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We can call it whatever we want. But we recognize that it's different than pizza served elsewhere. Heck, pizza served in NYC is nothing like pizza served in Chicago.
Yes. And Chicago's deep-dish was invented in Chicago. It's Italian-inspired, for sure, but it's an American dish.
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Pizza has become a general term, much like "noodles" ... noodles in Europe are different from noodles in Asia. Just as pizza in America is different than pizza in Italy.
Or "macaroni." To me, a non-Italian, macaroni is elbow pasta, but it has a broader definition to Italians. I think it is any kind of tube pasta but I don't really know. "Gravy" means something different to me, too.
If she is very young, what a cute and interesting question: If she is older, I am not quite sure I understand? Maybe some would say, Chinese food is just Italian food. Heck, I don't know but I would never think of them as being even similar. Some ingredients are similar, but the basic foods are very different. I have rarely seen a Chinese meal with tomato or cream sauce. I haven't seen a lot of garlic or basil used in Chinese food or ginger in Italian food and have never sat down in a Chinese restaurant and found a hard crust bread with dipping sauce on the table. Now when the Italian restaurants start bring fortune cookies with the check, maybe I will feel different.
You're right, you won't find cream in 99% of Chinese dishes, but there is tomato in quite a few Chinese dishes; just most people don't know this because the only "Chinese" food they know is general/orange chicken and broccoli beef. Garlic is also extremely common in Chinese food. Lastly, fortune cookies are American.
This is a very locally regional thing somewhere in the US. Gravy is gravy. Like turkey gravy. Sauce is sauce. Not sure where you're from, but every time I hear someone say this and think it's an Italian-American thing, I cringe.
You're right, you won't find cream in 99% of Chinese dishes, but there is tomato in quite a few Chinese dishes; just most people don't know this because the only "Chinese" food they know is general/orange chicken and broccoli beef. Garlic is also extremely common in Chinese food. Lastly, fortune cookies are American.
We have been to Hong Kong twice, eaten a lot of Chinese foods and I do not find either garlic or tomatoes sued much. Of course I was generalizing. There are exceptions and yes, even when I make Chines food at home from scratch I use garlic in a few dishes but not like I do in American and Italian foods.
Or "macaroni." To me, a non-Italian, macaroni is elbow pasta, but it has a broader definition to Italians. I think it is any kind of tube pasta but I don't really know. "Gravy" means something different to me, too.
In Italy I've never heard macaroni, but we do have the maccheroni (the spelling is a little different, but they still sound really similar). It is a really specific kind of tube-shaped pasta, straigt and short.
We have different names for maccheroni-like pasta with certain characteristics, for example if they have some lines on the surfice they are often called with different names such ad "rigatoni" or "tortiglioni". If they are curved they have another different name, and it can wven vary from region to region! So, in practice, we are always really specific when we give a name to a pasta kind.
What you eat in Sicily is very different from what you eat in Venice or Tuscany.
Italian food, like American food, is very regionalized.
Very true; I don't think most people realize this: like French, there is a huge difference between northern and southern France.
You know what though, even though this is an interesting discussion, in the end it doesn't really make a heck of a lot of difference. And before long I am going to fix myself an all American lunch: an avocado sandwich.
What you eat in Sicily is very different from what you eat in Venice or Tuscany.
Italian food, like American food, is very regionalized.
It's so much more than pasta and sauce.
Same can be said for Chinese. Same can be said for pretty much any country large enough to have "regions"
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And before long I am going to fix myself an all American lunch: an avocado sandwich.
