MS ensures this gen and next gen dominance

[Cjail]

^^^
Those Italians din't make mistake, is the true sense of the word.
They had to explain to Americans what a Pizza was and to do it choose to use an English word.
It was or the sake of communication.

Now that is no longer necessary because Pizza is a well known dish and it's easily identifiable but back then you would've struggled to understand what a Pizza was without being told that it's sort of pie.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

^^^
Those Italians din't make mistake, is the true sense of the word.
They had to explain to Americans what a Pizza was and to do it choose to use an English word.
It was or the sake of communication.

That doesn't hold. They didn't do that with any of their other foodstuffs. They didn't call ravioli "little pastry parcels" or tiramisu "pick me up". Indeed, calling pizza a pie would have only confused English speakers who would have envisioned a filled pastry crust.

Italian Restaurateur - "Would you like a cheese and tomato pie?"
American Gastronome - "Sounds good" (expecting a cheese and tomato filled pastry crust
Italian Restaurateur - "Enjoy your meal" (handing over piece of flat bread with cheese and tomato topping.

Does the American Gastronome respond with, "mmmm, just what I was expecting," or "WTF??"

A croissant is a croissant, and wasn't erroneously renamed to croissant bread. English is a very accommodating language, adopting any other new word as new ideas are introduced. So why should pizza be required to adopt a misnomer for communication purposes? There was no parallel for the pizza in existing cuisine, so adopting an English name rather than using the existing Italian was pointless. In computing terms, it'd be like writing a Photoshop plugin that runs on the CPU and calling it a pixel shader!

 

[manux]

Well, american pizzas are usually so thick and stuffed that they are better called pies There are some exceptions but they are far and few in between. In SF bay area I highly recommend la pizzeria in the town of cambell. They do have very authentic italian pizza with thin crust, proper wood burnt oven etc. In new york grimaldi's is my top choice. Ridiculously tasty pizza there.

 

[Cjail]

so adopting an English name rather than using the existing Italian was pointless.

I agree on this but it happened so someone thought otherwise.
Points of view!

 

[blakjedi]

You guys better not look up the etymology of "lasagna"... you'd never eat one again...Lol

Btw most good American is actually thin like a flat bread. Only Chicago pizza and calzones are thick...

 

[Silent_Buddha]

That doesn't hold. They didn't do that with any of their other foodstuffs. They didn't call ravioli "little pastry parcels" or tiramisu "pick me up". Indeed, calling pizza a pie would have only confused English speakers who would have envisioned a filled pastry crust.

Well, you can just as well ask why is French Bread used to describe the loaf of bread that in France is called a Baguette? Do the English call them Baguettes, BTW?

Why are frankfurter sausages called hot dogs?

Why is Capellini called Angel Hair Pasta? Oh wait, the full name of it is Capelli d'angelo, which translated is Angel Hair...then tack on Pasta. What do the English call it? I'm actually curious about these things.

Asking why some people call Pizza a Pie is like asking why people renamed Baguette as French Bread, or Capelli d'angelo renamed Angel Hair Pasta.

It just is. Sometimes words are translated into English and sometimes they aren't.

I guess Spaghetti wasn't translated since "thin string" pasta or "twine" pasta just doesn't sound very tasty.

Regards,
SB

 

[(((interference)))]

What, who calls baguettes french bread? :S

With Capelli d'angelo it's a pretty long name to memorise (since it's in a different language) so it makes sense to translate it to its literal English meaning - which is quite memorable. Note that most of the other shorter pasta names remain in the original Italian.

In any case it isn't like 'angel hair pasta' had an existing and contradictory meaning in English, unlike 'pie'

 

[Billy Idol]

Well said Shifty!

Yes, if the Italian immigrants really called it pie, then that was a mistake - as pizza is both what the native Italians call it and also clearly differentiates the food item from 'pies' - which a pizza is not really like.

Naming it a pie and then adding the qualifier 'pizza' (pizza pie) is inefficient and erroneous verbiage.

Well, not true imo. There is a meal called 'Flammkuchen' in german or 'tarte flambée' in french:

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarte_flambée

which is quite pizza like.

Both, the word 'kuchen' in german and 'tarte' in french can be translated as 'pie' in english.

So here you go, pie haters...

 

[Brad Grenz]

The stuff that gets sold in supermarkets around here as "French Bread" would not be recognized as a baguette by an actual French person.

 

[wco81]

In the UK, I've heard of Pizza Hut spoken of as a cheap brand. Pizza Express is the preferred eat-out pizza place, and Papa Johns and Dominoes and the like are preferred take out pizzas AFAIK. I'm not a big pizza eater - biggest rip-off take-away in the world, a bit of bread and cheese and charging as much as other more complex foods.

American pizza can have plenty of good toppings.

Italian pizza is more spare on toppings but can be good and good value, like 5-10 Euro, enough for a meal.

Pizza in London for 8-10 pounds is kind of steep but London is an expensive place.

 

[Blazkowicz]

Well, not true imo. There is a meal called 'Flammkuchen' in german or 'tarte flambée' in french:

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarte_flambée

which is quite pizza like.

Both, the word 'kuchen' in german and 'tarte' in french can be translated as 'pie' in english.

So here you go, pie haters...

In french, we call a tarte flambée a "flammenküche".

 

[manux]

You guys better not look up the etymology of "lasagna"... you'd never eat one again...Lol

Btw most good American is actually thin like a flat bread. Only Chicago pizza and calzones are thick...

That's what americans say but their level of thin is not that thin in most places... It's all a matter of perspective. When I'm sold an italian pizza I expect it to be thin not american version of thin(which is fairly thick usually compared to the expectation of thin)

 

[wco81]

American pizza has a bigger payload.

 

[Cjail]

Actually the true Pizza Napoletana (the real and original one) must have a certain thickness.
If I am not mistaken it's not more than 0.3cm in the middle and 1-2cm the edge and the maximum diameter should be 35cm.