Beloved Pizza — NO MORE

brilliantviewpoint

Something STRANGE happened when I was in Italy.

I did not like the pizza!

I KNOW… How could that be?

I’ve ALWAYS enjoyed the Italian pizza, but this time. NOPE! In Florence, the pizza crust was terrible. Maybe it was meant to be a healthy version, don’t know, but it’s texture was like cardboard. I could barely eat it. This is a place I have frequented over the years, so it should have been delicious. My heart sank.

In Rome, the pizza crust was so thin it made the pizza soggy, I could barely eat it. Also, they had big chunks of mozzarella cheese on top. When I took a bite and tried to swallow, I thought I would choke. My daughter said the same thing happened to her when she was in Rome. She could not eat their mozzarella cheese. This has never happened before. Soooo… has the texture of mozzarella cheese changed?

I felt the SAME about the sandwiches. I used to LOVE and CRAVE salami, prosciutto, mortadella. It’s the BEST in Italy. We would have this with my grandmother at home at lunch. Put the bread on the table, cut slices and open all the different lunch meat packages, pick and choose what we wanted.

What sadness, really!

I had to think. Had the food changed or did COVID change my taste buds? I’ve never tested positive for COVID, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t have it over the past 2 1/2 years. Was it the weather, high 90s, little interest in food?

Oh… it GETS WORSE!

I didn’t care for gelato either. My gosh, this is a major Italian taste bud issue, right! Who doesn’t enjoy a gelato. I did eat it, but I had no sense of this is so fantastic, like I did BEFORE COVID.

GOOD NEWS — Drinking a Fanta with ice cubes was enjoyable and my tastes buds were working. PHEW, so it wasn’t a COVID issue.

Oh, and my FAVORITE cookies — Atene, my grandmother would have these. My taste buds were GOOD. Thank goodness!! I would have been sad to have those memories taken away. Here is what they look like. They are a heavier type of cookie, good with coffee or tea.

I do think that the taste of food is changing around the world. They, whomever they are, keep trying to genetically enhance meat, fruit, vegetable products and more. There are constantly fraud issues with prosciutto. If you Google, you can read about it.

So — I’m hoping it was the extreme heat that changed my taste buds. I was happy that my daughter said she experienced the same feelings on her trip to Italy, so it wasn’t just “me.”

Soon we will all start having our own organic gardens, so we can trust our produce!

34 thoughts on “Beloved Pizza — NO MORE”

  3. I am sorry to read that, it is a shame to be expecting a certain taste and have it not deliver.
    I haven’t had a Fanta in ages, I am afraid it will not taste like it did when I was younger.
    I wonder what the mortadella tastes like in Italy. I grew up eating it in Brazil. Now I want to make my specialty of fried mortadella with fried egg, cheese, and lettuce on a pan grilled French baguette.
    I want to look for those cookies now.
    Blessings!

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    1. I think it is a combination of things changing the taste buds. Cookies are delicious. They are a heavier cookie with a nice vanilla taste, I think it is. I think you would find them in an Italian grocer in your area, hard to find in Chicago. I ordered some from a place out East. MEMORIES of our grandparents, it’s nice, right. Your fried egg meal sounds good.

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  4. Well there’s no need for me to go to Italy after all! That is so sad, especially the gelato. My favorite Italian pizzeria, which I have frequented for the past 30 years, changed the tomato sauce and that was upsetting enough….it’s so acidy that it ruins the whole pizza, so one little thing like that can have major taste implications.

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  5. Such a disappointment. isn’t it. You reminded me of also disliking the Italian pizzas in Rome. It wasn’t until we travelled to Paris that I purchased a slice of pizza from a street vendor and it was delicious. Hard to figure out why!

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    1. I think each place has their own formula for their pizza, thin crust/thick crust, sauce and toppings. Each country adds their spin on the pizza they make, so there are many pizza styles to choose from. I think we’ve brought almost EVERYTHING we would have found ONLY in European countries to the U.S., so food specialities that we looked forward to in Europe, we can now find here and often cheaper, so their speciality has worn off. At least that’s how I feel. I remember when we could ONLY find Nutella in Europe. It was so special. Now, we sell huge jugs of it here in America. So, it’s not special anymore, no reason to go to Europe looking forward to having it along with other things. We have to embrace new changes in the world, right.

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  6. Very true, the world I grew up in has greatly changed and while I embrace that, it is sad the uniqueness of food from other countries has worn off. When my daughter was young, our nextdoor neighbour visited US and brought her back the gift of Hershey’s Kisses, something she had only read about in books. Now they are available throughout Australia. As the saying goes ‘We are all part of the global village’.

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    1. LOL – that’s a great example. I forgot how our relatives in Italy used to want us to bring them Hershey’s kisses and now they can buy them there. By the way, since I don’t see how to leave a comment on your Blog! REALLY ENJOYED your Mary Poppins post. Well, I enjoy all of your posts. This one was interesting, because I had never heard of a festival celebrating her before. That’s fun!

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  7. Thank you so much for reading my posts, I am glad you enjoy them! Yes, the Mary Poppins Festival is not well-known but it does attract people from the city who want an interesting weekend in the country. It was fun! The locals are so friendly and so proud of their author P L Travers.

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  8. As long as the PASTA is still the best there is, I suppose subpar Italian pizza and gelato can be forgiven. But it’s remarkable to hear an Italian (you) make this claim. Those same foods are actually better in America? It’s been a long time since I lived in Rom but I remember the pizza being very simple – just a vegetable or two and cheese, and no tomato sauce. It was good enough as a college student; maybe not so much now. And the gelato – it was the first time I’d ever had it so perhaps I didn’t realize how much better it could be. Gelato is typically excellent in America (or they shouldn’t call it gelato!)

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    1. Ah Dave, I wasn’t saying the Italian food was BETTER in America, it’s just that we have excellent quality Italian food in America now… so, if we can have something whenever we want, then traveling to THAT country where it used to be you could ONLY get good Italian food THERE is not true anymore. So, the novelty has worn off. For me, anyhow. Chicago has so much ethnicity, we can find any food specialty from any country here now.

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  9. Weird! I have never been a fan of the Pizza Romana, Napoletana is my favourite style though. But at a place you’ve frequented over the years? Hmmm, maybe you’ve found better pizza where you are since your last visited?

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    1. YES, I think when you go into the country away from the big cities, it’s good. The issue is that in America now, we can get “good Italian food,” so if we are having it off/on year round, the novelty of ONLY getting good Italian food in Italy is not true anymore. That’s what I find sad. Traveling is fun when you can ONLY find particular things if you travel to THAT part of the world, right. BUT that is why Italian food was brought to America. Chefs KNEW there was a longing for us to re-live our Italian experience even if we couldn’t travel there all the time. So, voila — excellent Italian foods in America now.

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  10. I was born in the UK, left to live in the US, was transferred to Canada for a few years, returned to the US and now live in rural France. This discussion on what we expect or hope for, and what we now find, is worth a book! When I lived in San Francisco I enjoyed fish and chips better than any that I had eaten in England – and the owner and cook for the shop was a Korean! The most flavorful and blissfully enjoyable escargot ever was in a restaurant in Montreal. In fact I came to a realisation which I conveyed to the Maitre d’ – escargot is just an excuse for the sauce! I have now lived in France for 7 years – and not once have I even seen escargot on the menu anywhere in rural France. It is time I went to Paris again – for lunch!

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    1. Wonderful, YES, it could be a FUN and interesting book. I visited your Blog, you have an interesting life story. Although, I think in selling your services on your personal website, I would delete the LONG back story of your life there. You’ve got a GREAT photo, looks like you are in a raincoat maybe and a WONDERFUL quick bio — PERFECT! The long story is a bit sad and also TOO LONG to read if someone wants to hire you for business. MY OPINION. I hope you don’t mind me mentioning this. The design of your website looks great. SO GLAD YOU STOPPED BY THE OTHER DAY TO VISIT MY BLOG… THAT OPENED THE DOOR FOR ME TO VISIT YOURS! It’s fun to get to know new people.

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      2. Well, I’m sure friends are worried about hurting your feelings. JUST THINK — if you go to someone’s site for a coaching session or whatever… how much back story DO YOU want to know? You want to know some, but the FOCUS needs to be on your work accomplishments. That is what they really want to know. If they hire you, can you do the work. My humble opinion.

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      3. I know what I *should* do, and what i would tell other people to do, is to have comparative modules shown to focus groups. I did work in the market research industry both in the UK and the US. That was my first “2nd job” in my 20s! Unfortunately that just is not feasible where I live now.

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      4. One last thing. I was on your business site. You ask for advice there, but I couldn’t leave a message, you need to fix the comment link. I have to be honest… If you are trying to tell companies that you are EXPERIENCED and they should hire you, but you are asking THEM and OTHERS for advice on how to improve your website and what to write on your website — well, you’ve missed what a professional business site is about. You should have ONE SITE for blogging, and then your work website should be STRICTLY for work blogging. THINK LinkedIn, sharing / writing Blogs about business stuff you have read, so that someone wants to hire you for your business knowledge and experience.

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    1. Thanks for stopping by. I went to visit your site. You have great articles on packaging, logo design, etc. Your site is really OPEN to ALL industries. I wonder why your Blog name is specific to Pizza Box Business, when really, anyone in any business would find your articles valuable to read. It’s not specific to the pizza business. Well, it would be FUN to see you have a post on pizza boxes/designs from different restaurants. What they look like. By the way, enjoyed reading the evolution of the pizza box business.

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  12. Pingback: Local Fare for the Win – Life In A Word

  13. I do think that the taste of food is changing around the world. Yes, things do change with so much of new things are discovered. I find myself sometimes find what I have been eating even chocolates have changed. I have begun to prefer white chocolates. Food has become Healthier and nourishing and there is so much of environment friendly too 🙂

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