Sunday, August 31, 2014

Vegetable Meat

pepperoni pizza in italy does not mean what you think it means

ProTip: order the "diavola."

16 comments:

  1. The same thing happened to me last week, but in Berlin! In a place almost in front of a Hermanstrasse S banh exit, but there they sell dรถners, pizzas and whatever. BTW, I'm new commenting here :$

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    1. Hi Maria! I think in Berlin they probably take their cues from Italy. Be careful though - most of the pizzerias in Berlin are run by Turks! Not that that's bad, just don't expect "real" Italian pizza. If you want some awesome pizza in Berlin (stamp of approval from my Italian wife), check out Il Giradischi in Prenzlauer Berg.

      I live here in Berlin, by the way! Do you?

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    2. Oops, sorry for the late answer. I don't live here, just visiting my venezuelan friends, this time for 3 weeks. This is my third time in Berlin and cannot love it more.

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    3. I agree. Great city! And you picked the perfect time, it hasn't been raining or cloudy nearly at all. So beautiful!

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  2. Hahaha, watching the English track on DVDs it confused me for *years* why people would order a pepperoni pizza and then get what was clearly a salami pizza. Esp since (at least to the dictionaries I use) the word salami _does_ exist in English.
    Friend of mine, when he was the first time in the US tried to order a salami pizza and was stared at in incomprehension - luckily the person sitting at the next table ate what he wanted so he could point and be told "ah, a pepperoni pizza" - which confused him even more. He did get to eat the desired thing in the end but what's up with that? Why do you call salami pizza pepperoni pizza and do you call salami sausage (on it's own, without any pizza context) also pepperoni?

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    1. Weird huh? Dunno why that is. Must have been a mistranslation by Italian-Americans somewhere down the line. We do have the word salami, but as an American, when I think of "salami" I think of big, thin, round pieces of meat, as large as a cup. "Pepperoni" are like little miniature, thicker salami.

      You're right though, it makes no sense.

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    2. So, long and thin = salami, shorter and big diameter = pepperoni?

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    3. Well, when sliced, big diameter and thin = salami, thicker and smaller = pepperoni.

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    4. Wikipedia page also says that the grain in pepperoni is different from salami:
      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pepperoni

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    5. That makes sense. They certainly taste like totally different meats.

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    6. Pepperoni in American is like salami, only red and spicier. Nothing at all to do with thickness or diameter! You can get pepperoni in deli slices and salami in long, thin sticks.

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  3. I had that exact same "problem" when I was ordering a pizza for the first time ever, somewhere in Germany, when I was just starting to learn the language. Probably should've gotten the hint when the guy asked if I wanted it spicy or not.

    Thankfully the pizza had other bits of meat as well, and European "pepperoni" is nowhere close to being as spicy as Southeast Asian peppers. It was yummy.

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  4. And try to order a "latte" in an Italian bar ;-)

    there are quite a few Italian words that somehow got "translated" wrong in English...

    Also the plurals are confusing... Order a "panini" and you'll get at least two of them :-D

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  5. in europe pepperoni are considered peppers, you we're looking for a "salami" pizza.

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  6. This was my exact situation on my first trip to Europe when I was a teenager.

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  7. Oh my.. First, is not salami but Salame, singular, salami is plural. Like Vagabond said with the panini example PANINO sing. PANINI plur... Salami sausage? Wtf! Salame and sausage are two different things c'mon!! I'm Sicilian and trust me, if u say things like this in Italy u crazy �� For us salame and salsiccia (sausage) are two type of different pork meat. Is not the same! Please if u wanna eat a "Pepperoni Pizza" in Italy u just say " Diavola". For us the term PePPeroni is blasfemy! Pizza is Holy ��

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