Italy bans kebabs and foreign food from cities

[SpartanDem]

Source: Times UK

The tomato comes from Peru and spaghetti was probably a gift from China.

It is, though, the “foreign” kebab that is being kicked out of Italian cities as it becomes the target of a campaign against ethnic food, backed by the centre-right Government of Silvio Berlusconi.

The drive to make Italians eat Italian, which was described by the Left and leading chefs as gastronomic racism, began in the town of Lucca this week, where the council banned any new ethnic food outlets from opening within the ancient city walls.

Yesterday it spread to Lombardy and its regional capital, Milan, which is also run by the centre Right. The antiimmigrant Northern League party brought in the restrictions “to protect local specialities from the growing popularity of ethnic cuisines


Read more: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/food_and_drink/article5622156.ece

---

Stupid just plain stupid

[EFerrari]

1. The War on Pad Thai!

lol

[Idealism]

2. The new Cold War: Cold Salami or Hot Sausage?

[Selatius]

3. Berlusconi is trying to scapegoat minorities to distract the population from how bad he really is.

He's just a watered down fascist. He was already kicked out of office once before basically for taking Italy into an unpopular war in Iraq with Bush. Now, he's back but this time he took a page out of Hitler's playbook. Instead of Jews, he's going after Roma Gypsies and other minority groups.

[sasquatch]

4. We need to watch this little Benito wanna be

[elleng]

5. We've BEEN watching him,

over and over.

[McCamy Taylor]

6. Have they asked the chefs what they think of all this?

:eyes:

Note that French is ok but not Sicilian. This is economic/social discrimination from the fashion capital of Italy where all the blond, blue eyed Italians live. You know, the Aryan ones.

My advice to tourists----stay the hell away from Milan and head towards Rome. It is a great city. You will have a wonderful time. Spend your tourist dollars there.

[Ghost Dog]

10. Lombards of Lombardia

no less.

[izquierdista]

7. And why???

Why would it be necessary to ban kebabs in the land that has the best food on earth?

As one Italian once told me, "oh, the French think they know how to cook, but they just boil the taste out of food and then pour sauce on it."

There really isn't anything better than real, authentic, locally produced Italian food. I would much rather have a slice of mortadella, a chunk of Gran Padano and some Italian bread, than anything a greasy little kebeb stand could shove into a pita.

[murielm99]

8. That's just one reason why this is so silly.

But why shouldn't the ethnic population of Italy be allowed to eat the foods that are familiar to them? What nonsense.

[Matilda]

9. If they tried that in Australia, I guess we'd be eating witchety grubs.

Everything else was imported from somewhere.

I can't seriously imagine that Italian cuisine is threatened in any way
by food ideas imported from other cultures.

[cosmicone]

24. What about vegemite? n/t

[kentauros]

29. What would Italian food be without the tomato?

It was imported from the New World. Imagine no tomatoes in Italian food :o

[kwyjibo]

41. Um... roasted meats, fresh mozzarella, polenta, porcini mushrooms, sausages, gelato, hello!

There is so much more to Italian food than spaghetti and meatballs.

That said, I think that banning other foods in Italian cities is a terrible idea.

[Retrograde]

51. Polenta's usually made with a New World grain

Most polenta's made from maize these days, but I've seen recipes for garbanzo and chestnut polentas.

I agree with both your points, though.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

11. Hope this doesn't catch on in the UK or Ireland

Flavorless meat and veggie mush - yum, yum.

[dipsydoodle]

12. Study reveals 'shocking' kebabs

Doner kebabs sold in the UK contain "shocking" levels of salt, fat and calories, a survey has concluded.

Officers from 76 councils sampled 494 kebabs to test their nutritional value, during the Local Authority Coordinators of Regulatory Services (Lacors) study.

The average doner they tested contained almost 1,000 calories - half a woman's recommended daily intake.

Geoffrey Theobald, of Lacors, said: "The level of saturated fat and salt in some is a serious cause for concern."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7852168.stm

Above was articled on TV news here in the Uke last week. Can't stand them myself anyway.:puke:

[JCMach1]

15. To be fair, they should have published 'fish and chip' results from the same areas

it would have been just as horrific and more inedible.

[dipsydoodle]

18. Rubbish

Nuffin' wrong with fish and chips.

Jusr looking at that picture has made me feel hungry :)

[JCMach1]

20. BLECH~

:puke:

[closeupready]

31. Ooooo, I LOVE fish and chips.

Yummy.

[Marrah_G]

45. YUMMMM

[DFW]

13. Doing something like that would push the Germans to move to Turkey

Now that would be something--a ten million strong apartment swap.........

[Downwinder]

14. Sounds like the freedom fry flap.

Now we get to laugh.

[getthefacts]

28. First thing

that crossed my mind...

[NBachers]

16. Food Wars- Middle East bans Pizza & Cannolis

Can Ossobuco, Pasta Fagioli, and prosciutto be far behind?

And which side does the lonely meatball roll with?

[closeupready]

32. Actually, since pork is a major ingredient in much of Italian food, it's probably already avoided

in many Middle Eastern places. (Obviously, I'm aware pork isn't in EVERYTHING Italian.)

[Downwinder]

17. I'm still wondering how you order tacos in an english only state. n/t

[surrealAmerican]

33. You mean "toasted corn flatbread", right?

[Igel]

49. You ask for a "taco".

Languages can borrow words, you know.

For example, "order" or "state". Even "language". Been going on since those speaking the first language decided that they were really speaking two different languages.

Take "tamale" for example. No such word in Spanish. It's "tamal." With an unaspirated t and a fairly central l, final stress. It's what I usually call 1. When it's more than one, it's "tamales", and I insist on the last 'e' being pronounced as in Spanish. It's driving my young child nuts: He calls them "tamals" or calls cone a "tamalay" or "tamala". He's following English grammatical and phonotactic rules. I'm following Spanish grammatical and phonotactic rules.

With "taco", just aspirate the 't' a lot and the 'k' sound a little, and be sure to diphthongize the 'o'. Voila. The word's nativized. If you make it plural, be sure to pronounced the final 's' mostly voiced, like a 'z'. Then there's no way it's Spanish and you've brought your language problem to heel.

[italian_progressive]

19. I eat kebab and I like it

Hi from Italy!

This is ridiculous of course.

It was in effect just a ban for new restaurants in the very small historic central district of Lucca, nothing to be really scared of, but what is scary is that in Italy also it all has become a discussion between left and right on racism.

The right wing fanatics say "it's right, f*** the kebab, italian food rules! yea!"
The left wing people say "oh no, what a shame for the nation"

And another week lost in an endless useless discussion,
and this will all become just fire for the true racist violence of italians against immigrants,
fire for racist policemen against immigrants' poor houses,
and fire for the revenge of some (few) immigrants when they are angry and drunk..


*** I EAT KEBAB AND I LIKE IT, HOPE MY GOVERNMENT DON'T MIND IT ***

[xchrom]

22. welcome!!!

:applause: :applause: :applause:

[cosmicone]

25. Commentario meraviglioso. Benvenuto a DU. n/t

[italian_progressive]

34. Thanks

:blush: At least Obama won :toast:, he was very polite on arab TV.
Good move, I am sure that most arabs have appreciated it.

The first of problems is - incredibly - the lack of respect.
All of the (non-existant) clash of cultures is built on it.

In our recent rally in Italy for Gaza - Palestine in Rome (almost 100.000 - but no media coverage maybe because we had decided not to burn flags this time :sarcasm: ), there were us the pacifists, the 'commies', the italian hebrews against occupation (a few but really courageous), and a real lot of immigrants (one half, wow!), a lot of arab families, mothers and children showed photographs of the bombings, and cried AND prayed for several minutes, while we christians and non-believers were silent, and the music was turned off.

This IS the only Italy I can love and I can stand proud for, a place of brotherhood and good food to share.

:9 EVEN PIZZA IS AN ITALIAN DERIVATIVE FROM THE MEDITERRANEAN PITA :9


Sorry everybody for all the fascist side of Italy we are ashamed of. :hurts:

[Arugula Latte]

35. Italy has given the world countless gifts.

Food, art, architecture, music, philosophy, technological innovations, on and on ... Amazing. What a beautiful country. Yes, you have had some fascists, but we have the Bush familia.

:hi:

[DetlefK]

21. protect the old stuff, ban the new stuff? Forget antibiotica, let's go back to leeches!

[Crowman1979]

23. I could understand if they kicked out McDonald's, KFC and other fast-food havens.

But this is ridiculous!

[Odin2005]

26. The Northern League? Aren't those the racist assholes that hate southern Italians?

:puke:

[Robb]

27. Buy Italian. nt

[closeupready]

30. A friend invited me to tour Italy with him, and though I can't go, if I could, I would boycott Itali

Italian restaurants in those places where these restrictions have been established.

[nxylas]

36. Berlusconi is "centre-right"?

You can tell that The Times is owned by his old buddy Rupert Murdoch.

[ensho]

38. Berlusconi is neo con and insane

nt

[bdamomma]

40. Berlusconi needs to be banned from Italy!!!

[cobalt1999]

37. Human psychology being what it is means Italians will be craving Kebabs now.

Tell someone they can't have something, that something becomes even more desired.

[GinaMaria]

39. Lucca ... this is where my family came from

:blush:

gastronomic racism is a great term though. It hasn't made its way to Wikipedia yet:

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
You searched for gastronomic racism (all pages starting with "gastronomic racism" | all pages that link to "gastronomic racism")


Did you mean: taxonomic racism
No article title matches
No page with that title exists.

[Igel]

50. I'd call it "gastronomic protectionism."

Like trying to keep McDonald's out of Paris, or stopping culture creep in Mexico or Nigeria.

And other stupid attempts to "protect" indigenous cultures.

[flvegan]

42. If kebabs are outlawed, then only outlaws will have kebabs.

Slippery slope to anarchy.

Or something.

[no name no slogan]

43. Then call me an outlaw

I love kebabs. And falafel too, but probably not as much as Bill O'Reilly

[ensho]

46. falafel is great - the Near East brand carries it

Near East should restock more often in my regional stores

[Fleshdancer]

44. That's just as idiotic as "freedom fries"

Italy is better than this. I hope their political party of hate doesn't last as long as ours did.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

47. Sounds like California and foie gras.

:shrug:

[KurtNYC]

48. what a shame

good food needs no protection.

Hopefully Italy won't re-Balkanize with regions banning each others' specialties.