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A pizza “fun fact” has resulted in an online debate about the merits of shredded pepperoni, with more than a few converts to what is known in Ontario as Windsor-style pizza.
“Fun fact about Ontario (where I live) is that we shred our pepperoni before putting it on pizza,” wrote the user OxfordW0lf on X recently. The comments that followed were a mix of “I’ve never heard of that,” and “What a great idea!”
Since Monday, the innocuous post with its image of a yummy-looking pizza has a garnish of more than 14,000 likes and a topping of more than 1,500 comments.
Several of those were from the original poster, who quickly confirmed that shredded pepperoni is not a pan-Ontario phenomenon, but specific to Windsor, a southwestern city of 230,000 that sits just across the Detroit River from Detroit, Mich. “My bad apparently it’s just Windsor that does this. I had no idea the city I live in was so unique.”
Detroit has its own pizza style, with a thicker than average crust and a rectangular shape from its steel baking pans.
But despite its proximity to the Motor City, Windsor’s pizza style is all its own, and includes canned mushrooms (which cook better than fresh ones) and, ideally, locally sourced mozzarella from Galati Cheese. And of course shredded pepperoni.
Comments on the post were of mix of incredulity and I-gotta-try-that. A typical reply: “This seems like an excellent idea. I hate halfway biting into a slice only to pull out an entire disc of pepperoni, and with it drags out everything it was attached to. It takes away from the pepperoni meant for later. It being thinner would allow it to get crispy instead of hard.”
Not everyone was sold, however, with one user noting: “I feel like I’d miss the little grease puddles too much.” This pizza connoisseur also was also “only like, 2 hours away from Windsor and I’ve never heard of this.”
Of course, those who know know. The National Post’s Laura Brehaut recently embarked on a cross-country tour in search of the best pizza and writes: “Raised on the West Coast, I was unaware of this regional style before watching Windsor-born, Toronto-based George Kalivas’ documentary tribute, The Pizza City You’ve Never Heard Of (2022).”
She adds: “What I experienced in Windsor made me a believer.”
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