Pizza the action

Surely not another. Another doorstep pizza parlour posterette dropping in to announce another pizza place with all the attendant deals.

What fascinates me is their helpful nature in explaining the various ways they can top a dough base. Now pizza is an Italian word and pizzas are notably Italian. I learned the other day why the Italian language dominates the coffee world with words like cappuccino, espresso and mocha. Its to do with empire. Italy had a little slice of Africa, mixing it with the big boys in the empire business like Germany, Belgium, France and, of course, the UK. Italy just happened upon the coffee rich bits and indeed mocha comes from Mocha, the Red Sea port out of which the coffee flowed to Italy. Arabica, coffee shrub of Arabia is indigenous to Ethiopia. So no difficulty absorbing the Italian flair for coffee. But not pizza. As solidly Italian as the Trevi Fountain.

So it is natural to have real Italian to explain their toppings just as would happen in the country of origin. And this is were I return to the pizza leaflets. I just like seeing how far they go with the language, before they revert to English. When they do use Italian, they invariably add a translation, though I don't know why. If you are fan of pizza, you know what's what, but helpful the translations may well be. I wonder if is done to put across the feel that you are about to enjoy a continental delicacy, the Italian language serving up images of romantic Rome or sunny Naples even if your pizza comes from a converted newsagents in Barnsley or Huddersfield.

Marguerita is the one many kick off with. Written large, it is followed by a smaller print explanation in English of what constitutes the topping. So far so good. Next are funghi (mushroom), pollo (chicken) and proscuitto (ham). But what happens next is some drift back to English , but they still add the translation. So when ham and mushroom are the topping, it is written large in English, with it repeated, although in a smaller font, still in English. Now this amuses me (get out more?). At which point does each pizza place change? Hence the excitement of each new leaflet( get out more..yes). The sustaining of the Italian might be an indicator of the ethnicity of the cooking, but who is kidded by any such nonsense?

Today's leaflet was the winner. Chico's Pizza. Yes, there is the Margherita(cheese and tomato), but the rest is in bold black block letters HAM followed by the smaller lower case explanation .....yes slices of ham. MUSHROOM? yes, mushroom. So no doubts there then. So no attempt to be ethnic - straight into the full English. Whatever level of Italian is used, because we have adopted the pizza wholeheartedly in to our fast food fare, the toppings soon become un-Italian with meatfeast, chicken tikka, BBQ chicken and Chicago Bear featuring.

Soon it will be all ours. No hint at the Italian, except of course for the word pizza. Another delightful integration of something foreign into our mongrel flavours. I love too the perfect accompaniment for any of the pizzas to make a meal complete. What could be better to go with a large disk of baked dough with the topping of your choice? Well, another one, but with garlic upon it.

"What would you like with your sandwich?"
"A slice of bread butter would make the meal ideal!"