Ooh, that salad with the tuna looks awesome (something to do with all that dressing drizzled over all!). Fun to read about the food, Cindy, and surprising that it didn't cost you an arm and a leg!
PIZZA PINO (REPUBLIQUE)
- By : Cynthia
- Category : Vacations - 2009
Vacations - 2009
1
After leaving the Louvre, we headed back to the Republique station to find a place to have dinner. There’s no shortage of restaurants on the many street corners in the Republique area. We looked at the menus for a few and finally decided on Pizza Pino. It was a little too cool for us to eat outside, but they did have a nice little outdoor eating area shown above (as do most of the restaurants in Paris) with waiters racing about on rollerblades.
While we were waiting for our dinner, the waitress served an oil with some sort of very spicy pepper. I found this curious as I don’t recall having had really hot or spicy things in the oil served with bread in American italian restaurants. I didn’t get a picture of it, but I did find some information on a website search this afternoon which explains, “The funny thing about French pizza places relates to the fact that French people typically don’t like spicy foods. Now in normal pizza places (meaning, in the U.S.), red pepper is available in dried, flakey form to sprinkle on the pizza as desired to enhance the flavor a bit. But dry red pepper is too much for the sensitive French palette, so someone had the bright idea to serve pizza with a bottle of oil containing spicy peppers, the oil thereby acting as an intermediary to weaken the peppers’ kick.”
It was definitely spicy even with the diluting effect of the oil which was quite tasty, nonetheless. We also found the above information true regarding the pizza being void of much spice. And, we were surprised at the variety of the pizzas.
Amanda had this soufflee pizza which tasted REALLY GOOD! In fact, sampling everyone’s meals I think I’d have to say hers was my favorite. If you find yourself on Republique Ave in Paris, you may want to stop in for this Soufflee Pizza.
Emily and I shared the Pizza Al Pollo (chicken) which was also very good. Lots of veggies and chicken on a fairly thin crust as in not all the bread you’d find in a typical pan pizza. It was more like a hand tossed pizza crust. And, it didn’t have much if any tomato sauce.
They didn’t seem to mind that we were sharing a meal. I tried to ask if they charge extra for a plate or cover charge when you’re not ordering an entree, but I’m not sure the waitress understood what I was trying to ask. They didn’t charge us extra so I was quite happy about that since neither of us were hungry enough to eat an entire pizza and sharing certainly helps take some pressure off the budget!
My mom, Grandma Jan, ordered the Fusilli Primavera (spiral noodles with seasonal vegetables)
Grandma Jean thought she’d order a “little salad” since she wasn’t very hungry. Her salad was HUGE! It’s the Salade Italienne which included tuna. I’m not a fan of fish, but I did taste a little bit of the veggies with the dressing since it looked different. It was very tasty!
Michaela ordered the Penne Thon which was a tuna pasta of some sort which she said was very good. I took her word for it since I don’t like fish of any sort.
Our family is used to eating late meals because we’re either outside until sundown in the summer or attending any # of kids’ sporting and other activities until late in the evening during the fall and winter. Michaela said her family and those of most everyone she knows usually eat a late meal. We also know from what my aunt tells us that most Europeans eat dinner around 8:00 or later in the evening. So, while the girls, Michaela, and I are used to eating late, the grandmas are not.
We finished eating at the Pizza Pino around 9:15 p.m. (or at least that’s what time the receipt was printed – lol). Little did we know this would become the standard time for eating our evening meal. The price wasn’t any more than what you would pay to eat out at a gourmet pizza place in the U.S.
