Pizza: Its History and Ancestors
Article by Holly Bliss
You trudge through the cafeteria line, not quite sure what dubious culinary delight will await you further down. The smells that saunter toward your nose are varied and difficult to dissect. Then suddenly you get a peek. Oh joy, it’s pizza! But wait! Where exactly did it come from? No, don’t try to look through the kitchen doors. Let’s peer into the depths of history to see where pizza was born.
The origin of pizza is a long and winding trail, and in order to simplify it, we will look at it like a family tree. Where do you think pizza was born – Italy? Well, you are only half right. The great-grandparent of pizza is the flat bread, and that can be traced back to the Stone Age. This great-grandparent made its happy way all through the ancient world.
Then a version of this flat bread, pizza’s grandparent, was born. We can’t be exactly sure where, in the Mediterranean it began but we do know it traveled through Babylonia, Greece, and Italy. Sometimes called focaccia, it is flat bread jazzed up with spices, herbs, oils, cheese, and other regional, readily available items.
Pizza’s parent was born when some daredevil, suicidal maniac or just one desperately hungry dude, in the mid-1700s, decided to add a tomato. You laugh, but when the tomato plant was imported from the New World, people thought it was poisonous. Once they got over their poisoning fear, pizza took on a whole new look and dimension. Even though pizza’s parent was still considered peasant food, it became fit for both royalty and the common folk. In fact, in the late 1800s, a very special pizza, called the Margherita, was created for Italy’s king and queen and is still an Italian pizza classic.
The pizza sitting on your plate came from Italian immigrants and was made popular by WWII soldiers, who couldn’t forget that particular taste of Italy. Today you can find pizza’s cousins all over the United States (and the world) – deep dish in Chicago, thin crust in New York, and more!
Now that you know more about one of your favorite foods, go mark February 9th on your calendar. It’s International Pizza Pie day!
Fun Facts:
-According to the Guinness World Records, the largest pizza ever baked was one measuring 37.4 m (122 ft 8 in) in diameter, made at Norwood Hypermarket, Norwood, South Africa on December 8, 1990. The Norwood pizza’s diameter was 3.5 m (11.5 ft) larger than the previous world record set by Pizza Hut, Singapore, in June, 1990. The ingredients included 4,500 kg (9920 lb) of flour, 90 kg (198 lb) of salt, 1,800 kg (3,968 lb) of cheese, and 900 kg (1,984 lb) of tomato puree. (Source: http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/) For more fun pizza records, click the source link and search “pizza”.
-Milk from the water buffalo was made for the early (and currently considered best) mozzarella cheeses.
-The tomato was first discovered in Peru.
-Pizza is only beat out by the hamburger as the most popular fast food.
-People in the US gobble up 350 slices of pizza a second!
-Weirdest topping I’ve personally come across in the world? (Which makes this point more “odd opinion” than “fun fact.”) It’s a tie between peas and tuna fish!
About the Author: Using her writing as paint on the canvas of her life, Holly Bliss is an eclectic writer with four pizza eating kids, a seasoned traveler and an author on http://www.Writing.Com/ which is a site for Writers.
Why Keeping Your Cafe World Customers Happy Is Vital For Your Success
Article by Peter – Cafe World Boss
Cafe World Customers – There are a lot of things to keep track of when you’re trying to keep your cafe up and running in Cafe World. You need to make sure your dishes are coming along nicely, that you have enough servings left on your counters, and that the food you’re making isn’t going to spoil before you can get back to attend to it. If you’re like most people, you also want to spend some time decorating your cafe and putting your own personal touch on things. All of this is fine – that’s what’s so great about this game. There are so many options for game play and you can make so many decisions on your own that the possibilities for what you can accomplish in Cafe World really are just about endless. But with all of these decisions to make and avenues to explore, you do have to remember to take care of one other thing as well – your customers.
Business Is BusinessIf you want to be successful in Cafe World, you have to remember why your cafe exists in the first place. And that’s to serve your customers. You can decorate your cafe, rearrange your tables, and explore all kinds of menu options, but at the end of the day, none of it will do you any good if you aren’t able to keep customers coming through your door. Just as with any business, you have to give your customers what they want if you want to stay in business.
Cashing InIt’s easy to focus on making coins as quickly as possible when you’re working to build up your business in Cafe World, and there’s nothing wrong with that. You’ve got to make money if you want to keep your doors open. And keeping your customers happy is the best way to maximize you profit potential. The more satisfied customers you send out the door, the more people will venture into your cafe.
Your Buzz Rating, the “thumbs up” number in the upper right hand corner of your screen, is a direct reflection of how happy you’re making your customers. It’s also directly related to the number of customers that walk through your door. The higher your Buzz Rating, the more quickly your customers will start to stream in, and so the faster they’ll spend money.
Dishes vs ServiceYou can take all of the time you want planning out the perfect cooking and serving rotation so that you’re maximizing your earning potential per sale. But that’s not how you’re going to bring in the most coins quickly. No matter how much your entree costs per serving, you only make money as quickly as you can serve it. Essentially, the quicker your sales, the more money you’ll make.
Keep you customers happy and coming back regularly, and you’ll see the coins piling up fast. This may not sound like what you want to hear. After all, there are much more interesting things to do in Cafe World than pay attention to all those people walking in and out of your door all day long. It’s not nearly as complicated as it sounds. When you make the right decisions for your cafe, you’ll be making the right decisions for your customers too. After all, it’s just good business sense.
Exploring Pizza Around the World
Article by Alfred Ardis
Whether you are visiting Japan or Australia, you will be able to find pizza in the country, but it might be a little different than American style pizzas. So if you visit another country you might be pleasantly or unpleasantly surprised if you are expecting cheesy pepperoni pizzas.
You may not have ever thought that they would serve pizza in India. They do, but it is quite different. Normal toppings for pizzas in India could include paneer which is a type of cottage cheese, pickled ginger, and mutton or sheep meat that is minced. This may sound strange, but if you were used to the flavors of India, perhaps these flavors would appeal to you.
A French style pizza sounds very fancy. It actually is topped with something called flambee which is actually fresh cream, onions, and bacon. As Americans you are probably accustomed to onions and bacon on pizzas, but the fresh cream is a little different unless you like Alfredo pizzas.
If you were to visit Japan, you might find the tastes quite different than what you are used to, but if you enjoy sushi rolls, you might enjoy the taste of Japanese pizzas. The toppings on these pizzas are Mayo Jaga which is a combination of mayonnaise, potatoes, and bacon, and then they also have eel and squid as toppings.
Russian pizzas are quite a bit different than American style. They enjoy red herring as a topping, but they also enjoy mockba which is a combination of ingredients. Mockba is tuna, mackerel, onions, sardines, salmon, as well as onions put together. If you like these fishier flavors, you might enjoy this Russian-style pizza.
Australia has another interesting pizza. It is a little more similar to what you may be used to if you eat American pizzas. Common ingredients on Australian pizzas are shrimp, barbeque sauce, and pineapple. Perhaps you have had the ham and pineapple combination that is popular in America. This type might remind you of it.
Other unique toppings for pizzas from around the world include curry on pizzas in Pakistan and coconut in Costa Rica. There are likely even more flavors around the world on pizzas, but these are just a few.
Sometimes if you go to another country you do expect different foods, but perhaps you do not expect a familiar food like pizzas to be different than what you know. If you visit these countries, you will likely have an option to perhaps have an American style, but you will also probably have the option to try pizzas with the specific country’s style of toppings.
So while you are in America enjoy pizzas the way you are used to, but if you do some travel, be sure and try out another country’s fair. It is important to remember that making pizzas did not start in America, so America really has no claim on the toppings. The main thing is that everyone enjoys what they like on their pizzas.
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