Tonight we celebrated Drew’s homecoming from Gabon and last business trip away from me with his ultimate favorite all-time dish: pizza, which he claims is the perfect food. “OMG you’re eating that entire pizza” is a question/comment we usually receive after Drew posts something like this on Facebook: 
The answer is… YES!!
But our reasons for eating an entire pizza are different from emotional stress-eating and college midnight pizza runs. The thing is, Italian pizza is made with the freshest of ingredients and absolutely no grease. The crust is a thin, non-crispy yet also non-soggy crust, that is actually too thin to pick up in the middle. The pizza will come delivered without any slices cut. That’s because the expectation is that you will eat an entire pizza and cut it however you please. Sorry Jon Stewart and New York City. We love you, but pizza originated in ITALY, not New York, and here they cut their pizza.
With that said, there is no wrong way to eat a pizza. Drew starts in the middle and works his way out, while I cut my pizza in half with the hopes that I might only eat half and take the rest home. (Sometimes that works, but it didn’t tonight.) You can observe Italians doing a combination of eating with fork and knife and eating with their hands, so you can also mix and match your strategies here.
Here’s what a typical PashbyMaul pizza date will look like: 
Drew orders his favorite, prosciutto funghi-porcini. Just look how happy he is with that! It’s like Christmas on a plate for him, and he tries to eat it at least once a week. Lucky guy with Christmas once a week, isn’t he?
Contrast Drew’s creation with mine: 
Look, it’s a garden on a plate! Who wouldn’t be as happy as me with a rabbit-food pizza?! Of course I always get vegetarian pizza without cheese, but I usually mix up which veggies I want. Tonight it was artichoke, radicchio lettuce, olives, and arugula, made with a very healthy grain flour, kamut. Then I like to top it off with spicy olio piccante for an extra added kick, which is something Italians do when they want to have an added kick.
Yes folks, our diverse family has found a way to pick a place where everyone (carnivore vs. semi-vegetarian, dairy free) can dine together and be happy. We’ve found a way to have our Pizza and eat it, too.
Intentionally International 
Your blog is killing me Drew! Cripes, all we have here are the disastrous American chain pizza places which all suck tremendously. One interesting thing I learned during my time there is that Americans (and Germans, Brits, Canadians, etc.) usually drink wine with their pizza while Italians, almost without fail, drink beer with theirs. Several Italian friends have explained to me that this is because of the similarities of the ingredients. I conducted a non-scientific study (which basically consisted of me observing who drinks what when we’d go out) and I found this to be the norm.
Rik, we drink wine with our pizza because I don’t like beer. But Drew could be considered more Italian because he would order a beer if it wasn’t for me.
You’ve made me very hungry now. Can we go get pizza the next time I come up? Oh please, Oh please, Oh pretty please?
Thanks for reading! Of course we can enjoy a pizza together!
Good to see you safely back home enjoying life with your beautiful wife Alicia !