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Andrew Sun

With the opening of some prominent new Italian eateries in Hong Kong, pizza has again returned to the fore.
Of course, it never went out of fashion. In polls, it is still regarded as one of the world’s most popular foods. It is easy to eat, easy to make, and easy to adapt and reinvent with endless topping possibilities.
However, traditionalists like to claim its original Neapolitan form as the best and most authentic pizza.
Recently, I made a pilgrimage to Naples, the historic capital of southern Italy’s Campania region. Like many devotees, I expected to be enlightened in the definitive ways and means of pizza theology – the correct toppings to order, the right way to eat it, and other tenets to follow from the keepers of the faith.
Over four days in the San Ferdinando neighbourhood, I devoured three pizzas and a calzone, and studiously observed Neapolitans and their eating habits. What I concluded might be heresy to some, but it seems that most Italians do not really care how anybody else eats pizza.
People ate it with knife and fork, others folded the pie, they had it takeaway, and many ordered eclectic toppings beyond the margherita. In busy districts, outlets sold it by the slice and workers enjoyed it as a quick snack. In short, there seemed to be no fundamental orthodoxy to the pizza experience.

It is true that many Italians will order a pizza and consume it whole. I witnessed many skinny Neapolitans at casual pizzerias and posh ristorantes devour an entire 12-inch pie like it was no big deal. The carb-conscious left behind a crusty circumference.
The pizzas in Naples are also, and obviously, quite unlike the American versions. First, pepperoni is not a thing. Also, while some mozzarella, provolone or stracciatella is common, nobody is pulling and stretching long strings of gooey cheese.
The thing I sensed most is that while Neapolitans are proud of their simple yet universally beloved pizza, they are not too precious about it. Pizza is a common, local food, not a religious sacrament. The pizzaioli I met were proud of their craft, but it did not matter to them how I ate it, or what I asked to be put on it.
It almost seems like Italian chefs outside Italy are more tyrannical about the cuisine than the ones who are comfortable at home. It is not unlike the staunch Chinese cuisine advocates in Canada and the US who maintain very purist approaches to what dim sum should be or how Chinese food needs to be preserved – and worst, who gets to play with the form and who gets called a cultural appropriator.
Personally, I do not think anyone halfway across the world should dictate how a cuisine should or should not evolve.
In Naples, I never saw any menu with pepperoni or pineapple. But if I asked for them, I suspect they would just politely decline, then roll their eyes and laugh behind my back – much like what Chinese waiters do when Westerners soak their fried rice in packet after packet of soy sauce.


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Food & Drink

In the Italian birthplace of pizza, people’s attitudes on how the popular dish should be eaten are quite simple: they just don’t really care


In the Italian birthplace of pizza, people’s attitudes on how the popular dish should be eaten are quite simple: they just don’t really care.


Italy

Expresses the views, ideas and conclusions of the author. (Eg. Enough of Crazy Rich Asians, think of crazy poor Hongkongers.)


Column

Mouthing Off

How do people eat pizza in Naples? Any way they like, it seems

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}In the Italian birthplace of pizza, people’s attitudes on how the popular dish should be eaten are quite simple: they just don’t really care

In the Italian birthplace of pizza, people’s attitudes on how the popular dish should be eaten are quite simple: they just don’t really care