Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Kebab Crisis, Lucca, Milan

In an effort to preserve the "culture" of Italy, small town Lucca placed a ban last year on any new restaurants, cafes or bakeries opening that don't serve all Italian food. This has had a big impact on the hundreds of kebab vendors who roam the streets of Lucca and now Milan. They are struggling to find ingredients that satisfy the "all Italian" label. It has been difficult for officials though to determine what food is foreign, and what is authentically Italian. They seem to be letting French cuisine slide, however bans have been placed on the importation of all Chinese vegetables. Truthfully though, Italian food has been contributed to from Chinese and Peruvian cuisines alike as well as many others. What are the implications of this for the rest of the world? Will we eventually become so wrapped up in our own cultures we will outlaw all foreign competition?

3 comments:

  1. Hm...sounds like an interesting article!
    ~~Sapphire Emereld~~

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  2. That is really interesting. I like your picture. I think that there is some validity because traditional Italian cuisine is not as common now that huge international chains like McDonald's are coming in. It is a bit extreme though.

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  3. Yeah. I can see why they would want to preserve their culture, and I'm a big fan of Italian food, but I think having only Italian restaurants could get quite tiring, and fast.
    There are ways to preserve your own culture without rejecting lots of other peoples, too.

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