Most places in the world, pizza toppings go on top. For decades, though, pizzas in Montreal and Ottawa used to come with the toppings completely submerged in cheese.
The reason why this was this way was aggressive marketing. There was a helpful supplier that sold cheese to independent pizzerias in those two cities and they had a straightforward offer: buy from us or your place will burn down and you'll have an accident and break both your legs and we sure hope nothing happens to those lovely children of yours. Not surprisingly, they dominated the market.
A funny thing about dealing with organized crime, they not only sell you stuff, they decide how much you will be buying. The pizzerias in Montreal and Ottawa ended up buying a lot of cheese, far more than they needed. As reselling the excess could be fatal, they took to heaping it on top of the pizzas.
Some of the old places still make pizza that way. Anyone who knows anything about pizza would sneer but I have memories of sitting on the edge of the lake out at Hudson with a girl named Carol sharing a bottle of wine and one of those pizzas and well, they are the sort of memories that stick with a boy. Afterward, I lay on the shore and she climbed a tree and played harmonica. I ordered a pizza from one of those places that still makes it "organized crime style" tonight.
Hope you are doing well wherever you are Carol.
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