8 August 2011 / leggypeggy

Pizza on the menu, but not in the oven

Is it really French?

We had a long look and walk around Baku yesterday. Come lunchtime, there were plenty of hole-in-the-wall, stand-up kebab shops to choose from, but I was at a point that I needed to sit for at least a bit. I spotted Vinni Kulinariya, with a pizza painted on the front window and a WiFi sign on the door.

We enjoy pizza, but don’t seek it out in the way that some other travellers do. But we hadn’t had pizza for a couple of months, so it seemed a good option. Plus, the WiFi gave me a good chance to update the blog.

As Poor John studied the menu on the wall, the fellow said, ‘Sorry no pizza today’. The easiest thing in such circumstances is to ask what they DO have. The choices were limited and we opted for a square of lavash filled with chicken, cheese, capsicum (bell pepper), corn and mayonnaise. These were then warmed, and I have to say they were superb. Just the right balance of flavours and just the right size.

After we ate, I tried the WiFi. It worked long enough for me to check a couple of emails and then pfffft. But the toilet worked and was clean. As we left, we learned that pizza isn’t served on the weekends, and that they call the lavash wrap a ‘burrito’. When the woman told me the name, she leaned forward and added, ‘it’s French, you know’. News to me.