The sandwiches at Pizza Villa in Merced, California, are excellent. My only complaint is the way the crusty outside of the bread rips up the top of my mouth, but that does not stop me from completely devouring my hot salami sandwich with mayo and sweet onions. No.
My friend Micky has a different complaint. As she devours her hot sandwich with equal gusto, she says, "It's crusty on the outside but soft on the inside. Reminds me of church bread."
Me: "Church bread?"
Micky: "You know the little wafers they give you at communion as "the body of Christ." We used to call it church bread when we were kids. It stuck to the roof of your mouth and took forever to get out of there. You weren't allowed to stick your fingers in there and dig it out because it was was blasphemous to touch the holy bread with your mere mortal hands."
Me: "But don't they hand it to you in your cupped hand at communion?"
Micky: "Now they do, the pansies, but back in the day you had to open your mouth so they could put the wafer directly on your tongue. No chewing. And no messing about with your tongue to get it unstuck, either. They actually had classes to teach you the correct way to eat church bread."
Me: "So you had to just, what?, wait for Christ to melt and dislodge himself from the roof of your mouth? That's creepy."
Micky: "That's Catholicism."
Tags: church bread, communion, body of christ
