Pizza

[catherine at cator-manor.demon.co.uk]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at y..., aichambaye at y... wrote:
> --- 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.

I have to say I have eaten Pizza everywhere - the UK, obviously, the 
US (the best was John's Pizzeria up somewhere near Barney's in New 
York) which was excellent, but the best by far was in Capri, off the 
coast of Naples.  It was superb.  Baked in wood fired ovens, crisp, 
hot, excellent fresh, rich tasting sauce, oodles of fresh (not grated 
or dried, still wet) mozzarella....(goes off into a saliva generating 
dream) wish I was there now....
Catherine