Day 49: What A Splendid Pie, Pizza-Pizza Pie

The email said that it was time for indulgence number two. I didn't need to wait and figure out what I wanted to have this time around. I knew immediately. Actually, I've known what I wanted for about a couple weeks now.

The tasty little morsel that you see before you is one slice of the best "chicken wing" pizza and Oreo Cookies & Cream shakes that I have ever had from my favorite vegan restaurant, Stong Hearts Cafe. (I felt like having something spicy and something sweet.)

I discovered Strong Hearts about a year ago and instantly fell in love with it. The food is phenominal, the atmosphere is so comfortable and welcoming, and you just can't beat the hours! Socially and environmentally conscientious dinning! Gotta love it!

Their main menu is available all the time, except on Friday nights—that's when it becomes only pizza all night long. Granted, the cost of a pizza is a little pricier than what you can get from Dominoes or Papa Johns or Pizza Hut, which means it's one of those rare treats. (Last time I had a pizza from them was about six months ago.) However, it is far far better than any of those other pizza places could dream of.

The "chicken wing" pizza has hot sauce baked right into the crust with soy "bleu cheese" and soy "chicken" strips, which have been marinated in hot sauce, on top. The Oreo Cookies & Cream shake is made with soy milk cream and, well, Oreos.

Needless to say, the experience was divine! I ate the pizza first and considered taking another slice ('cause I had a whole 12-inch pizza there), but decided not to because I still had the shake to consume. The Oreo Cookies & Cream shake was tasty, but the thrill of it was wearing off by the time I got to the bottom of the cup.

The surprising thing was that I felt full after just those two items. I wasn't stuffed, I was satisfied. That was a big change from before, when I could easily polish off 4 of the 6 slices of pizza and still drink a whole shake. Yeah, I could stuff myself like a Thanksgiving turkey and still cram in more even though my stomach was signalling that it was overfull. Mainly that was because in most of those cases everyone brought tons of food, so it was there and it was free and it was easily accessible (i.e. I didn't have to take the time to prepare it, or measure it out, and everyone wants to take home an empty dish). It's different to actually think about how much you're eating, why you're eating it, considering whether or not you really want to eat it, and questioning if you should really eat more.

The nice part was that the "full" feeling lasted for the whole evening so I really didn't have the inclination or desire to eat anything else. The not-so-nice part was that I think some of the "full" feeling was gas, 'cause I was gassy the rest of the night. Then around 11pm I got real sleepy and went to bed while my partner and a friend of ours, who was over to visit, stayed up for a bit longer. (They made sure to polish off the rest of the pizza so there wasn't anything sitting in fridge to tempt me.)

Alas, "chicken wing" pizza—'twill be a while 'ere I may enjoy thee again!