When you haven’t had something in a long time, and you finally have it, it tastes amazing. I grew up outside of New York City in southwestern Connecticut. I was very used to both Italian Style and New England Greek Style pizza. When I moved across the country, I never thought I would miss Italian food, especially pizza, so much. I just assumed that you could get an authentic pizza anywhere in the US. Boy, was I disabused of that idea very early on.
For years, whenever we would visit home, the trip wasn’t complete without a visit to Pomodoro, a restaurant we used to frequent often when we lived there for a hot bowl of pasta fagioli soup and Italian style pizza. It’s a small, cramped, loud place, but we loved it. We also usually made it to one of the many Greek restaurants that served New England Greek Style pizza. It was truly a treat for us because we could only have it on our visits.
Through the years I have only found one restaurant on the west coast that does pizza right. I found it in one the most unexpected places – Carmel Valley, California. On our first trip to Carmel, I found the small pizza place in a quiet strip mall one night and we have been back every single time we are in Carmel. It is a taste of home on the opposite side of the country.
When we lived in Connecticut, we went into NYC often and got pizza. Or we’d have pizza night at home and get take away from one of the local Greek places. When we had it as often as we did, we kind of took it for granted. It wasn’t as valuable to us, or a “treat” because we could have it whenever we wanted.
Our appreciation of food from “back home” is dear to us, simply because we don’t get to have it often. It tastes amazing because we have it so infrequently.
