• (not) spitting in the eyes of the Neapolitans

    It seems my last post, all about food origin and tradition has struck a chord with some of my twitterati. (Is that even a word?) So much so, that the brilliant Chris King (aka Northernwrites) wrote a post analysing my argument of tradition and evolution of food.

    Chris' point is a more articulated and better written piece on the subject.

    Effectively we are saying the same thing. Tradition would have us dictate and think that unless something is prepared using those original ingredients, it can't be classed as truly authentic. Case in point, "Bolognese" sauce, different to Ragu alla Bolognese. What we further agree on is this; just because it isn't classed as traditional doesn't mean that it can't be nice.

    That's where I think in some ways the Italians are unique. There seems to be a food snobbery, the Mr Darcy-ism that I so fondly talked about in the last post.

    Pineapple on Pizza 
    Confession; I have eaten pineapple on pizza in the past. (The Neapolitan fatwah is now enacted). It wasn't amazing, it wasn't bad, it was different. It's not the first pizza I would ever choose to eat, it's not a cardinal sin to have eaten it. 


    So three years ago I hosted some friends for a "dinner party". We got onto the subject of Pizza, and how the Neapolitan pizza was immense etc etc. And then I started in trying to make a point, a point which ties in with the whole element of tradition and pizza wouldn't have pineapple on it. I didn't articulate well.

    In fact I went on a charge of "Pineapple on Pizza is atrocious" blah blah. Now, my friend who said fuck all, all night long interjects with "you've had pineapple on pizza before, actually more than once".

    Well, that was the mood killer. The point I was trying to make about it not being traditional, lost in one outing, and ever since I've been subjected to abuse by people who weren't even there.

    Drive by Pineappling... 


    I've had a pineapple left on my doorstep, Naples has been renamed Pi-Napoli, and any time the spiky bastard fruit is on special offer or at a market stand I get the good old nudge and "fancy some pineapple".

    Let's be clear, I don't love pineapple. I don't want to elope with the thing or really have it in my day to day life - unless I've eaten something which requires it's digestive properties. No, put simply, there are three or four people that keep bringing it up, all the time.

    So I ask, for the sake of sanity and all pineapple related joking, just please, please, let it drop. 

    0 comments → (not) spitting in the eyes of the Neapolitans

    Post a Comment