Christmas, Friends, and Pizza
Back when I first came to China, food was a frequent topic of conversation. One of the common questions people asked me was “Which western food do you miss the most.” I replied “I miss good pizza.” The inevitable response was something along the lines of “That’s OK. Here in Dongguan we have Pizza Hut.” This led to me explaining that Pizza Hut does indeed make pizza, but that it falls far short of my personal definition of good pizza. Dongguan does have a few Italian places that make good pizza, but those tend to be on the pricey side. I still dream of a glorious day in the future when Hungry Howie’s Pizza finally opens branches in China. 
The good news is that only a few weeks after my arrival, Dongguan did finally get some good American pizza. 
Just after Christmas in 2006, I was at the opening celebrations for a new shopping plaza in the DongCheng district that was anchored by a Carrefour (sort of like Walmart, but French). On one of the upper floors of the building, there’s a gym. I think about 1/3 of the crowd was gym employees trying to lure people into coming in and paying exorbitant prices for membership. They were quite annoying and the temptation to smack the next one who came up and tried to drag me away was growing stronger and stronger as dozens of them kept coming after me. 
At about this point, someone tapped me on the shoulder. As my fist involuntarily clenched in anticipation of administering a pummeling to yet another person trying to sell me a gym membership, I turned and beheld what was, to me at that time, the most amazing site. It was a person wearing a Papa John’s uniform. I was momentarily stunned, and could only manage to say one word. “Where?” It turned out to be on the first floor along the east side of the building. 
Not long after, one of my day class students (a very cute and extremely tiny girl from Hunan) joined me to watch the rest of the opening celebration show. We then went out to Papa John’s for lunch (Yaay! Christmas Pizza!). The opening day special involved a free medium pizza with the purchase of a large pizza. We ate the large pizza and took the medium one to class. Only a few of the students had ever eaten pizza, so the lesson that day was to try a small piece and then to describe (in English!) how good or bad it was.
That student became and still is one of my dearest friends. A couple of days ago, my wife and I took her out to Papa John’s again.
Papa John’s in Dongguan
It’s been 8 years since the first time we ate there. There have been a few changes since then. For example, she’s married and has a son now.
Her son likes Italian food 🙂
Just to make certain things were spicy, another one of our other Hunan friends came along.
Me with my Hunan friends
This led to a small scale How much Tabasco can you put on your pizza? contest. So far, it’s a tie. Guess I’ll have to bring along some scorpion pepper powder next time in order to defeat all other contenders. 
Later, we wandered across the street to Haiya. I’m convinced that Haiya is Cantonese for something like “Wow, that’s expensive clothing!” At least this gave me a chance to get all 3 lovely ladies into a single photo.
My wife and our Hunan friends
There is a lack of western traditional holiday foods in China. I consider Christmas Pizza to be an excellent alternative. 
