dominos pizza

Oh my god, that is amazing pizza.

And it’s dominos pizza, and I’m eating it in Istanbul. Maybe it’s not New York Pizza but as I learned in Economics, the situation affects the value, and in Istanbul, when you have eaten kebab and cucumber tomato salad and doner until you’re ready to kick off, Dominos pizza, made with Turkish ingredients tastes like a slice, quite literally, of heaven.

I had no intention of having American pizza mind you, it just happened. I mean, that pizza reached out and grabbed me. I was walking down the street between Sirkegi where I live (funny what constitutes where you live, anyway, where my hotel is) and looking for food. I was hungry and had 10 YTL (lira). Now even at the lokantas where working men eat, can’t eat for 10 YTL unless you’re in the outskirts, which I wasn’t, or you eat cheap. So I was looking for a cheap option or on option at which I could use a credit card. At that moment it occurred to me that dominos pizza I really wanted was a beer, not an Efes pilsen either, the local beer of Turkey which is kind of like Skopsko or Michelob but a Guinness. And I was pretty sure that I could get one at this bar in Sultanhamet, the tourist area with the Aye Sofia and Blue Mosque. I hated to go to a Tourist place but I did want my Guinness.

Just as I was contemplated the cool but not cold, thick frothy flavor of Ireland’s finest, I look down and right in front of me is this sign, I don’t think much of it at first because as an American, I’m so used to filtering out advertising that it doesn’t have much effect. Then all at once, it hits me. A Dominos pizza sign, and on it is written â€SPizza 4,90 YTL” A pause while I ran it through my translator. â€SPizza, 5 lira” 5 lira… that’s like $5. Five dollar dominos pizza It hits me, and hell I have 10 one me. And I was already thinking about good beer and here, right in my lap, god has delivered, Pizza. American pizza yet, not some Turkish derivation. Oh yeah, it’s dominos pizza time!

So I was a little embarrassed at first, being such an intrepid traveler and priding myself on my ability to sink in culturally, but as the smell wafted over the counter and the little menus presented me with multiple pizza options in both English and Turkish, my embarrassment soon waned.

As I was having this pizza orgasm this, what was, for this little, previously empty Istanbul Dominoes, â€Slarge” group came in, a gaggle of Turkish girls probably in their twenties and a couple, older, not American probably but not Turkish I think. They looked like evangelists but one of the girls was wearing a head scarf thus she was probably not part of their little church. In any case the couple looked like they had not had sex dominos pizza about 10 years (they were like 50). He with that placid look of someone who reads the bible every single night and she with that frustrated suffering look someone who drinks.

It was so odd watching the girls in their group, and this couple. This guy especially made me want to be as lecherous as possible which wasn’t hard since I dominos pizza having this sexual and yet religious experience with the pizza when all these girls came flooding in, dominos pizza their giggling coy way.

The pizza, now gone, was delicious and I am at the tourist bar. To my disappointment dominos pizza does not have Guinness. I have discovered however that Efes, the national Turkish beer has a Dark version. And oh my, and it’s quite delicious. It’s somewhere between Modela Negra, a dark Mexican beer my friend Gene recommended to me after being impressed by it on his vacation in Mexico and Becks Dark which I discovered for the first time much more recently at Gaspare’s deli while living in Astoria queens with Ben, a manager of minor rock bands from Jersey. Gaspare, pronounced â€SGashpar” was a quintessential Italian deli owner, tall with a big mustache and a friendly manner. He was old but lively and likely had been running the deli since the 1940’s. It was and most likely still is, his favorite beer.

And although Efes dark may not replace Becks as Gaspares favorite, I believe Gaspare would approve as it’s quite a fine brew and I’m quite pleased to be swilling it on this lovely evening Istanbul’s oldest quarter.

Best Regards

Nik
Istanbul
June 15, 2007