Cultural appropriation – food edition

Courtesy (?) of Gun Free Zone, I found food for my nightmares last night:

Haggis?  On a pizza?  Talk about cultural appropriation – but who’s appropriating what?

On the other hand, I suppose it fits.  After all, the Scottish influence in Italian food is well-known.  I mean . . . where do you think Mac-aroni got its start?

Peter

11 comments

  1. Cultural appropriation on steroids!though you can also get Tandoori chicken and Doner kebab pizza here
    C
    be real haggis, that's a prohibited item in the US since 1971 because it's roughly 15% lung which USDA does not like

    Real Haggis is adelight, not available everyday in English supermarkets but makes an appearance around Burns Night.
    Haggis, neaps and tatties is something to look forward to then.

    Here in the east of England another delight is Faggots and Peas (no snidey comments you rude colonials) A liver rich meatball basically. The joy of offal.

  2. I saw an interesting article about Indian food and cultural appropriation.

    Vindaloo, a type of curry? Came to India with the Portuguese (from Carne de Vinha d'Alhos, meat marinated in wine vinegar and garlic). Curry ingredients Chili peppers, tomatoes, and potatoes? New World foods introduced in the mid-1500s.

    Garlic? Came from middle Asia, but the Indians appear to have been cultivating it from about 4000BC. Ginger? Chinese but probably reached India between 500 BC and 0 BC.

    1. The Portuguese influence is all over the far east. Japanese tempura was taken from the fried foods the Portuguese ate at the quatro temporas quarterly religious feasts.
      And while I may be wrong on this, I note that the Portuguese employed Japanese peasant soldiers (ashigaru) as guards at their defended way ports in eastern Africa in the 1500s, and the east African (Swahili) word for soldier or guard is Askari.

  3. My Scottish great-grandfather was once asked by a reporterette for the local newspaper "Was there any thing he missed about the old country?" His reply, "Not one damned thing." I have to think haggis was included in that statement.

  4. 'Tis MacAronni ye plan tae mak'? Ae'll tank ye tae keep yer hand oof mah-zarella in the process!

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