I've had pizza twice this week. Both looked like regular pizza I've become accustomed to, but then again, neither was like any pizza I'd ever had.
I went to get my nails done on Thursday afternoon as I have gotten into the habit of doing. One of the young girls - she's 22 I think - she's from the Phillipines and she can cook. Seems like almost everytime I go in, she's made some little something and they've saved me a bite. This week she had made pizza, all from scratch. Still hot. Smelled great. Looked like pizza. Took a bite - it was simply delicious. But then again, there was something about it. A little something. Took a minute to put my finger on it. Great pizza dough; not too thick, not too thin. Hawaiian style pizza, she called it. It had pineapple, cheese, mushrooms, just a bit of onion and tuna. Yes, tuna. Not tuna from a can, but real tuna. Cooked on the pizza, it was flaky chunks. Usually the hawaiian pizza has ham, but let me tell you - this was good. But then I discovered there was no tomato based sauce on it. It had spiced, flavored mayo instead for the sauce. Almost came out like a tartar sauce. They served mayo spiced in a variety of ways with a number of dishes. A favorite is lemon or lime mayo. Very different, but tasty nonetheless. It's just kind of a shock at first to discover all the ways and things they serve it with.
The second pizza was today. Walking with Basil through one of the downtown areas it was beginning to lightening a lot and looked like rain, so we decided we'd duck into a shoping area and let it pass. There was a Pizza Hut. Good old American food, we thought, let's do it! Now, I'm not up on what Pizza Hut is serving stateside as it's been a little while since I've been there. We got a "deal", which is what they called it. Two drinks, 4 spicy chicken drumettes, a plate of sesame seed and cinnamon mini-breadsticks and a "splitizza". It's a medium pizza split in two and you can order each half to be different. Ok, good. We get the Hawaiian style and the other half a little of everything. Now this one could not have been more different from the other Hawaiian style pizza I'd had earlier in the week. Both halves of the pizza had bar-b-que sauce in place of pizza sauce. Not only that, but the meat that was on it was spam and bologna. Chunks of it. In bar-b-que sauce. Strangest pizza I think I've ever eaten.
The people all across Asia just love spam and bologna. I mean they love it! The stores cannot keep the cans of spam on the shelves and bologna in the deli case. And they do not make tuna salad with it either! They use it in all kinds of dishes in a kinds of ways. It's nothing to see a grocery cart with 20 cans of spam in it. The deli sells several different types of bologna - spiced, garlic, onion, with a glaze, marinated in soy sauce and chili sauce spiced to mention just a few. No slices for a sandwich. In fact, they don't eat very many sandwiches here at all. They have the deli man cut off huge unsliced pieces and, as with the tuna, they eat it in a variety of very creative ways. I ate quite a bit of spam and bologna growing up, but trust me when I tell you, my mother was creative with it, but nowhere near in the same league as these people.
I mentioned chili sauce spice - Chili sauce spice is a huge thing here. It's not chili sauce like tex-mex chili. It looks like catsup, but it's actually called chili sauce. You can buy it in the states - I have a recipe where I mix a bottle of it and make a glaze for little meatbals. Pretty good. But it's a huge thing here. A special dish to order at a restaurant is chili crab. Yep, you guessed it - crab meat served with chili sauce. No crab boil - just boiled and chili sauce drenched. I'm not sure I get it.
All this talk of food has made me hungry - I think I need to go find a cookie or something to replace the bar-b-que spam and bologna taste. Can can!
For those in Louisville - we watched Thunder on our Slingbox early this morning - great music and fireworks! Almost felt like we were right there, too!
Abby - hope you liked your own special fireworks!
Suzie - I did get the picture - she's precious - I'll write soon.
To everyone that's ask - I promise to start posting pictures!
Heather - yes, still.
I went to get my nails done on Thursday afternoon as I have gotten into the habit of doing. One of the young girls - she's 22 I think - she's from the Phillipines and she can cook. Seems like almost everytime I go in, she's made some little something and they've saved me a bite. This week she had made pizza, all from scratch. Still hot. Smelled great. Looked like pizza. Took a bite - it was simply delicious. But then again, there was something about it. A little something. Took a minute to put my finger on it. Great pizza dough; not too thick, not too thin. Hawaiian style pizza, she called it. It had pineapple, cheese, mushrooms, just a bit of onion and tuna. Yes, tuna. Not tuna from a can, but real tuna. Cooked on the pizza, it was flaky chunks. Usually the hawaiian pizza has ham, but let me tell you - this was good. But then I discovered there was no tomato based sauce on it. It had spiced, flavored mayo instead for the sauce. Almost came out like a tartar sauce. They served mayo spiced in a variety of ways with a number of dishes. A favorite is lemon or lime mayo. Very different, but tasty nonetheless. It's just kind of a shock at first to discover all the ways and things they serve it with.
The second pizza was today. Walking with Basil through one of the downtown areas it was beginning to lightening a lot and looked like rain, so we decided we'd duck into a shoping area and let it pass. There was a Pizza Hut. Good old American food, we thought, let's do it! Now, I'm not up on what Pizza Hut is serving stateside as it's been a little while since I've been there. We got a "deal", which is what they called it. Two drinks, 4 spicy chicken drumettes, a plate of sesame seed and cinnamon mini-breadsticks and a "splitizza". It's a medium pizza split in two and you can order each half to be different. Ok, good. We get the Hawaiian style and the other half a little of everything. Now this one could not have been more different from the other Hawaiian style pizza I'd had earlier in the week. Both halves of the pizza had bar-b-que sauce in place of pizza sauce. Not only that, but the meat that was on it was spam and bologna. Chunks of it. In bar-b-que sauce. Strangest pizza I think I've ever eaten.
The people all across Asia just love spam and bologna. I mean they love it! The stores cannot keep the cans of spam on the shelves and bologna in the deli case. And they do not make tuna salad with it either! They use it in all kinds of dishes in a kinds of ways. It's nothing to see a grocery cart with 20 cans of spam in it. The deli sells several different types of bologna - spiced, garlic, onion, with a glaze, marinated in soy sauce and chili sauce spiced to mention just a few. No slices for a sandwich. In fact, they don't eat very many sandwiches here at all. They have the deli man cut off huge unsliced pieces and, as with the tuna, they eat it in a variety of very creative ways. I ate quite a bit of spam and bologna growing up, but trust me when I tell you, my mother was creative with it, but nowhere near in the same league as these people.
I mentioned chili sauce spice - Chili sauce spice is a huge thing here. It's not chili sauce like tex-mex chili. It looks like catsup, but it's actually called chili sauce. You can buy it in the states - I have a recipe where I mix a bottle of it and make a glaze for little meatbals. Pretty good. But it's a huge thing here. A special dish to order at a restaurant is chili crab. Yep, you guessed it - crab meat served with chili sauce. No crab boil - just boiled and chili sauce drenched. I'm not sure I get it.
All this talk of food has made me hungry - I think I need to go find a cookie or something to replace the bar-b-que spam and bologna taste. Can can!
For those in Louisville - we watched Thunder on our Slingbox early this morning - great music and fireworks! Almost felt like we were right there, too!
Abby - hope you liked your own special fireworks!
Suzie - I did get the picture - she's precious - I'll write soon.
To everyone that's ask - I promise to start posting pictures!
Heather - yes, still.
