PIZZA!

February 9th was World Pizza Day....  Thankfully there is a day set aside to commemorate such an important invention as pizza!

 From the very first time I sampled pizza when I was a little girl and our next-door neighbors made one from a Chef Boyardee pizza kit then handed a sample to me over the fence, I was hooked!  It was something so out of the ordinary of our meat/potatoes/vegetables meals that my dad insisted on, I could hardly believe pizza could be considered a serious food item.  From that day in the 1950's, pizza only became more and more considered, by me, to be one of Italy's greatest inventions. 

I recently read a little bit about the history of this terrific cuisine.  

The concept of pizza has been around in some form or another for thousands of years.  The origins are complicated though. One popular story is that Marco Polo had something similar when he was in China and brought back the idea to Europe--but that is just a myth.

The word "PIZZA" was first used in 997, but there was no reason given in the history I read as to the why this particular word was used for the pie-shaped fare that is so popular throughout the world.  As with many foods, this was a dish for poor people.  It was cheap food that could be eaten as quickly as possible.

As with most other foods that came our way, Americans have changed pizza up (for the better, to my way of thinking) over the years as it spread across the country from New York City to the West Coast--and everywhere in between.  Chains started popping up in 1958 after two brothers borrowed $600 from their mother and opened a small pizza restaurant in Wichita, Kansas.  Voila!  Pizza Hut which now has 18,000 locations in over 100 countries.

Pizza Hut was soon followed by Domino's, and later Papa John's.  And up in Detroit Pizza! Pizza! was born at Little Caeser's.

There is a prodigious amount of pizza consumed around the world, but Norway seems to hold the record for the most pizzas eaten on a per person basis every year.  The ratio is 27.5 pizzas each for their 5.5 million population.  Come on, USA, we can do better than that!

Anyway, my love affair with pizza has been a long one prompting questions like, "Will there be pizza in heaven?"   And my long-standing affirmation that I can eat pizza every day of my life, which culminates in what I laughingly declare will be etched on my headstone:  "REST IN PIZZA".

All I can say is, DELIZIOSO!!!