ROME, Italy (AP) -- Pizza-makers bewa Italy has issued strict
guidelines to protect the real Neapolitan pizza from bogus copies.

The regulations touch on everything from size to ingredients to the type
of oven -- and rule-abiding restaurants will receive a special label
attesting that real pizza can be eaten there...........

http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/europe....ap/index.html

Pizza's Colorful History

By far pizza has become America's favorite food over the past 50 years. Million
of pizza pies are eaten daily, but how often do the people eating the food stop
to consider the history. The true origins of this fine cuisine are as colorful
as any good pizza pie heaping with toppings.

The common belief is that Italians invented the pizza, however the origins go
back to the ancient times. Babylonians, Israelites, Egyptians and other ancient
Middle Eastern cultures were eating flat, un-leaven bread that had been cooked
in mud ovens. The bread was much like a pita, which is still common in Greece
and the Middle East today. Further it is known that ancient Mediterranean
people such as the Greeks, Romans and Egyptians were eating the bread, topped
seasoned with olive oil and native spices.

The lower class of the Naples, Italy is believed to have created pizza in a
more familiar fashion. In the late 1800s a Italian baker named Raffaele
Esposito, was believed to have created a dish for visiting royalty. According
to the story, the Italian monarch King Umberto and his consort, Queen
Margherita were touring the area. In order to impress them and to show his
patriotic fervor Raffaele chose to top flat bread with food that would best
represent the colors of Italy: red tomato, white mozzarella cheese and green
basil. The king and queen were so impressed that word quickly reached the
masses. The end results were that the dish was well received to the extent that
others began to copy it.

By the beginning of the 1900's pizza made it's way to the inner cities United
States, thanks to Italian immigrants, most notably New York and Chicago, due to
those cities having large Italian populations. Small cafes began offering the
Italian favorite. American soldiers further prompted the dish to become very
popular at the end of World War II, having been exposed to it while serving on
the Italian front.

Today pizza has become just as American as baseball and apple pie. Only because
of its most recent origins is it considered an Italian dish. Huge U.S. based
multi-billion dollar corporations should be thankful for the development along
with poor college students who can appreciate the fine dining experience pizza
has given them.

plagerizes:

Pizza's Colorful History
snip

You did not write that, obviously... give proper credit. BAM!


---= BOYCOTT FRANCE (belgium) GERMANY--SPAIN =---
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"Life would be devoid of all meaning were it without tribulation."
Sheldon
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