When I was a child, I lived in a touristy part of the city near a river in a country I won't specify. This was the late 90s. The country was very undeveloped at the time and we didn't really have much foreign food, except for things like sandwiches and pizzas at pubs and we certainly didn't have any fast food chains.
During these formative years, my only exposure to western food is pizza, which my parents often ordered from this old french man who ran a pub on our street. Obviously, I've had that pizza many times, and to this day, I still remember how it tasted very well. There's this smoky and charred flavour (not burned) on the dough that makes it very distinctive. It still pops into my head from time to time and I've tried to find it again for many years to no success.
Until I randomly stopped at this pizzeria that's on my way to work that I drove by everyday but never went in. I didn't order a pizza but I tried their Calzone, which actually contains that distinct smoky and charred flavour that I knew from my childhood. It was a nice experience.
I never liked that pizza and neither did I really enjoy this Calzone, but it was nice to have my memory rush back to me so distinctly. I still miss that old man, he babysat me a couple times too. I never knew his name.
by Chief_Cthulhu
2 Comments
This is a different kind of post than we usually get here in r/food OP, but I’m eating it right up. Maybe that old french guy is out there somewhere reminiscing about the pizza he used to make for your parents!
Lol the last line where you admit you actually didn’t like the pizza or this calzone made me actually burst out a laugh. Glad it was able to revive the memory of that pizza regardless!