctly recall now, was superbly juicy and tender.

Now imagine the combination of these three basic ingredients turning out to be a dish that changed my perspective about pizzas, for good.

My journey of devouring this flavored bread began ever since.

The pizzas, they say, are a poor man’s food. It was not of the rich and famous to consume something so simple. Today, you will find a hundred varieties, various sauces, all kinds of meats, different veggie toppings, all the cheeses in the world, baked, roasted, and grilled. Sold in malls, prepared in open airs at water fronts or parks, companies providing quick services. Available at the touch of a screen. This is just an experience I have longed to share. I’d be lying if I said I haven’t done it verbally a million times to all my friends. I am sure there are a number of people across this world, who had such experiences with a simple, fast food called a pizza.

My expedition continues. It probably does not have an end.

But how about you???