Pizza

[aichambaye at yahoo.com]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at y..., voicelady at m... wrote:
> > --- In HPFGU-OTChatter at y..., catherine at c... wrote:
> > 
> > Question:  What is wrong with British pizzas?
> 
> Come visit me in my Italian Brooklyn neighborhood:  I'll give you a 
pizza so good, you'll think you've died and gone to gourmand heaven!
> 
> Jeralyn, the Voicelady

I don't know about Catherine, but i'm THERE.

****

Pizza Exress: Disgusting, but thank heavens I'd been drinking. 

Pizza Hut here: Disgusting. But not because of doughy crust - poor 
sauce.

Pizza Hut in the UK: ??? I didn't try it. Why? Pizza Hut is already 
bad enough without corruption by the Brits.

Italians in Italy can't make pizza either. "The common belief is that 
Italians invented the pizza, however the origins go back to the 
ancient times. Babylonians, Israelites, Egyptians and other ancient 
Middle Eastern cultures were eating flat, un-leaven bread that had 
been cooked in mud ovens. The bread was much like a pita, which is 
still common in Greece and the Middle East today. Further it is known 
that ancient Mediterranean people such as the Greeks, Romans and 
Egyptians were eating the bread, topped seasoned with olive oil and 
native spices.

The lower class of the Naples, Italy is believed to have created 
pizza in a more familiar fashion. In the late 1800s a Italian baker 
named Raffaele Esposito, was believed to have created a dish for 
visiting royalty. According to the story, the Italian monarch King 
Umberto and his consort, Queen Margherita was touring the area. In 
order to impress them and to show his patriotic fervor Raffaele chose 
to top flat bread with food that would best represent the colors of 
Italy: red tomato, white mozzarella cheese and green basil. The king 
and queen were so impressed that word quickly reached the masses. The 
end results were that the dish was well received to the extent that 
others began to copy it. 

By the beginning of the 1900's pizza made it's way to the inner 
cities United States, thanks to Italian immigrants, most notably New 
York and Chicago, due to those cities having large Italian 
populations. Small cafes began offering the Italian favorite. 
American soldiers further prompted the dish to become very popular at 
the end of World War II, having been exposed to it while serving on 
the Italian front. 

Today pizza has become just as American as baseball and apple pie. 
Only because of its most recent origins is it considered an Italian 
dish. Huge U.S. based multi-billion dollar corporations should be 
thankful for the development along with poor college students who can 
appreciate the fine dining experience pizza has given them." 

(this history quoted from:  
http://www.aboutpizza.com/history/index.shtml )

Question: if a Napoli baker invented the recent incarnation of this 
dish, why on EARTH was I repeatedly asked in Italy IF I WANTED 
CHEESE? Gross. Pizza without cheese? 

The fact that Britain's Pizza Express makes pizza like the Italians 
doesn't make it worth eating.

Heather M., willing to take any Brit on the list out for a pie if 
they come and visit.