I went a good four weeks without eating any foreign cuisine. I was thinking about this earlier and I realized that I couldn’t think of anything I wanted from the States. I thought of my usual favorites, like sushi or pasta, but nothing made my mouth water. I just wanted good, cheap Chinese food, like dumplings or noodles and a vegetable dish.

Chris and I decided to hit up Nan Luo Gu Xiang after a fitting at the tailor shop. We had been introduced to the hutong last week when we went out with some friends. We wandered up the street as it was getting dark, then wandered back down. We settled on a pizza place called Cottage Pizza (there may or may not have been more to the name), really just because it happened to be right where we stopped. When we first got to China, I had suggested that we do an international food week, where we would try a different cuisine each night. Now, I don’t think I could go a whole week eating non-Chinese food anymore; I think this will be a fun series, though.

Chinese people, traditionally, have stuck to their Chinese food. The restaurants that serve foreign fare have a disproportionate number of Westerners/tourists/expats/whatever-they-are. They also are generally pricier than Chinese restaurants, an extra disincentive for Chinese people not to try something different. It seems almost counterintuitive: Chinese people seem to eat everything — from fish head to ox tail to chicken feet — but they will wrinkle their noses at filet mignon or osso buco.

So Chris and I step into this Cottage Pizza. It’s a tiny coffeeshop-style hangout, with low ceilings, couches for their booths and the tiniest and tightest staircase leading to an upstairs. There were three groups — all Asian — already seated, in each corner of the room. Naturally, we took over the remaining corner. It was actually really cozy, with more couches and dim lighting. Modern dishware completed the coffeeshop vibe, but wasn’t this a pizza joint? We ordered “The Hot One,” which had chili peppers, onions, tomatoes, beef and spicy chicken and some garlic bread. The garlic bread were tiny pieces of toast with a little butter and even less garlic—actually not very different from some pizza places back home. We waited for our pizza while sipping on our sodas. (I got this salty lemon soda thing, which tasted just as weird as it sounds.)

The pizza came. It was a deep dish with a thick crust. I usually prefer New York style, but the crust was actually pretty good: not too soft, not too baked and not greasy. The pizza itself had an ample covering of toppings with just the right amount of cheese. In fact, the cheese was good—unlike in the States, the smell (or taste) of it didn’t overwhelm the pizza, so the topping flavors were in full control. There was a little too much onions and peppers and not enough sauce, but overall, it was a decent American-style pizza. Had I been in a pizza mood, it would have hit the spot.

Head on over to the gallery for pics.