White Monarch

A Look at an American Fast Food Staple Pizza

Right up there with baseball and apple pie, pizza has become an American icon, no longer just reserved for college students on a budget – but a family favorite across the country. Whether it’s piled high with pepperoni and mozzarella or loaded with pineapples and ham, pizza is one of the most popular foods in the United States. Americans gobble up around 350 slices of pizza per second, which amounts to around one-hundred acres of pizza each day. In fact, the average person in the United States each eats an amazing twenty-three pounds of the cheesy stuff every year.

History. Although most folks credit the Italians with the creation of pizza, seasoned flat bread topped with olive oil and spices was served centuries before in Ancient Greece, Rome and Egypt. The familiar pizza that is served up at your local pizzeria or out of your own freezer is akin to the pies that were first baked up in Naples, Italy in the latter part of the 19^th century by baker Raffaele Esposito who concocted the dish for royal guests. The ingredients for Esposito’s original pizza pie were inspired by the red, white and green colors of the Italian flag and are represented through the colors of the tomatoes, mozzarella and basil. The honored guests, Italian monarch King Umberto and his wife Queen Margherita, were so impressed with the dish that they begun applaud it to others and a phenomenon was born. It did not take long for pizza to arrive in the U.S. as Italian immigrants begun to settle in Chicago and New York and established small cafes and restaurants that served the dish in the earth 1900s. Soldiers returning from WWII who had served in Italy and developed a taste for the beloved pie helped to spur on the popularity of pizza in the U.S. That popularity begun to grow throughout the 20^th century, and now 94% of all Americans eat pizza regularly.

Toppings. The toppings of the pizza are arguably its greatest selling point. In the United States, pepperoni is considered to be the most popular topping, accounting for around 1/3^rd of all pizza orders at restaurants that serve pizza; in fact, over ¼ of a million pounds of pepperoni is used on pizza in our country each year. Additional pizza toppings of choice include Italian sausage, Canadian bacon, mushrooms, green pepper, onion, ham, pineapple and of course, extra cheese. And while the majority of folks prefer meat on their pizzas, around 1/3^rd of all pizzas are ordered with vegetarian only toppings. For those with a taste for the more exotic, everything from oysters to Cajun shrimp has also been offered up for pizza toppings in gourmet pizzerias around the country. Around the world, pizza toppings can vary widely from squid and eel in Japan to green peas in Brazil. Popular toppings in Russia include sardines and onions while coconut is a favorite in Costa Rica .

Staying Power. Pizza is so wildly popular as a food that October is designated as national Pizza Month. Pizza is a thirty billion dollar a year industry with around 69,000 pizza restaurants operating in our country that sell around three billion pizzas annually. This represents nearly 1/5^th of all restaurants in the country and accounts for around ten percent of all food service sales.

Carol Mcguire, designer and staff writer for WallDecorandHomeAccents.com, recommends issaquah pizza delivery from issaquah pizza.

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