Luca Zaia, the Minister of Agriculture and a member of the Northern League from the Veneto region, applauded the authorities in Lucca and Milan for cracking down on nonItalian food. “We stand for tradition and the safeguarding of our culture,” he said.
Asked if he had ever eaten a kebab, Mr Zaia said: “No – and I defy anyone to prove the contrary. I prefer the dishes of my native Veneto. I even refuse to eat pineapple.”The scary thing is that such wilful ignorance, rather than being regarded with pity or scorn, is lauded by many as a virtue.
Of course, the ban on foreign cuisine is not as cut-and-dry as it might seem; it's not all foreigners that are targeted, only those sinister dark-skinned ones from the east.
There is confusion, however, over what is meant by ethnic. Mr Di Grazia said that French restaurants would be allowed. He was unsure, though, about Sicilian cuisine. It is influenced by Arab cooking.
Tomatoes come from the America's don't they? NO MORE TOMATOS! (hummed to the tune of "No More Mosquitos"...
Then they'll have to ban pasta as well. Didn't Marco Polo bring it from China ? (Assuming he ever went there, of course. The Italians claim to have had it since Roman times, for which I think there is no scientifically accepted evidence, but I may well be wrong on that respect.)
Furthermore, happening to be unfortunate enough to be a Frenchman, and thus hailing from the second worst sick man of Europe, Italy is a bottomless source of Schadenfreude : at least there's somewhere in Europe where things are worse than at home. (Or at least seem to be worse. The contest between Sarkozy and Berlusconi is a close one if there ever was.)
P.S. Sorry for my poor English. ;-)