Opinion Post (To shelter its cuisine, Italian city bans foreign flavors)

In the city of Italy, Tuscany, foreign food shops were banned as the government felt that they were loosing the origin of Italian food, due to the large number of immigrants in the past decade and the variations of food, which they brought along with them. The newspaper article explores the reasoning behind the ban and the reaction, which occurred, from it.   

  Italian food is a huge part of almost every culture. The pizza is spread all across North America, and if a person in North American did not know what a pizza was it would be considered awkward, as majority of the country has eaten the famous dish from Italy. Even in Pakistan, Kashmir were I am from there is pizza! But Italy is having problems preserving such dishes is somewhat ironic. In the city of Tuscany the agriculture minister of Italy banned the opening of anymore-ethnic restaurants as the government felt that they were loosing their heritage, which comes through food. The curry, kebabs, and couscous are hindering Italian dishes such as grained based soup in Italy and tarts made with spinach. Even though the government is banning other ethnic food as there food is almost part of every culture on earth. 

Furthermore, some people feel embarrassed of the fact that the government banned ethnic food. As many of Italy’s staple foods and richness of food comes from other countries, for example tomatoes were presented by South Americans and pasta was actually brought too Italy by Marco Polo from China. Food from Sicily is greatly prejudiced by Arabic food like couscous, which is a staple of Sicilian dishes. Now should the government look at this dish as ethnic and be banned or be represented as a traditional dish, which is part of Italian heritage? This is hypocritical of the government as there foods have become a part of other cultures and yet they will not let other cultural foods be part of their heritage. 

In the end, Italian food has heavily contributed to the North American food culture and I think it is amusing that now Italy is having trouble preserving their own. Whether it is for political or purley cultural reasons their are many questions to be rasied as to how the Italian government intends to proceed with their plans as they must be cautious of any negative results in the future. 

Here is a little PUN enjoy!