Pineapple Express: Someone Is Wrong on the Internet?


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A client (and friend of mine) just got back from his trip to Naples, Italy, and was devastated to learn that pepperoni pizza is an American invention, and not an Italian one. Sure, he could find pepperoni (salamino picante) on lots of menus, and he could order it, but it was always listed under "American toppings" or whatever and that bothered him.

"And I had to tell them I wanted sauce!" Seriously, dude? You flew 6000 miles to tell them that? Did you think they forgot?

Anyway. The moral of the story, if there is one: don't let "authenticity" tell you what's good.
I loved many of the pizzas I had in Italy (last visited in 2015- Rome), and not a one resembled anything I’ve seen in the USA.
 

One of my favorite pizzerias/Italian restaurants closed sometime in 2024. It was a unique dining experience. The owner was a Sicilian immigrant who was something like a 5th generation restauranteur. Some of her ingredients she obtained through old family connections and shipped all the way here to the D/FW Metroplex.

So even though her menu was mostly typical Americanized Italian dishes, her ingredients, recipes, and flavors were not.

For example, she imported capers via her family’s connections. Capers are something I generally don’t eat: I’m an extremely sensitive sodium-dependent hypertensive who HAS to watch his intake. So, despite loving salty dishes, I don’t get them often, and I’ll occasionally eschew certain ingredients in certain dishes. Capers, being salt bombs, are often passed on.

But hers? The first bite of one of her dishes with capers was a revelation. The ones she used were salty, but not inescapably so. Instead, their flavor was subtle & complex. For the first time in my life, I could truly taste what a caper is- a pickled flower blossom. IOW, while her capers brought salty and briny flavors, there were also obvious floral and herbal notes.

She also did things with eggplant that made me reevaluate that particular vegetable, something only a handful of other cooks have done.
 

Sitting in an Emergency waiting room now going on hour 3.

Where Are You Waiting GIF by This GIF Is Haunted
 





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