[Peace-discuss] I don't want to go to Milan

[C. G. Estabrook]

Uh, I mean to post this elsewhere... Apologies.

C. G. Estabrook wrote:
> 
> From The Times January 31, 2009 Italy bans kebabs and foreign food from
> cities
> 
> Richard Owen in Rome 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”.
> 
> RELATED LINKS Food Detective: Dried Spaghetti Tuscany's gourmet cookery
> school Luca Zaia, the Minister of Agriculture and a member of the Northern 
> League from the Veneto region, applauded the authorities in Lucca and Milan
> for cracking down on nonItalian food. “We stand for tradition and the
> safeguarding of our culture,” he said.
> 
> Mr Zaia said that those ethnic restaurants allowed to operate “whether they
> serve kebabs, sushi or Chinese food” should “stop importing container loads
> of meat and fish from who knows where” and use only Italian ingredients.
> 
> Asked if he had ever eaten a kebab, Mr Zaia said: “No – and I defy anyone to
> prove the contrary. I prefer the dishes of my native Veneto. I even refuse to
> eat pineapple.”
> 
> Mehmet Karatut, who owns one of four kebab shops in Lucca, said that he used
> Italian meat only.
> 
> Davide Boni, a councillor in Milan for the Northern League, which also 
> opposes the building of mosques in Italian cities, said that kebab shop 
> owners were prepared to work long hours, which was unfair competition.
> 
> “This is a new Lombard Crusade against the Saracens,” La Stampa, the daily
> newspaper, said. The centre-left opposition in Lucca said that the campaign
> was discrimination and amounted to “culinary ethnic cleansing”.
> 
> Vittorio Castellani, a celebrity chef, said: “There is no dish on Earth that
> does not come from mixing techniques, products and tastes from cultures that
> have met and mingled over time.”
> 
> He said that many dishes thought of as Italian were, in fact, imported. The
> San Marzano tomato, a staple ingredient of Italian pasta sauces, was a gift
> from Peru to the Kingdom of Naples in the 18th century. Even spaghetti, it is
> thought, was brought back from China by Marco Polo, and oranges and lemons
> came from the Arab world.
> 
> Mr Castellani said that the ban reflected growing intolerance and xenophobia
> in Italy. It was also a blow to immigrants who make a living by selling
> ethnic food, which is popular because of its low cost. There are 668 ethnic
> restaurants in Milan, a rise of nearly 30 per cent in one year.
> 
> The centre Right won national elections in April last year partly because of
> alarm about crime and immigration. This week there was a series of attacks on
> immigrants in bars and shops after the arrest of six Romanians accused of
> gang-raping an Italian girl in the Rome suburb of Guidonia.
> 
> Filippo Candelise, a Lucca councillor, said: “To accuse us of racism is 
> outrageous. All we are doing is protecting the culinary patrimony of the 
> town.”
> 
> Massimo Di Grazia, the city spokesman, said that the ban was intended to 
> improve the image of the city and to protect Tuscan products. “It targets
> McDonald’s as much as kebab restaurants,” he added.
> 
> There is confusion, however, over what is meant by ethnic. Mr Di Grazia said
> that French restaurants would be allowed. He was unsure, though, about
> Sicilian cuisine. It is influenced by Arab cooking. 
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