I Think I Daiya'ed and Went to Vegan Pizza Heaven

My friend Justin pored his complicated soul into a series of poems this semester and was going to read them in the Women's Studies lounge. I was running late, thinking about not going, when he texted, "You have to come to the reading... the pizza they got. You just have to try it. It's... different." On my walk there I passed our friend Beth who had just left the reading. "The pizza was different! It was good though!" I was freaking intrigued.

I mean this reading started at, like, 4 o'clock. It was now after 5 and I was sure there wasn't going to be any pizza left. I was having a hunger-induced anxiety attack when the elevator reached the eighth floor. Left, down the hall, 821. Walked in in the middle of someone's reading (sorry Elizabeth!). Crossed the room. Opened box. Pizza to plate. Pizza to mouth. It was different.

The crust was soft, floppy and thin, the sauce sweet and herb-y, and the cheese was... DIFFERENT. It was like Ellio's. Do you remember Ellio's? Like a fine, salty shred. I was into it. After feeding myself, I was invited to read excerpts from THIS VERY BLOG. It felt nice to hear it out loud... but I'm losing focus. One of the guys there, a professor I believe, of English, came up to me afterward. "So do you eat vegan pizza ever?"



I told him I had some friends with strong opinions about tomato pie but other than that... "This is vegan! It's made with this new vegan cheese called Daiya... everyone is going nuts for it." I can taste why. Jesus Christ, the only difference between this and the real thing was the finer shred (and even that is something that differs from pie to pie, not exclusively from vegan cheese to the real thing.) Vegans! Look for this stuff at a Whole Foods near you. It's slowly making it's way down from Vancouver. I don't really mess with vegan stuff... soy cheese is repulsive. But this is SO close to the real thing. It's salty and gooey and it melts! This is the FUTURE.

The pizza came from Ed's Buffalo Wings and Pizza which specializes in vegan pizza place fare but also has stuff for carnivores. The vegan pizza dough has no eggs and of course, it is the canvas for this amazing new, non-dairy cheese. Let's give a warm welcome Daiya, everyone!

Ed's Buffalo Wings and Pizza
3513 Lancaster Ave
Philadelphia, PA 19104
215-222-4000

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