This is probably the least controversial topic about Italy — according to a CNN survey, when it comes to Italy, more than 80% of the world's respondents think of pizza Pizza first.
Whether you are an artistic youth who loves the Renaissance, a history lover who is fascinated by ancient Roman architecture, or a tourist who has been brainwashed by "Under the Tuscan Sun", it is always indispensable to eat these spiritual feasts and eat an authentic pizza.
As a fast-food food that has taken the world by storm, Pizza Pizza is probably one of the most accepted foods in the world, and there is no one.
Whether it is in its birthplace of Naples, Italy, or in the United States, where it has grown, whether in the Middle East or the emerging economies of Asia, we can see the history of human catering carried by this noodle cake everywhere.
Don't overlook this – Italy does have a splendid civilization and outstanding artistic achievements, and has also produced industrial works of art such as Ferrari, Lamborghini, Ducati, but few in the world are as approachable as pizza, but so popular in the world. Only the national is the world.
Today, we're going to tell the story of pizza.
Now the total number of pizzas sold by restaurants around the world every year is more than 5 billion; if you add pizza that people bake at home, it can basically be said that pizza is a real earth food, widely loved by people around the world. When you go and don't know what to eat, you can't always go wrong with ordering pizza.
There are many different versions of the story about the origin of pizza. Of course, our favorite version is that Marco Polo returned to Italy after traveling to the East, nostalgic for Chinese pies and dumplings, and then he put the filling that blended the art of oriental cuisine on the flatbread.
The story is very beautiful, but unfortunately, this is just a fictional story, and there is no solid historical support.
At present, the oldest record of pizza can be traced back to ancient Greece and ancient Egypt in the 6th century BC, and in many places along the Mediterranean coast, it appeared on wheat-made bread, smeared with cheese, and put some herbs and meat delicacies, which is the prototype of pizza.
Virgil, the greatest poet of ancient Rome, described what early pizza looked like in his famous book Aeneas—"They took out thin bread, sprinkled it with mushrooms and herbs found in the woods, and devoured it." ”
It sounds like a fast food like pizza, which should look like.
In recent years, with the continuous development of archaeology, scientists have discovered in the southern Italian island of Sicily that there are tools for making dough cakes and fillings in human sites dating back 3,000 years.
Darius I, the Persian king who dominated Eurasia at the time, also introduced a cooking technique of scones on shields among his soldiers-at first, soldiers only beat bread flat and roasted it on the shield for convenience, and then gradually added cheese and dates.
Across the screen, I can smell the crispness.
After years of evolution, the main consumption of pizza today is the United States on the other side of the ocean - according to statistics, about 60% of the world's pizza is eaten by the American people, not Italy, the birthplace of pizza.
So how much does the American people love pizza???
How is a delicacy that takes root across the globe?
Although something like pizza has existed on earth for more than 2,000 years, it has only been nearly 200 years since it really entered the house - you who have read a lot of books have never heard of it, and any prince, nobleman or great writer has described in detail the process of eating pizza, right? That's right, because from beginning to end, pizza is the popular food of the people in the lower riba, close to the people, which is convenient and fast.
From ancient Roman times, across the long Middle Ages and the Renaissance era, pizza has been a fast food food, circulating among the common people - but the pizza of that year used lard Titian in addition to the pasta cake and today. There is no way, the poor people just want to eat more oil and water.
In 1760, in the port city of Naples in south-central Italy, a small incident that affected the fate of pizza quietly occurred.
As an important port city, Naples was mostly poor porters, known locally as Lazzaroni, which means Hanako in Italian. Many of them have four walls in their homes, and even some people have no place to live in poverty, and can only sleep on the street.
For such a group of people, it is simply necessary to have a fast food that can fill the stomach, have enough oil and water, and taste good.
Pizza is the favorite food of this class. But the previous lard recipe was still too greasy.
In 1760, tomatoes from the New World of the Americas arrived on the Mediterranean coast for the first time in history.
Yes, you read that right – the history of tomato consumption in Western European countries began in 1760.
People soon found that when you sprinkle tomatoes, cheese and sausages on a greasy pizza, the whole style and taste are completely different. This classic combination of later generations quickly became popular in Naples.
But for high society, this greasy food that is actually eaten by hand is simply disgusting.
Over time, pizza began to quietly become popular among the upper echelons of society.
The great writer Alexandre Dumas (the author of The Count of Monte Cristo and The Three Musketeers) has enthusiastically praised the various fillings on Neapolitan pizza in his works, and he has also said that two pizzas are just right for breakfast, and if there is a whole, it is enough for a family.
Ferdinand, then king of Naples, also built a pizza oven in his palace, which also caused an uproar among the nobles - everyone at first advised the king not to eat this kind of "inferior food", and later found that not only the king could not stop eating, the temptation of this kind of food was indeed difficult to resist.
When it comes to Pizza in Naples, it's inevitable to mention Pizzaria Brandi, an old shop that was also founded in 1760.
If there had been a Michelin-starred restaurant system, this would have been the ceiling of affordable cuisine – it was in this restaurant, in 1889, the year of The Unification of Italy, that two unusual guests, King Urberto I of Italy and his queen Margarita.
The king and queen, tired of eating The French feast, wanted to change their taste, so they called the chef of the time in Naples and prepared the most local delicacies for them.
The master racked his brains and prepared 3 pizzas for the king queen, of which the queen praised the one with tomatoes, Mozzarella cheese and basil on it.
This is what became known as Pizza Margherita, which has since become an essential food for pizza lovers around the world.
So you can understand how proud the Neapolitans are of pizza, and you can even be cold to Maradona, the city's favorite generation of football kings, but if you dare to say bad things about pizza in Naples, it will be the tragic result of the whole city shouting.
However, pizza really swept the world, not by the princes and nobles, but by the industrious hands of thousands of Italian immigrants.
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, as a large number of Italian immigrants came to the North American continent, pizza followed them across the ocean and embarked on a magical journey.
In 1905, Lombardi's, the first pizza restaurant in all of North America, opened in Manhattan, New York. The store is still there, and new York friends can have time to taste it, or the smell of the oven baked in the past.
The original pizzeria was limited to a few cities with more Italian immigrants, such as New York, Chicago, and Philadelphia; at the beginning, only Italian immigrants loved pizza, and most of the local Uncle Sam still stayed away.
The situation changed greatly after the end of World War II — a large number of American soldiers returned home, they had become accustomed to pizza in Europe, and when they returned to the United States, they found that they had pizza in their hometowns; in addition, many Italian-American movie stars had emerged during this time, and eating Italian food had become fashionable.
In 1958, Pizza Hut, which later opened all over the world, opened its first store* in Wichita, Kansas, USA (it is still there today, and there is a plot to see).
The pizza chain soon became a major trend in the United States — in 1968, Domino's Tomeno Pizza was born; in 1984, Papa John's was also introduced.
The continental United States became the heart of the pizza culture explosion, and interestingly, the wave blew back to the Continent, and Europeans in Italy and neighboring countries loved pizza more than ever.
Of course, those who insist on eating Neapolitan-style thin bottom pizza will not accept Chicago-style thick bottom pizza (that is, the kind we can eat at Pizza Hut).
It's a standard Neapolitan thin sole that's more crispy.
This is a Chicago-style thick bottom, obviously more flour and more materials
There are still many people in Italy who do not accept thick bottom pizza at all, but for most people, delicious food is king, each flower into each eye, able to adapt to the different tastes of 7 billion people around the world, is the real world cuisine.
Having told so many pizza stories, there is actually one thing that is still controversial to this day.
That's the definition of pizza Pizza — is it cheese and other fillings on top of the dough, baking it in the oven, and out of it is pizza?
In this regard, the Neapolitans of the 19th century and most Italians today will definitely open their eyes and fight with you.
They can tell you a whole bunch of reasons why only Italy, only Neapolitan pizza, can be called a real pizza.
However, as travelers and gourmets who travel from north to south, we have reservations about this statement.
Let me give you an example – in the Alsace region of France, in southwestern Germany, and Switzerland, there is a popular German cuisine called Flamenkuchen (Tarte flambée in French), which literally translates to "fire baked cake", and looks like this.
It usually sits onions, ham and cheese.
You say it's pizza, generally in order to avoid copyright disputes, the store will make Flamenkuchen square, or not so round round, people in the province misunderstand that this is pizza. But in essence, the process and filling is indeed very similar to pizza.
For example, Turkey has a national food called Lahmacun, which seems to know that this product is either a cousin or a cousin of pizza.
Unlike pizza, Lahmacun's bottom is thinner and crisper, and the filling on it is not the same, Lahmacun basically does not put cheese, and the spicy taste is dominant.
But more people, call it "Turkish pizza".
In the final analysis, what is called is not important, it is important to eat.
Therefore, we want to thank the ancient people more than 2,000 years ago, in that era when the material was not rich, with their industrious hands, kneading and kneading, kneading the pizza that is now popular in the world.
They are the real foodies.