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RicinYakima

High Steppes of Eastern Washington
L Ross, I'm salivating like a dog! When are you going to have me over for Sunday dinner? I'll bring the Bombay! Ric
 

RicinYakima

High Steppes of Eastern Washington
Contrary to popular belief.............pizza ain't Italian.
Who originally invented the pizza?



Image result for origin of pizza

Specifically, baker Raffaele Esposito from Naples is often given credit for making the first such pizza pie. Historians note, however, that street vendors in Naples sold flatbreads with toppings for many years before then. Legend has it that Italian King Umberto I and Queen Margherita visited Naples in 1889.
 

Winelover

North Central Arkansas
Unknown, who invented pizza. Plenty of Chinese restaurant food isn't Chinese. Lots of fare has been Americanized. Use to frequent a Sichuan restaurant in Garden City, Michigan. Quite often there were Chinese diners eating food that wasn't on the menu. Lot's of noodle dishes.
 

smokeywolf

Well-Known Member
Dad's mom's folks were from Naples. Two of my favorite dishes my grandmother made was spaghetti (heavy on the fennel) and pasta fazool (aka fasul).
 

Rockydoc

Well-Known Member
The Hamyak (Mono Tracked Mini ATV)

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How do you steer that thing?
 

Ian

Notorious member
See what the ethnic restaurant employees are eating on their break and ask for that.

My dad spent summers teaching in Italy for years and said he never did a.) get enough to eat anytime he went to a restaurant and b.) never found decent pizza. What passes for "pizza" is a wasa cracker with cold tomato sauce smeared on it and maybe, at an expensive place, they garnish it with dried parsley.

We have a Papa Murphy's here and even have a guy with my name who works there. I'll have to try the "Offensive", thanks for the tip!
 
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462

California's Central Coast Amid The Insanity
My paternal grandmother's parents immigrated from Southern Italy. As far as I know, she didn't know about pizza.
She did know about spaghetti, though.
She baked a pan or sheet bread that was slathered in olive oil and herbs thrown on the top, but no tomato sauce.
 

RicinYakima

High Steppes of Eastern Washington
"What passes for "pizza" is a wasa cracker with cold tomato sauce smeared on it and maybe, at an expensive place, they garnish it with dried parsley."

My research says that flat breads have been Mediterranean street food for centuries, and have had "toppings" also for years. Pizza in the US is an Americanized dish from the 1930's. Flat bread crust with all the left overs added on top and used for Saturday night dinner, with the left over pasta. Everything in the kitchen started fresh on Sunday. At least that is what my friend, Isgro Salvadori told me and his folks ran a high class restaurant in Cincinnati when I got out of the Army.
 

fiver

Well-Known Member
and real spaghetti sauce doesn't contain meatballs, or meat chunks, or meat pieces.

the meat is cooked down into collagen and protein in the day long process of making a meat sauce.
 

Winelover

North Central Arkansas
When I lived in a college dorm, my freshman year, a Italian family made spaghetti for our entire floor. Wasn't anything like the tomato and meat version I grew up eating. Was more like a watery soup made with spaghetti noodles. Not much better than dorm food.
 

462

California's Central Coast Amid The Insanity
My brother-in-law's parents are Sicilian. His mother adds whole Italian sausages to her sauce. They are removed when the sauce is done and served separately.
 

RicinYakima

High Steppes of Eastern Washington
All depends upon where in Italy they are from. My son's college girl friend grandparents were from Tuscany, they never used any tomato based sauces, everything butter, cream and spices.
 

Joshua

Taco Aficionado/Salish Sea Pirate/Part-Time Dragon
Ethnic foods always morphs into a different version of the original. When I worked in Japan with a native Korean (great guy, ex Korean Marine, Vietnamese war veteran, excellent welder). We talked about the foods available in the Korean neighborhood in Yokohama, he said that they had great tasting food, but to him it tasted more like Japanese food. He didn’t like some of the kimchi you could buy in the grocery stores in Japan, he said it didn’t taste right. The dominant cultures flavors will always seep into the newly introduced cuisine.

There is a curry that is served all over Japan, that descends from a dish that was once served on British warships. So it’s an Indian dish that was anglicized, then it had Japanese flavors added to it. Now, the most common way this curry is served is on a plate with rice and a hamburger patty, the post WWII American influence on the dish.

I wasn’t impressed with the pizza I ate in Italy. But the Calzones were absolutely wonderful. The gelato, fruit cakes (I don’t remember the Italian word for these), cured meats, and cheeses were all very good!

That trip to Italy was 27 years ago, and we only visited northern towns (my girlfriend at the time was attending classes at the University in Bologna). The south is really where pizza is a significant food.
 

Tom

Well-Known Member
In the early 80s, my soon to be wife went to Europe with her family. She said they ordered pizza in Italy and it had a raw egg on top of it.
 

JonB

Halcyon member
A few months ago, after listening to a foodie talk radio show, I decided I needed to try cooking some Japanese Curry. I wasn't impressed, so now I have this small box of highly recommended "flavor tablets" (minus one tablet) in the bottom of my frig. Maybe I try making some soup with a tablet or two? Cuz I'm too cheap to throw away a $3.99 box of tablets ;)