Wise people always tell us that everything, even the bad things, happen for a reason. Then they want us to believe that the reason is not only valid, but good. I haven’t evolved my higher being enough yet and usually have a problem with this “argument”. Till yesterday.
I knew something was wrong with my oven when it made a crackling sound with a little hiss and the lights went off two days ago. I texted my landlord and he called the oven people to come over soonest. Yesterday I spent my office hours thinking what I could make for dinner that wouldn’t involve the oven and went grocery shopping accordingly. An inner voice told me to rather test if the hotplates were working before I went to class. What an ingenious thought. They were not.
I spent my class thinking about alternate dinner options to adjust to the new stove situation. Salad without some chicken or roast butternut is boring and even Thekla’s infamous cabbage/carrot salad is not the same without roasted seeds. The options started to narrow down to Mc Donald’s or pizza. Considering that I had had pizza the night before and can only justify eating MD after a night out drinking heavily, I wasn’t impressed by the choices I had given myself.
Once I left the studio, my hand made the decision for me and automatically opened the door of Col’Cacchio when walking past. Two magical things happened next. First I decided not only to be as healthy as one can possibly get with pizza, but also adventurous and ordered Justin Bonello’s special pizza Greengenie. I have come to terms with the fact that I’m not an adventurous pizza eater; I find chicken on my pizza to be exotic. Don’t ask why. Probably because in Italy they don’t put chicken on their pizza and I like to pretend I grew up on somewhat authentic pizza. So a pizza with whole-wheat base, shitake mushrooms, seeds, and more greenery than your average house salad is quite novel for me. But to summarize the experience quickly now: this pizza made the top 5 of best pizzas I have eaten in my life. Ever. That excludes the fact that I felt I was actually eating something quite healthy; that was just the green cherry on top.
In case you wonder whether I am sponsored by Col’Cacchio, the answer is sadly no, it’s was just good enough to make my night. Though I probably would not have admitted to the fact that I ate pizza twice this week in writing, if it wasn’t for magical thing no. 2 which happened.
So there I sat, sweaty, hungry, bored, just waiting for my pizza and in walked a very familiar face. Before I reveal the mystery guest I have to remind you of my favourite place to eat pasta: Mezzaluna. I think I have written about their sea urchin spaghetti often enough that the term has its own label here. I have also mentioned twice that they closed down, my general sorrow about them closing and pondered where I can get sea urchin spaghetti now. To my utter delight it was Andrea, former chef at Mezzaluna, who walked in last night, recognized me and immediately came over to chat. Not only can I hope to score some free coffee as he is working for Lavazza now, but I can also look forward to a special occasion to host a dinner party as he also cooks for private events. My aunt will be invited for the dinner for sure as she wrote her thesis on the sex life of sea urchins and still wonders if they taste any good. I still wonder how sea urchins have sex. Maybe we will both learn something.
So next time your oven breaks or some other annoying misfortune occurs, don’t despair. You may just learn how sea urchins have sex from the experience. Or at least get a good pizza out of it.
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