Bubbles in the Toilet Water

Abstract

According to Wikipedia, flat bread has been made since the Neolithic age. Archeological evidence of its existence dates back at least seven thousand years. It is thought that these flat breads morphed into “pizza” sometime at the end of the first millennium. Some historians state that the existence of pizza as a widely sold food dates back to the early sixteenth century in Naples. That bread was not made with tomatoes until after Europeans returned from the Americas with the fruit in the late sixteenth century. Tomatoes are in the nightshade family. Some think of “deadly nightshade” when they hear that term. In fact, some believe that Europeans did not look upon the tomato as edible until they were shown by Americans it is safe and delicious. By the late eighteenth century, the bread topped with tomato sauce and cheese had become popular in Italy and became a “tourist attraction.” With the mass migration of immigrants to the United States at the turn of the twentieth century, Italian immigrants brought their dish with them to the “new world.” Inexpensive to make, it became very popular and it did not take long for pizza to spread first to Italian American communities and then to most of the country. It is probable that the first commercial pizza restaurant opened in New York’s Little Italy. As the Italian population expanded and prospered, it ventured into the greener pastures of New Jersey. We know of the existence of pizza in Trenton, New Jersey, as early as 1910, when Joe’s Tomato Pies opened, followed closely by Papa’s Tomato Pies in 1912.