Wednesday 1 April 2015

Day 39: April 1, 2015 - Pizza Nova Pizza With Non-Dairy Cheese - Πίτσα Απο το Pizza Nova Με Μη Γαλακτούχο Τυρί


Every once in a while, we like to order pizza from our nearby pizzeria.  In the past, ordering pizza during Great Lent, or during any of our fasting periods has included ordering lots of vegetables and no cheese.  And, sometimes, when you ask for no cheese on pizza, the person on the phone will ask you to repeat that a few times, just to make sure he/she heard you correctly.  But, now, we found that there is a vegan pizza that is Lenten, and we bought one.  It is from the pizza chain called Pizza Nova, which is located throughout Ontario and makes the home office here in Toronto. Pizza Nova's pizza is usually considered an above average pizza as its ingredients, flavours and overal quality is very, very good.

We noticed in one of the promotional emails that we receive that Pizza Nova was now offering "veggie cheese" they refer to as "dairy-free mozzarella style shreds."  This was great news for us!  This would make the pizza Lenten, and we could have our monthly pizza night!  Great news, we thought.

We ordered a large cheese pizza with the dairy free cheese for pick up.  And, as per most pizza chains, we were told that we could pick up the pizza in about 20 minutes, which was okay for us.  It gave us a chance to cut a salad and keep dinner really simple tonight.

So, the twenty minutes passed, and we drove six minutes to pick up our pizza.  When you know you are getting something that meets  your dietary restrictions, and it won't cost you any more than the times when we are not fasting, it feels like we are winning a prize!  We drove to the pizza shop to claim our prize for the night -- our pizza.

Coming home, we were both excited about trying Dairy-free mozzarella style shreds, and the pizza smelled so good!  We have enjoyed pizza from Pizza Nova before, and their sauce is quite good, although it is minimal on the pie, but we knew that the crust, the sauce, and whatever was on top would be just fine.  And, we wanted to share with all of you, so your slice is at the top of this entry.

We got home, excited to try a pizza that we did not have to make ourselves.  That is usually the pattern when we really want pizza, we make it for ourselves.  Tonight, though, we wanted something different, which was another reason we ordered pizza.  It was hard to wait to bite into this pie, since it smelled so good!  But, we did wait, and here is what we found..



Our pizza looked good.  It appeared to have a plentiful amount of cheese, was sliced rather evenly, and had nice browning on the crust.  Now, to take a piece and taste it!


We want to make a few comments about tasting this delicious smelling pizza.  First, we did not ask for anything special, only the vegetarian cheese they were advertising.  you can see clearly that the cheese was not fully browned.  In fact, in the centre of the pizza, the cheese did not even look melted.  But, that did not stop us.  So, we tasted.


Husband took the first taste.  He spit it out almost instantly.  He claims that he believed that the dairy-free cheese is made from palm oil, and he did not like it at all.  In fact, after he had two bites of this pizza, he asked what we were really having for dinner. In all fairness, we DID NOT know what the non-dairy substances from which the cheese-like non-dairy topping was made. The next day, Husband wanted to know more about this non-dairy topping.

According to a promotional "news" story online, Pizza Nova's supplier of this topping is Daiya Foods, a west-coast (Canada) company. After reading this press release from Pizza Nova and finding out the supplier, husband checked out the ingredients of Daiya Foods' vegan "mozzarella" food topping ingredients. Here is what he found:


He was happy to find out that there was no palm oil in the "cheese", as he finds this oil thouroughly unhealthy and unpalatable.

Wife did not mind the pizza.  She thought it was fine, but she likes almost any pizza (even frozen ones).  She said the cheese needed to be melted more to change the texture of it.  To her, the cheese on top of the pizza reminded her of the texture of raw dough.  But, the flavour was fine.  The big thing that bothered Wife is that the cheese was not salty like many pizza cheeses are, and she thinks that we should have ordered extra sauce because that is her favourite part of the pizza.

Upon our disagreement, we had to get some more opinions.  Good thing we ordered a large pie!  We took some to the family, which meant that the large pizza fed six people.  And, we had each person comment on the taste, texture, and the looks before telling them what it was.  Of course, they probably knew that it was veggie cheese since we are all fasting together.  But, here is what each person had to say:

Sister claimed that the pizza looked "gross" but tasted okay.  The cheese on top looked like a layer of fat on a piece of meat because it was shiny and white, and it did not look appetising; but the taste was fine.  "It was not the best pizza, but it was good."And, her last comment was, "It was a little oily, but still tasty-- you expect a little oiliness from pizza, and that was missing on this one."

Mother tasted the pizza and was happy to have some.  Who knew that an 83 year old Greek lady would like pizza so much?  But, she did.  In fact, in Mother's words, "This is perfect!  Not too much sauce, not too much cheese, it's very good!"  Enough said.

Father had a slice, and he said that the top needed to be cooked longer because it was still raw on top.  His suggestion was to put the pizza under the broiler for a few minutes to melt the cheese and make it brown.  We agreed that this would be a good idea.  Father said that it was okay otherwise, and would be better cooked longer.  And, to prove his point, he got up and put the rest of the pizza in the broiler for a few minutes to make the top brown.  After that, he said, "Yah, that was the trick!"

Nephew was the last one to taste the pizza.  When he bit into it, he made this face that told us that there was something very different about this pizza, and it was not what he expected to taste.  You know the face.  When we asked specifically what was wrong with it, Nephew answered, "It just isn't regular pizza.  It feels weird to chew, and it doesn't have any flavour."

It is always amazing to us how six of us can taste the exact same product and have six totally different reactions!  But, that is human nature.  Now, out of curiosity, we tried to find other pizza chains that offer non-dairy cheese (dairy free) for pizza, and we found that PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) already created a list of "Eating Vegan at Fast Food Chain Restaurants" for us, and since their standards are even more strict than those of the Orthodox Church, we will defer to that list.  There are some interesting choices on there, including specific menu items that are acceptable.

So, now not only can you order pizza with dairy-free cheese, you can order other menu items at various places and easily merge your modern life and your Orthodox life.



"Fr. Amphilochios, the geronta or "elder" on the island of Patmos when I first stayed there, would have been in full agreement. "Do you know," he said, "that God gave us one more commandment, which is not recorded in Scripture? It is the commandment "love the trees." Whoever does not love trees, so he believed, does not love God. "When you plant a tree," he insisted, "you plant hope, you plant peace, you plant love, and you will receive God's blessing.""
Taken from an essay by Bishop Kallistos

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