*Make sure to check out my current blog Eat This Town!
Okay, this is nothing flashy and it won't blow your mind. I was just getting cabin fever after being off work for a week. I was feeling a little sad and wanted some back-home comfort food. East coasters LOVE garlic fingers. It is a fact. Garlic fingers are unique to the east coast of Canada, apparently being invented by a chain of restaurants called Pizza Delight. Basically they start out just like a pizza, but instead of pizza sauce, garlic butter is slathered all over the pizza base. Then a sprinkling of Parmesan cheese, and topped with mozzarella. They come out of the oven along with the pizzas, only they are cut into strips. Most importantly, they are served with pizza sauce or donair sauce. To all you Calgarians, and any Canadians west of the Maritimes, please take note: DONAIR SAUCE. You know when you go to get a "donair" and you are given the option of "the sweet sauce". Yeah, that's donair sauce. There is no other donair sauce. Tzatziki goes on a souvlaki. Garlic sauce goes on a shawarma. And donair sauce goes on a donair.
If you are in the east coast and you ask for any other sauce besides donair sauce on your donair, it is like asking for ketchup on a Chicago hot dog. You will be met with raised eyebrows of suspicion and scorn. You may opt out of the onions or tomatoes on your donair, or perhaps add pepperoni or cheese, but otherwise a donair is a donair and does NOT include typical sauces or toppings associated with middle eastern snacks. No pickled anything, and NEVER hot sauce or tzatziki. (If you aren't in the know, donairs were invented in Halifax, so we are kinda sorta the authority on the subject). And forget insisting that the best donair you've ever had was in Montreal, Turkey, or anywhere else off-continent. You had a "doner kebab", not a donair. And while the "doner kebab" is the grandfather of the donair, the young rebellious donair ran away from home a long time ago and didn't come back. What does this have to do with my garlic finger craving? Well... any east coaster will tell you that it is exceptionally difficult, and maybe impossible, to find real donairs and garlic fingers in the west. However, I got tipped off when I arrived here that there is a pizza joint in town that does a decent job of making said items. The place is Big John's, and here are their garlic fingers:
Just like back home.... except they could be greasier. My fondest garlic finger memories are drunken nights in the country when someone would say the magic word: "Garlic Fingers!" and we'd order a big sloppy 18 inch monstrosity from some sketchy little pizza joint in the sticks and eat every little morsel in silence, donair sauce dripping everywhere. I could personally use two or three cups of donair sauce for dipping, but I had to get by on one.
So if they have decent donairs, then they ought to have a decent donair pizza, right? It's not bad. They do it right: donair meat under the cheese, with tomatoes, onions and parsley on top. Donair sauce is served on the side, which is meant to be poured over top. Where I used to work we put the onions under the donair meat and cheese. The sauce was poured directly on top when the pie was fresh out of the oven, and then adorned with tomatoes. But these are just details. My only complaint is that there could have been MORE MEAT. A donair pizza, like a donair, should be a bit of a monster. Oh well.
The style of pizza at Big John's also reminds me of back home. The crust, composition, pricing, menu layout and sizing... it all screams East Coast to me. I'm not saying it's anything special, but sometimes I want a standard pizza, and not a Calgary pizza thick with toppings and cheese. Curiosity got the better of me and I asked the friendly delivery guy if the owner (he was the owner) had ever lived in the East Coast. He smiled and informed me that the previous owner who established the shop reigned from Newfoundland, and so all the recipes are the originals brought over from the Rock. That explains it! He told me it was difficult to replicate the recipes because Calgary has hard water, but he was thankful for the many Newfies and Maritimers who frequent his shop to grab a taste of back home. As I said, East Coasters LOVE their garlic fingers.
In the near future I will be blogging a comprehensive report on Calgary "Greek-style" pizza, based on all the yummy research I've been doing. Big John's is in a different category so I am giving it a review of its own. If you are looking for a good Halifax Donair, look no further!
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