Close enough

A strange thing happens when you move from your home country and live somewhere quite different. After a while, you find yourself craving foods that were never all that important to you in the U.S. There should be a medical term for it. Surely I'm not the only expat who has experienced it.

For example, I've baked chocolate chip cookies more in the past year and a half than in all of the years combined prior to moving to Austria. There's just something so American about chocolate chip cookies that they're irresistible here. And pizza. I've blogged several times about going to another country to eat at Pizza Hut because you can't find thick crust pizza in Vienna. The pizza here is good, but sometimes I just want an American-style pizza.

Fortunately for me, some friends here in Vienna tuned me into a place that has a pizza crust that is almost exactly like Pizza Hut's. Almost, as in, I'm pretty sure it's the same recipe. They even have three crust options -- pan, deep dish and stuffed crust. The pizza toppings are still definitely Austria (corn and tuna, anyone?), but it's close enough for me!

When I was young my family visited Germany and we learned the hard way that there was no pepperoni in Germany. We ordered the pizza that was called pepperoni on the menu and were served a pizza covered in peppers (similar to banana peppers, I think). No pepperoni in Austria either, but salami is pretty popular. This one came with salami and bacon.

Some of the pizzas were named after famous people. Our other pizzas were the Schwarzenegger with salami, bacon, peppers and corn and in the back the Falco (named for the famous Austrian pop rocker) with ham and mushrooms.

Sorry Slovakia -- I don't think I'll be visiting you any longer for my Pizza Hut fix.