Adam Schwartz wrote:
"Puester" wrote in message
...
Try looking under "cavatelli". IME many Italian foods
aren't pronounced anywhere near the way they're spelled.
(For example, many oldtimers in New Haven, CT. pronounce
pizza "uh-BEETZ" and the store signs spell it apizz' .)

That makes me think of pig-Latin, with the end vowel moved to the front. It
also reminds me of the tendancy for immigrants from Japan to switch the
pronunciacion of R's and L's. It's hard for me to understand, but I was
raised under totally different linguistic circumstances.

Suffering through Gordon Elliot is finally good for something
besides alternating pangs of hunger and vicarious embarassment.

He went "around the world" looking at Pizza, and blew up a few
myths.

Myth: Pizza is an American invention.
Facts: Pizza with tomato sauce, cheese, and toppings has
been made in Naples for possibly hundreds of years, with
at least one location having made the authentic article
for at least the last 170 years; it may be thousands of
years old, and the crust is based on Arabian flatbreads.
The Pizza Margherita is not the original pizza, just
a version that got itself a name in a way that makes a
nice story. America didn't get into Pizza as a popular
cuisine until 1905, when a baker's assistant in NYC made
use of the bakery oven downtime in the afternoons to cook
and sell pizzas.

Myths: Various etymologies for the word, "pizza".
Fact: "Pizza" comes from the word (which I forget but iirc
sounded like "ap****ia") which refers to the blackening
and crisping of the crust on the bottom of the dough.

Myth: Real pizza dough is twirled in the air to stretch it.
Fact: "They're using bread dough," said the maker of what
the show asserted is the best pizza in America. Real pizza
dough is too delicate to take spinning and must be stretched
and pressed thin by hand on a flat surface.

Coincidentally apropos of all the Carbonara going on around
here and apparently coincidental to looking for the best
places on Earth to get a pizza, Gordon visited two chefs
on nearly opposite sides of the planet (Aspen and Sydney)
who served him their "new" recipes for bacon-and-fried-egg
pizza. I suspect he got caught in a fad being propagated
by some high-end pizza journal.

--Blair
"Take it with a grain of Gordon Elliot."