Hometown Pizza

This pizza flavor is called the Italiana, and comes with calabresa (a type of sausage), green peppers, onions  and peas--We order it without the peas.

Horizontina has about 3 restaurants.  Two of them are pizzerias.  If you don't like pizza, you're not going to eat out very often here.

While Grammy & Grandpapa were here, we thought it would be fun to take them to a pizza place.  We do not normally frequent these places, as they don't even open until 7 or 7:30.  If we are to have a pizza, we'll usually order one for delivery right when they open and have the kids bathed and in PJs before the pizza arrives so that by the time we're done eating they are ready for stories and prayers and bedtime.  But Granmy and Grandpapa's visit was a special occasion, so we went out..late night and all.

I have to admit, I think the pizza we have in this town is superior to any pizza at an average pizza place in the States.  The pizzas here are baked in a wood fired oven...one at a time.  The dough is homemade on site daily and tossed by hand.  The ingredients are fresh and nicely chopped.  The pizza is normally a display of artistry.  They never skimp on toppings.  I guess you could say it's more "gourmet."  The flavors are unique, and there are more than 50 on the menu, not including create your own.  Besides that, they are more than happy to put 2, 3 or even 4 flavors on one pie.  That makes it easy to please everyone.  In addition to all of that, delivery takes the cake.  We have never lived close enough to a pizza place to order a pizza for delivery in the States.  Delivery is a big bonus for me.  It's a lot of work to load up 3 kids and drive to a restaurant to pick up a pizza. I much prefer the nice guy who drives out on his little motorcycle with it's special pizza delivery box strapped on the back.  He's quick, he doesn't expect a tip, and he brings it to me.  Heaven.

All of that said, there are some things about American pizzas that I miss...peperoni, for one.  Italian sausage is another.  Neither exists in the same form here.  And there is something about a more mass-produced pizza like Papa Johns or Dominos that has it's own appeal on occasion, but I will definitely miss our Brazilian pizza places.

These few pictures are from our visit to Dom Pepe with Grammy & Grandpapa.  Notice the table cloth and placemats, cloth napkins too.  Pizza is not fast food or "kid friendly" as we think of it in the US.  H is sitting in a high chair, but we remove the tray, because it's actually not made for putting a plate on.  A Brazilian would still be fork feeding their 2 1/2 year old, so normally we have to ask for a plate and silverware for her.  There are no "kid plates" and no plastic cups.  She gets a dinner plate, fork and knife and a drinking glass just like everyone else (cringe!)  It takes a long time to get your food, so we try to bring coloring books to keep everyone entertained.  I've never seen a Brazilian family do something like this.  Usually their kids just roam the restaurant freely.  Otherwise they sit patiently until they can't any longer then the parents do anything they can to pacify them until the food arrives. 

We also had to adjust to not being able to order milk for our children at restaurants here.  It is never available.  In the States even at restaurants our children drank milk with meals.  Here we evaluate our options and normally end up with a juice (hopefully 100%, but not always available) and dilute it with water.

Just because I find it interesting, here are a few of the toppings we as Americans find "unusual" but are commonly available here:

broccoli
corn
peas
tuna
chicken hearts
chopped file of beef
smoked chicken
cream cheese
palm hearts
hard boiled egg
peach
fig
maraschino cherries
shoestring potatoes
and that's not including all the dessert pizza flavors, of which there are another 10 or 15 including ingredients like guava, sweetened condensed milk, flaked coconut...

And it's worth mentioning that Dom Pepe (yes, the pizzearia) has the best french fries in town.  Have you ever ordered a pizza and fries?  They go surprisingly well together.