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Pizza: Its History and Ancestors
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:
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. © 2002 All Rights
Reserved. Document may be freely redistributed in its unedited
form on the condition that all copyright references are kept
intact along with the hyperlinked URLs.
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