This is a French pizza at it's finest---crispy crust, lots of cream and cheese, oil floating freely across the surface...yum. But it also represents something that totally baffles me about France. People always say that the French stay slim because they eat smaller portions. In my experience, I've been stuffed to the gills here in France way more often than in the States, at restaurants and in peoples' homes. (And I'm definitely not complaining!) I can only assume they've got the whole balance thing figured out, indulging on special occasions and eating healthfully and reasonably on a day-to-day basis. But back to the pizza...this thing is about 13 inches in diameter (it's falling over the edges of a very large dinner plate) and is for ONE person. It has to have more calories than say seven or eight BigMacs. (May I also mention that there are bottles of spicy oil on the table to pour over the pizza, just to add some extra flavor?) And it's not exactly what I would call a balanced meal...there are a couple of onions swimming around in the grease, but that's all the vegetation in this particular meal. At a restaurant, each person is expected to order their own pizza: it's a dish, not something to cut up and pass around. And they don't do doggy-bags. So you either gorge yourself, or throw it away...and neither of these options seem to jive at all with French values (throwing away stale bread is a mortal sin)...and that is why I will forever remain confused about French pizza. And I will keep eating it until the day we leave.
No comments:
Post a Comment