One of the days of the complimentary lunch offered by my company to its employees was the Pizza day. Pizza day was particularly popular, as it offered both vegetarian and non-vegetarian options to cater to our diverse team.
One day when Pizzas were served in the lunchroom, I surveyed the lineup of Pizzas, my eyes landed on a beautifully crafted one with crimson red, perfectly round slices. Intrigued and mesmerized by the beauty of this “tomato pizza,”, I grabbed a slice and took a bite, only to be met with a flavor that didn’t quite align with my expectations.
Puzzled, I mulled over the taste as a colleague, who had been in line behind me and witnessed this mishap remarked,
“I thought you were a vegetarian?”
“Yes, I am! Why do you ask?” I asked.
It was then that he dropped the bombshell.
“You do realize that this is Pepperoni Pizza?”
In that moment, I thought Pepperoni is probably another term for Tomato in the American lingo and it was just another case of American vs British language confusion in a series of mishaps I had been experiencing lately.
But my colleague’s next words shattered my hopeful assumption: “It’s made from pork and beef.”
My heart sank as I realized the gravity of my mistake and at this point, It was too late to run to the washroom to throw up. The damage had been done.
Years later, I learned that many vegetarian Indians had made the same error in their early days in the United States.
