Let the pepperoni be all one half
After
the desert heat of Las Vegas, even "hot" temperatures such as +25C feel
quite moderate and tolerable. We felt like pizza for dinner tonight, so
I took a lovely stroll and noticed a cheap-looking pizza joint that had
been there for a while but that we had never tried before. Since the
place advertised a large pizza with any three toppings for five
ninetynine, I thought "oh, what the heck" and stepped in. The
proprietor of the place was a young Pakistani male, but he spoke
perfect English as first language, so no interpreter was needed for me
to buy the pizza that he would sell me. Even though I could have got
any three toppings, I ordered our usual pepperoni so that my wife will
have just cheese the way she likes it, and pluck the pepperoni pieces
onto my side.
While I was waiting for my pizza to come out of the oven so that I could take it home, I browsed the one English-language newspaper that was available there. This paper was apparently the community paper of Pakistanis who live in Canada, and I learned that Pakistan will soon celebrate its independence day. In the news section, this paper also included lots of commentary about the recent events in Lebanon, and most of it was very critical of Israel and its policies.
In the letters to the editor section, one particular letter caught my eye. It was written by a self-described veteran of several wars for Islam. In this letter, he first condemned the use of suicide bombings against civilians, but then continued by saying that the Israeli leaders are the true terrorists and even though he is already sixty years old, he would love to wear a suicide belt and then go give a big bear hug to the Israeli leaders. That letter sure was something you don't get to see in the letters to the editor section of our bland local Mississauga newspaper!
The pizza came out promptly and it looked and smelled delicious. When I got it home, it was undeniable that its quality easily surpassed the offerings of the name-brand chains around here such as Pizza Pizza, Pizza 241 or Pizzaville. So I'll probably keep going back to that place to get our pizza fix, especially since this outfit offers a dozen hot wings for $5 with their large pizza special. In the ethnic food court located at the nearby old mall, there is another Pakistani place, though this one genuine Pakistani, and a man can eat there quite well for $4. And even though the culture of these people is strange to me and I cannot tell what reasons sway their mood, so far I have never seen the Gods of their far-off land repossessing their blood so that any kind of conflict would have emerged in the little melting pot that Mississauga has become.
While I was waiting for my pizza to come out of the oven so that I could take it home, I browsed the one English-language newspaper that was available there. This paper was apparently the community paper of Pakistanis who live in Canada, and I learned that Pakistan will soon celebrate its independence day. In the news section, this paper also included lots of commentary about the recent events in Lebanon, and most of it was very critical of Israel and its policies.
In the letters to the editor section, one particular letter caught my eye. It was written by a self-described veteran of several wars for Islam. In this letter, he first condemned the use of suicide bombings against civilians, but then continued by saying that the Israeli leaders are the true terrorists and even though he is already sixty years old, he would love to wear a suicide belt and then go give a big bear hug to the Israeli leaders. That letter sure was something you don't get to see in the letters to the editor section of our bland local Mississauga newspaper!
The pizza came out promptly and it looked and smelled delicious. When I got it home, it was undeniable that its quality easily surpassed the offerings of the name-brand chains around here such as Pizza Pizza, Pizza 241 or Pizzaville. So I'll probably keep going back to that place to get our pizza fix, especially since this outfit offers a dozen hot wings for $5 with their large pizza special. In the ethnic food court located at the nearby old mall, there is another Pakistani place, though this one genuine Pakistani, and a man can eat there quite well for $4. And even though the culture of these people is strange to me and I cannot tell what reasons sway their mood, so far I have never seen the Gods of their far-off land repossessing their blood so that any kind of conflict would have emerged in the little melting pot that Mississauga has become.
Love your articles. Great reading.
Pumpkin
Posted by Lexcen | 12:29 AM
Finland has these ultra-cheap pizza joints run by Middle Easterners or South Asians, too. They are not so common in Tampere where the going rate for a take away pizza is about 5€ but, for instance, downtown Oulu is full of 3€ pizzerias run by Arabs, Turks or whatnot. Anything cheaper than that is suspicious. Establishments that sell pizza for less than that are usually not that established: the staff and the owners change every few months or so, the reason being that the work is done off the books and that they abuse some start loan system etc..
There are honest restaurant businesses run by Middle Easterners, of course. One such pizza joint is the one Heval in the south of Hervanta. The same people have worked there for ages, the prices are reasonable, and the quality is superb.
Posted by Markku | 2:29 AM
Markku: They are not so common in Tampere where the going rate for a take away pizza is about 5€ but, for instance, downtown Oulu is full of 3€ pizzerias run by Arabs, Turks or whatnot.
I assume that the 3 or 5 euros is for a small pizza for one person, like I remember having back in Finland. The "large" pizza around is much bigger here feeds two people quite well.
Posted by Ilkka Kokkarinen | 6:07 PM