Good morning, welcome to our series sharing Food Holidays: February 9th, 2022. Today is National Bagels and Lox Day which I pass on celebrating just as Charlie and do because none of us care for Salmon. How about you? But if Charlie and David knew it was also National Pizza Day, they would ask for Pizza for dinner. So don’t tell them because I don’t want Pizza. I want Homemade Hamburgers. How about you?
Facts about Bagels and Lox:
The word Bagel is often thought to have derived from the ‘buckle‘shape it has, but actually it is from a Yiddish word ‘beygl‘ meaning ring or hole.
Bagels are one of the few Breads that are boiled then baked. Creating the soft inside while retaining a crisp exterior.
Over a billion dollars a year are spent on Bagels in the US alone.
What is Lox? Lox is thinly sliced smoked Salmon.
Bagel & Lox are typically Bagels with Cream Cheese, Onions, and Smoked Salmon.
- The average pizza place uses roughly 55 Pizza boxes per day.
- We consume around 251,770,000 pounds of Pepperonis every year.
- 93 percent of Americans have eaten Pizza in the last month.
- Kids ages 3 to 11 prefer Pizza over all other food groups
On February 9th we celebrate National Pizza Day! It’s hard to imagine that before World War II, Pizza was little known outside of Italy or Italian immigrant communities. Pizza went from a niche cultural meal to the star of the show anywhere it turns up!
HISTORY OF NATIONAL PIZZA DAY
Though Flatbreads with toppings were consumed by ancient Egyptians, Romans, and Greeks, the modern birthplace of the Pizza is Southwestern Italy’s Campania region, home to Naples. Founded around 600 BC as a Greek settlement, Naples in the 1700s and early 1800s was a thriving Waterfront City. Technically an independent kingdom, it was notorious for its throngs of working poor, or lazzaroni. These Neapolitans required inexpensive food that could be consumed quickly. Pizza or Flatbreads with toppings that can be eaten for every meal. These early Pizzas featured tasty toppings such as Tomatoes, Cheese, Oil, Anchovies, and Garlic. More well-off Italian Authors judged Naples’ innovation, often calling their eating habits disgusting.
In 1861, Italy finally unified, and King Umberto I and Queen Margherita visited Naples in 1889. Legend says that the traveling pair became bored with their steady diet of French Cuisine and asked for an assortment of Pizzas from the City’s Pizzeria Brandi, founded in 1760. The variety the queen enjoyed the most was called Pizza Mozzarella, a Pie topped with the soft White Cheese, red Tomatoes, and green Basil resembling the Italian Flag. Since then, this particular choice of toppings has been dubbed the Margherita Pizza.
Even with the Queen’s love for Pizza this would remain little known in Italy beyond Naples’ borders until the 1940s. Across the Sea, immigrants to the United States from Naples were replicating their Flatbreads in New York and other American Cities. They were coming for factory jobs, but accidentally made a culinary statement. Quickly, the flavors and aromas of Pizza began to intrigue non-Neapolitans and non-Italians alike.
Thank you,
Glenda, Charlie and David Cates
