Food fascists

[loomer]

I'm not saying they should, I'm just curious if they'll decide to wait until the country isn't a steadily burning economic crisis.

[Akkleptos]

Well, it's okay.

They should only abstain from eating the following:

Tomato: Nahuatl tomatl and xitlitomatl (Nahuatl being the language Aztecs spoke). This excludes ketchup, but also tamoto sauce for pizza, spaghetti, etc.
Chocolate: Spanish, from Nahuatl xocolatl : xococ, bitter + atl, water. 'Nuff said.
Avocado: Spanish, alteration (influenced by obsolete Spanish avocado, lawyer) of Nahuatl ahuacatl (testicles, from the way the tree bears the fruit in pairs). Anything made with avocados.

Oh, and everything derived from this:
Corn/Maize (Zea mays): The origin of corn is still unsettled, but the most widely held hypothesis assumes that corn developed from its wild relative teocintle (Z. mexicana) through a combination of favorable mutations, recognised and selectively propagated by early humans. Corn migrated from its center of origin, presumed to be Mexico or Central America, and was being cultivated by the Indians as far north as New England upon the arrival of the first European colonists, whose survival was due largely to the use of corn as food.

[Molyneux]

Well, it's okay.

They should only abstain from eating the following:

Tomato: Nahuatl tomatl and xitlitomatl (Nahuatl being the language Aztecs spoke). This excludes ketchup, but also tamoto sauce for pizza, spaghetti, etc.
Chocolate: Spanish, from Nahuatl xocolatl : xococ, bitter + atl, water. 'Nuff said.
Avocado: Spanish, alteration (influenced by obsolete Spanish avocado, lawyer) of Nahuatl ahuacatl (testicles, from the way the tree bears the fruit in pairs). Anything made with avocados.

Oh, and everything derived from this:
Corn/Maize (Zea mays): The origin of corn is still unsettled, but the most widely held hypothesis assumes that corn developed from its wild relative teocintle (Z. mexicana) through a combination of favorable mutations, recognised and selectively propagated by early humans. Corn migrated from its center of origin, presumed to be Mexico or Central America, and was being cultivated by the Indians as far north as New England upon the arrival of the first European colonists, whose survival was due largely to the use of corn as food.

...don't forget pasta. Of any and all kinds.
Well, they still have minestrone, I suppose...oh, wait, that's got tomatoes in it, doesn't it. And Bell peppers, which are native to Mexico.

Chicken? Domesticated in either Vietnam or India. Guess that chicken francese will have to go. Wheat? Middle eastern. Eggplant? Native to India.

So real Italian food should be limited to...seafood, pork, garlic, onions and cheese. Interesting.

[Duckie]

They could eat Roman foods like laurica! Raw rabbit fœtus for all!

[Darth Wong]

So real Italian food should be limited to...seafood, pork, garlic, onions and cheese. Interesting.

You see some of the same dynamic in the US on occasion. Remember the last election, when people made fun of Barack Obama for eating arugula, which is not considered a "real American" food? Of course, it hasn't reached quite this level of absurdity yet, but I think it's a function of cultural insecurity. The more insecure you feel about your culture, the more you try to oppress other cultures.

[Old Peculier]

I think the Italians actually a point in there somewhere. Sure they sound like, and probably are, cultural (and culinary) chauvinists, and I'm sure the sort of people they're appealing to are thinking along those lines as well. However, they were specifying the ancient parts of the city, which have a different character to the rest of the city, being as they are now, tourist traps.

Now, last time I checked, people on holiday in Italy want to eat pizzas, spaghetti and ice cream and not kebabs which, if they've filled the same niche as they have in Britain, are basically only good for a late night snack for drunk people. I guess that might not be the case though, I know the kebab shops I've seen in Switzerland, for instance, were actually open during the day, and served kebabs which tasted quite nice. Shocking!

It's sad really, that if the Italians in the article had sounded a bit less xenophobic and put more emphasis on the fact that they're trying to source locally grown ingredients, some people might have actually agreed with them a bit more and I wouldn't have thought they were such a bunch of cretins.

[charlemagne]

Italian politics are such a mess it makes Weimar look awesome in comparison. It's a downright miracle that Italy gets anything done. Things like this are hilarious but really not much out of the norm. I mean, just look at Berlusconi, he made himself immune to criminal prosecution by writing a law that said so. You can't make stuff like that up.