Pizza & Beer Wine

pizwine.jpgYeah, so I’ve sort of become a tad dependent on Walmart pizza. I discovered it a couple weeks back nestled right next to the freshly steamed Bao Zi (steamed bread stuffed with meat) and it’s become nearly a daily thing.

It’s a sad fact that I have absolutely no motivation to cook for just myself, and with Maggie working until 9 o’clock most nights, it leaves me scrounging for easy to prepare dinner. Pizza, with no surprise, has become the answer.

At 7.90 RMB a slice, it’s not the cheapest thing you can buy for eating here, but it kicks the pants off a plate of jiao zi (dumplings). Now, you may be saying to yourself… “Walmart, pizza? Wha?” And if you are, talking to yourself is a sign of mindloss, don’t challenge the pizza – ya nut.

It should be explained that Walmart here is 50% home goods and 50% full-on supermarket, not the 70/30 ratio that they were/are in Canada (at least when I left), so when I say “pizza” I mean oven-baked goodness, not frozen in a box stuff or anything of the sort.

Honestly, it’s great. Perhaps it’s just that I’ve not had real pizza in so long the Chinese versions are starting to be alright, but I had pizza at the local Pizza King a few months back, and have had it various other places since getting here and it was always startlingly craptastic. Maybe we just have to admit, Walmart can do things right.

Maggie, after asking what I ate for dinner the other day, gave me a flash of her qwirky smile and exclaimed, “Again!?” To which I very proudly pointed out that I’ve eaten Chinese food for in around 400+ days and no one says “you ate Chinese food AGAIN last night…” Honestly, don’t get between me and pizza.

Now sitting here with a glass of wine (2 bottles of not hot, but not bad, Cab Sav for 36 RMB) and the pizza I have to reflect on the fact that I very definitely went to Walmart today NOT to buy pizza. I recognized early in the day that I was going to have the now all-too-common challenge of deciding for myself what to eat, and made the resolute decision to lay off the stuff today and settle for the more traditional (and equally convenient) bao zi. However, the pusher that she is, the woman selling the pizza conned me into getting not just my regular two slices, but she threw in a third free to sweeten the deal. She took one look at me and knew my “jin tian wo bu yao xie xie” was about as valuable as an yi fen note ($0.0014).

Meh, pizza and wine… really, I’m not going to beat myself up over it.

7 Responses

  1. can’t believe you eat that stuff…isn’t it half mayo, half cheese? plus they throw on hot dogs, corn and other weird stuff on it?? am i thinking about the same walmart pizza? if it is that pizza, you’re really deprived man if you think that’s good! haha

  2. Nononono… you’re thinking of the stuff the bread department has going on. That stuff is just wrong. Sorta looks like a good old square of ‘za might, but yeah… the dough is sweet and that’s just the beginning (as you said).

    This stuff is proper pizza. Sometimes it’s a bit bizarre in choice of toppings (seafood pizzas, curry flavoured pizzas – actually two of my favs. – are common… and damnit if most don’t have peas on them)… but largely they’re just like regular pizza with italian sausage(esqe) bits, pepperoni, and a good amount of cheese (not that sparse sprinkling on those Nazis in the bread department).

    Check the pre-cooked food section, like where the roasted duck, big steamed bao zi and stuff are next time you’re in a Mainland Walmart. I don’t know if it’s commonplace (as it IS made in-house), or what.

    All that really matters to me is that they keep selling it at the Walmart by me.

  3. don’t feel bad man.

    I’ve been ordering from pizza boy a lot more than I should these days. It’s those damn 8 kuai potato croquette thingies. Lovely.

    I had that mayo-pizza once. Sucked.

    I’ll have to try the good stuff sometime soon.
    R

  4. Ah! I’m kicking myself right now — I have yet to find good pizza in China, and, when I was in Dalian, I lived right above the Walmart! Most of the pizza I’ve tried is pretty bland and nasty, and none of it has ever had proper tomato sauce. Shanghai, as far as I know, doesn’t have a Walmart yet (I could be wrong about that, though).

  5. i LOVE the walmart pizza.

    this is a little embarrassing… but i just saw a TV ad for walmart pizza and i suddenly had hope that somebody else on the planet had discovered its goodness. i’m so pathetic that i actually googled walmart pizza and you came up.

  6. I find Melrose Pizza in SND not to bad. I just close my eyes and imagine it’s Pizza Pizza from back home.. :-(….I totally understand this post! It’s amazing how a good pizza or the just the sight (not taste) of the Poutine at The Bookworm can remove my homesickness…

    yaaaaaaa I know you are prob saying “WTF is Poutine??”

    lol…silly Ka-na-dian thing…lol

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