Monday 4 December 2017

sloppy joes

A quick read of the tea leaves on how the US Department of Agriculture—the agency responsible for maintaining the integrity of America’s foodstuffs—might relax some of the stricter standards put in place to ensure that public school meal programmes (for comparison, here are some global examples) were healthful and nourishing, Naked Capitalism hit upon an interesting, adjacent campaign combatting food-waste.
Many of the dissenting voices who’ll advocate classifying catsup the tomato paste of pizza as a vegetable say that kids end up throwing away big portion of these healthier meals and while the problems that afflict institutional lunches are not new and schools have challenges staying in compliance, some districts are engaging their pupils by setting food sharing and donation programmes to reduce the amount of food that gets thrown away. Students are required to fill their trays with a balanced meal—including a portion of vegetables, a carton of milk, et cetera—but after passing through the line, they are empowered to trade something unwanted (within reason) for an extra helping of something desired and know that they are giving food away to the hungry and disadvantaged of their communities. Instead of ingratiating processed foods at a formative age, it’s probably a far more important lesson to imprint that waste and choice has consequences.

Saturday 8 April 2017

neapoliatano or avoid the noid

Though the pedigree and provenance might not be as directly royal as this bit of apocrypha relates, there’s no reason to doubt the deliciousness of pizza, which via Mental Floss legend holds was first delivered in 1889. The king Umberto Ranieri Carlo Emanuele Giovanni Maria Fernando Eugenio di Savoia and the queen consort Margherita Maria Teresa Giovanna of a newly united Italy were on a good-will mission, touring every region of their kingdom.
The couple who represented the continuation of the Savoy dynasty were on a hearts-and-minds stint in Naples, where he had survived an assassination attempt a decade prior, when the queen expressed a loss of appetite for their usually fancy French-influenced fare and longed for some authentic, local cuisine—which has some claim to the dish as a matter of national pride. The story goes that the most renowned local chef was commissioned to deliver to the royal residence a selection of what would appear on a peasant’s menu—for which three pizza-pies were prepared. The queen found the simple combination of white mozzarella, red tomatoes topped with green basil to be by far the most delicious—arranged purposefully with the colours of the banner of the united peninsula. The basic pizza, the margherita was supposedly named in her honour.

Friday 27 May 2016

fiat or take and bake

Pizza is an acceptable form of tender for settling debt, both public and private, a court in Padua has ruled. A divorced chef may pay alimony to his ex-wife with the equivalent of three hundred euro worth of pizza per month, the judge decided after examining the husband’s income. This would have been a funnier story if the alimony did not include child-support and the pizza chef was just exacting revenge on an avarice ex-, but at least the man is making the effort to ensure that his family is provided for.

Wednesday 29 April 2015

casual dining

Heard on National Public Radio, I learnt of this quirky and humourous blog project to document the demographic shift in fast-food culture by charting the demise and repurposing of one of the more recognisable architectural follies of a certain franchise. The standard blue-print of a Pizza Hut with its distinctive mansard roof is hard to hide once the former proprietors vacate the building and it is masked by new tenants, ranging from other fast-food restaurants, chapels, car-rentals, to mortuaries.

It’s certainly strange to consider how the failure of one market can be mapped due to the figure it limns—though most new franchises are installed in non-custom places now, and in part, I guess the lovely ruins are testament to the shift in diners’ taste, preferring to order-in rather than dining out. Also, while the popularity of pizza is not exactly on the wane, I suppose people are more health conscious—or at least make the requisite noise to pretend to be—what with the campaign against gluten or the reversal on fats, eschewing buffets, etc. and that’s a factor as well. Though it’s far too late for these transformed huts, with charging awareness and created taboos, there also seems (of late at least) a certain degree of fetishising the forbidden that one sees in the deep-fried anything and everything, the glutinous portmanteau of the cronut or making vaping something fashionable but maybe such fixations will make for a neo-classic revival for such red roofs.

Monday 3 February 2014

hors d'oeuver or hors taxes

There is an apparently flourishing business for pizza and for others in the meals on wheels service on the German side of Swiss borderlands.

This scheme, however, is threatened by a new requirement to electronically file customs declarations for cross-border deliveries. It was already worthwhile for those kitchens and customers positioned to do so to comply with the tariffs, saving some ten francs or more compared to domestic fast-food and a system for collection was already in place but to force bankers' hours on an industry that's spontaneous and relies on people's sloth and failure to plan many times could prove disastrous for some opportunists. Diners and delivery personnel would be treated like smugglers. I wonder what kind of antics might ensue to keep up with demand and I wonder how the official assigned to that toll-house might feel about his or her job.

Friday 3 January 2014

what do you want on your tombstone? pepperoni and chease

I know that selecting a heavily processed frozen pizza makes could call ones judgment into question to begin with, but usual foregoing the American shopping experience—at the company-store, and opting to mostly buy groceries on the so-called “economy,” I was a little aghast and amused with the detailed, cradle-to-grave instructions on the packaging. One has to wonder what sort of horrendous lawsuits prompted such directions. Every once and awhile, it's worth it to have the reminder that there are far superior alternatives, readily available and even with the premium of far fewer special ingredients, unless one insists on a taste of home. Naรฏvely, I used to believe that such fortification with preservatives was a result of some rigourously honest admission and was required to maintain freshness for a long journey overseas, but now I think otherwise—especially considering the re-imported items on the shelves. I refused to believe that German beer, brewed hereabouts, was actually sent to the States, only to be sent back and sold at a discount, denominated in American dollars and with no visible taxes, to someone.
Just before the holidays, I noticed an expanded assortment of champagne, prosecco and Sekt, and I thought it was to supplement demand at first—that is, until I noticed this label (with mandatory warnings) on a effervescent beverage produced and bottled quite literally just around the corner. Lured by a bargain, I am now finding this more than a bit unconscionable. Though I am glad that there's an export-market for goods that seem very local, this indirect route to pass the savings along to you seems rather wasteful—whether or not specially outfitted for the journey.

Thursday 8 November 2012

sticky fingers or mother’s little helper

Not that we only make store-bought pizzas, but this little spoon rest that my sister sent me as a gift would come in handy then too. When not in use (and I’m one to clutch on to something rather than put it down in some place where it might be in the way or make a mess) I could hold it up to my mouth and sing Brown Sugar and She’s so Cold or “I’ll never be your pizza burning.”