Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Pop quiz

To an Italian, which one of these is pep(p)eroni pizza?

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh, oh! I know! The one on the right. That is my guess.

Anonymous said...

The one on the left! Go stars and stripes! WOOOOOOOOO! (Probably the right?)

JulieAnn said...

I'm guessing the one on the right.

And just by reading your posts, there's no way you're a rhinestone cowboy.

Atticus Pf said...

Swiss Ms. We need you to dig deeper here. When and where did the cataclysmic schism happen? More importantly, is there any way remotely possible to lay the blame at the feet of the British or (even better) the French?

Swiss Ms. said...

I agree with Karl that someone needs to look into this more deeply. How in the world did "pepperoni" change from a vegetable into a protein? I would have blamed it on some Italian-American immigrant who forgot about fresh vegetables were on the way over, but it turns out they call it pepperoni in the UK as well. Intriguing. Why don't I look into this?

Is anyone going to start calling it salami pizza?

Anonymous said...

Actually to an Italian like me those on the right are "peperoni", not "pepperoni". You guys never pronounce double consonants, but we do, so yes, there's a difference.

As to pepperoni, I guess it must come from "pepper" (you know, the one you grind over food) since that is salame piccante (spicy salami). To be precise, a kind of salame piccante with a singularly unattractive look.

If ever you go to Italy, try "soppressata calabra" or "nduja" - the latter is soft, spreadable on bread like "ciauscolo", but very hot...

Swiss Ms. said...

Oh, thank you, dear Italian reader! Knowing some Spanish, I always over-compensate with extra double vowels. I am still working on pronouncing the difference without taking 12 minutes to figure it out. Good thought about the black pepper.

Provo quelle cose quando vado in Italia! Certamente. Mille grazie.