Monday, April 5, 2010

Three-Ten-Thirty-Thirty-Greco!

I am lucky enough to be married in to a family that takes its pizza pretty seriously. So seriously that they own and operate a large number of "Greco" pizza franchises (a Maritime based company.)  Now, I may have mentioned here before that I don't particularly care for pizza...I know, strange, isn't it? However I absolutely love all things donair. Donairs, super donairs, donair pizza, donair subs, donair flipwiches (donair fixings wrapped in pizza dough which has been slathered with heart attack inducing amounts of garlic butter and then baked and coated with even more garlic butter.) Back in my university days when all my floor mates were ordering pizza delivery I was pretty much the lone donair eater...as an aside, the absolute BEST SUPER DONAIRS come from the Wheel in Antigonish, NS. If you are ever down that way try 'em. I'm seriously pushing my alma mater (St.FX) on the girls, not for its excellent rankings in McLeans or its small school mentality and strong social network (you all know what I mean by that!) but just so I could visit them and make a side trip to the Wheel.

When we go home to the Maritimes we are treated to Greco meals many days (usually on the days we aren't being fed lobster, scallops, crab, oysters, etc. - sometimes we eat both Greco and seafood in one day but that is just mean of me to share that with you.) Do you think it is a bad thing to have a donair flipwhich for lunch AND dinner?

When we travel home to the Maritimes we do the obligatory Maritime touristy things, number one being head to the ocean. One of the things on the top of the girls' list of things to do is to actually go to Greco and eat in. See, we normally have large gatherings and order multiple pizzas, garlic fingers, wings (and a donair flipwhich or two) so the "eat in" part doesn't suit us very well. We do make sure that the girls do get to eat in at least once every trip but this year was extra special. We planned to go in between the lunch rush and the dinner crowd so they could actually enter their own orders in the computer and then make their own food. Talk about a thrilling experience for them (and an enlightening one for me - this is where I actually saw how much garlic butter goes on a flipwhich!)

Here's a layout I created about their experience. If you are a Maritimer you know the jingle that goes with the phone number.




We actually found a Greco in Ontario this summer while "vacationing" in Petawawa. Not sure if it will catch on in the rest of Ontario. I'm sure 90% of the military population in Pet has been posted to Gagetown at some point in their career where they were introduced to Greco so it would be a familiar site to them. My brother in Calgary said that when Pizza Delight (another Maritime chain) first opened out there when you went in all you heard was Maritime accents.

So if I can't get Greco's famous donair flipwhiches here in the Ottawa area I can now get the next best thing. I am thanking (I think????) my mother in law for bringing 5 pounds of Greco's donair meat and the accompanying sauce and pita bread (and lets not forget to mention the lobster and scallops!) on her recent visit. Now I can create my very own Greco donairs in the comfort of my own home. The problem is that the kids and Dan also like them so I have to plan my donair intake to times when the fewest family members are around so that I can stretch my supplies out.