Well, I am a child of the 1930's and forties, and I never new or even
heard of such things as "pizza", or even garlic. I was born in
Pasadena California, and raised on steak and mashed potatoes. we did
occasionally have a small head of lettece that was quartered and
sprinkled with sugar for desert. But that was as riskey as we got back
then.

Lately, our local pizza delivery has had Hawaiien [sic] with ham, and
pineapple. It's actuallly quite good.

Ron C.
----------------------------------------------------




On Wed, 01 Jun 2005 15:35:05 GMT, "TOliver" >
wrote:

>
>"Gretchen Beck" > wrote in message
]...
>>>> There are two versions that I recall....the first with ham, green pepper
>>>> and canned pineapple chunks atop tomator sauce, the second and likely
>>>> "authentic" Hawaian, Span cubes and pineapple chunks over tomato sauce.
>>>>
>>>> The mere thought is enough to generate the first tickle of incipient
>>>> projectile vomiting.
>>
>> Ok, the name is tacky, and the idea is kind of wierd, but if you think
>> about it -- ham, pineapple, tomato -- the flavors go together really well.
>> Personally, I prefer pepperoni to ham (or spam -- which I'll agree, yuck)
>> on this combo. Call it a hot flatbread sandwich if that makes it more
>> palatable, but don't diss it just because it's called "pizza".
>>
>
>To those of us who came of eating age in the 40s and early 50s, ham and
>pineapple were a combination beloved in middle class kitchens, yet
>unjustified for any other reason than as a garnish/glaze to cut what was
>once the salty mustiness of the "country" hams of past decades, then
>replaced by what we have today, those water-filled excuses for ham that
>share only the color of the "real thing".
>
>We were fed on the Trader Vic's Polynesian(Ha!)American version of sweet and
>sour pork, mostly pineapple and green Bell peppers in a viscous corn starch
>slurry, and then introduced to Hawaiian Pizza in which two ingredients which
>had a traditional culinary relationship were introduced to another, canned
>tomato sauce, for which neither bore any affinity. Just as with those Tuna
>Casseroles, "big" canned peas, useful only to make a quick version of pea
>soup with the right tarting up, and salads with marshmallows, Hawaiian Pizza
>was a manifestation of the USA's grandest era, a time in which life was so
>good that culture was unnecessary and took a drastic nosedive from its
>already modest culinary mediocrity. Would you put tomato sauce on pineapple
>upside down cake? On baked ham? I never realized until later that almost
>every dish was "sweetened", and that many natural flavors were completely
>obscured by vast quantities of salt and sugar. These days, we're offered
>"Hawaiian Macadamia Bread", about as Hawaiian (except for what seems to be a
>native Hawaiian psychological craving for sugar) as "Indian Fry Bread" has
>any real connection with Native American cuisine.
>
>Folks in the US and the UK did not eat fresh tuna, and I recall the first
>time I ever did, 1955 or so, my own catch from off Galveston, large chunks
>quickly seared on a cast iron griddle, served with butter and lemon, while
>bystanders laughed at the eating of "trash fish".
>
>.....and having spent considerable time in Italy, many months over a period
>in the early 60s and on occasions since, I'm convinced that the best pizza
>may come from three of NYC's boroughs (and that the real "secret" to pizza
>has to do with the oven, preferably floored in stone or firebrick with any
>temperature less than about 700F unlikely to produce the quick melding of
>flavors or the flash-superheating of the crust required to develop the blend
>of crisp exterior and a thin chewy interior.
>
>One of my favorite Italian dishes.... Little triglie (red mullet) lightly
>grilled and oiled, then grilled over an open fire of dried grapevine, served
>with lemon and oil on crusty local bread, preferably on the waterfront in
>Livorno.
>
>TMO
>