Possibly My Greatest Food Regret

Possibly my greatest regret and, simultaneously, the best thing that has happened to me was my inability to have a meal at this restaurant.  Laura and I were on a bus headed to Kamianets-Podilskyi and we stopped at this gas station/purveyor of "Pizza Drink Rock &Roll" to pick up some new passengers.  Sometimes I wonder if they sell a special "Pizza Drink" that is a pizza liquefied into smoothy form.  

Domino's [Kiev Style]

Back in December Laura and I visited Kiev and were craving something American and so we decided to stop at a Domino's pizza we had walked by a couple times on our adventures.  The view of the store was pretty amazing:

This Domino's was very new and had a screen letting us know the status of our order.  And Laura's name fit right in with everyone else ordering pizza.

And here it is...real pepperoni and black olives...and not a piece of corn in sight!  

Although we wouldn't normally seek out a Domino's in America, on that cold rainy day the pizza was more than excellent.  

And of course they deliver too... from America just dial 011 + 380 + 44 + 222 + 1111 and it should be there in a few days.

Two American Meals

Laura and I had many great dishes while we were back home but many were lost photo opportunities where I forgot my camera at home or as, often happens, I'm too interested in starting to eat rather than take a photo.  So I missed opportunities for photos of curry, Swedish meatballs, barbecue...the list goes on and on.     Two memorable meals that we had both had cheese as their key ingredient...imagine that!

While at the Main Street Cafe in Bloomer, WI, Laura ordered cheese curds instead of fries with her sandwich...what a lovely addition.

The next meal was a mini Chicago style pizza enjoyed at Chicago O'Hare airport.  This was two trips in the making as the last time we were at O'Hare they were out of the deep dish pizza at the stand we stopped at.  

Ukrainian pizza just doesn't compare so it was a nice to have this as my last meal in America.  

The Best Pizza We've Found

This restaurant, Bellagio, is located up a block up from our house and we always pass it and experience its wonderful smells each time we pass by.  That plus a few word of mouth recommendations and we decided to give it a try.

We decided on a pizza called  "Four Seasons" with the pizza being divided in to four different types of toppings.

Our favorite was what we imagine was the "Summer" version with some great black olives as the main topping.

All the other "seasons" had types of meat but one thing we haven't come across yet is a piece of pepperoni.  The ham on the pizza looks to have been sliced right from a ham roast like you might have for an Easter dinner.

We ended up with more pizza than we could handle and so we got our first Ukrainian pizza box.  The bag says "Thank you!  Always Glad!"

Pizza

Ukrainian cuisine reminds me of an episode of The Twilight Zone or, for the more contemporary TV viewer, an episode of Fringe.  It's as if you are transported to a different reality but only one thing is slightly different from your own reality.  For example, this frozen pizza looks and tastes just as you would expect to get from your grocery store in the U.S. but with one thing slightly different, in this case, some corn nestled next to your pepperoni.    

Here's a closer look: