Quest for the best
Since we drove seven hours (return trip) to eat a bowl of soup in Rosebud 2 weeks ago...I guess it isn’t that much of a surprise that Terry and I would drive all the way down to Calgary for a pizza!
Speaking of driving….I can drive my husband crazy with my very specific requirements for the perfect pizza.
Hailing originally from the Windsor, Ontario region, I was absolutely spoiled with THE most delicious pizzas around. There is a huge Italian community there and these folks know how to make yummy pizza. And ask a displaced Windsorite what is the best pizza they have ever tasted and they will say “Windsor Pizza” .
Because, here’s the thing : it isn’t just one place in Windsor that makes the pizza we love but SO many restaurants make this incredible pizza. What is it about the Windsor pizzas that make them so different from other cities and countries?
And, I kid you not ….I have been to Piza, Italy, and even THEIR pizza was not as good...ha ha.
My favourite pizza is Franco’s in Windsor. ( I can already picture the giant eye roll I am getting from Terry when he reads this eventually.)
But, Franco’s has the perfect combination of flavours, ( not too sweet), mozza, grease (gotta have some), not too soft or too hard crust, and for me….Mushrooms, green peppers, bacon, and pepperoni. All of their ingredients are chopped small (including the pepperoni) and they say one of their secrets to success is that they use canned mushrooms.
Some of the pizza places out here in Edmonton actually put cold things like arugula ,peas, or peppers on top of the cooked Za and that is just not my ‘jam’.
When my Windsor cousin, Daniel, told me that he heard there was a place called “Windsor Pizza” in Calgary and it even had the Ambassador Bridge on its logo I just knew we had to make a road trip and check it out sometime.
So, on the warmest day of the week ( +17 ...which is VERY warm for our March) we put on our audio “Grisham” book after prayers and enjoyed our sunny trip south.
It was like a trip down the proverbial ‘memory lane’ in another way too as we used to live in Calgary for 20 years so we took photos of two of our former homes,our former church and the kids’ grade school. (We had 4 different homes during our time there). Our children got quite the kick out of seeing the pictures.
We ordered the ‘test pizza’ from the take-out only shop in an industrial area.
Then we drove over to our dear friends, Mary and Mike’s home to share it with them, also former Windsorites.
We distanced in their wonderful “ Secret Garden” backyard, took the masks down, tasted the pizza and…..
WE ALL LOVED IT!!!!! It was the closest thing any of us have ever found to the taste of home. After a wonderful visit with our best friends we made the call and ordered a few more pizzas to take home with us. They told us people do this all this time so they had them ready for us in plastic, half cooked, boxed up, and ready for the return trip home.
Terry and I enjoyed our ride home, tummies full, spirits full too from our visit, and enough pizza in our freezer to last a few months. YAY!
P.S. Mary and Mike sent us home with homemade, freshly baked banana bread muffins, waters, and some wee tomato plants so we even had parting gifts!
P.P.S. Check out my sister, Paula’s reaction to receiving a whole Windsor Pizza from us on Easter Sunday. We LOVE our Windsor Pizza…ha ha ha
