Saturday,
April 25, 2009
In Italy, the Non Kebab Wars
THE ANNOTICO REPORT
For decades the US -British Media,
uses every opportunity to "slant" a story to ridicule Italy, whereas I
don't see that prejudice in reverse.
Here an ongoing attempt to keep "fast
food" and non traditional foods out of "historical" areas of Italian Cities,
and to deal with ethnic food trucks, or push carts, who have sanitation
problems and are unfair competition to Bistros, is blown into an Anti Immigrant
Protest.
Would we in the US permit Taco Trucks/Push
Carts on the Gettysburg Battlefield, or Washington Mall? If so, we are
uncivilized "hicks".
In Italy, Sign of Defiance in a
Kebab and a Coke
New York Times
By Elisabetta Povoledo
April 24, 2009
MILAN - ....It is likely that thousands,
if not tens of thousands, of Lombardy residents are running afoul of a
regional law passed this week that regulates how fast-food restaurants
and takeout shops may sell the food they produce.
The law, which also applies to ice
cream parlors and pizza stands, bans establishments without restaurant
or bar licenses from selling anything other than what they themselves produce
on site, including drinks. Customers consuming outside the premises cannot
sit down or use plastic utensils...
But what brought dozens of people
to a so-called protest lunch outside a kebab shop on Thursday was concern
that the law was aimed at fast-food restaurants run by immigrants. The
measure was approved Tuesday by the center-right majority,... as a means
to preserve the traditional identity of Italian cities. ...
In Italy,... there are pro-kebab
and anti-kebab Facebook groups fiercely competing for members. Italian
fans of foreign foods can also join a group calling itself the Couscous
Clan, which promotes what it calls “gastronomic trans-contamination.” It
was started 15 years ago in Turin and became a Facebook group this year
after the Tuscan city of Lucca banned new ethnic and fast-food restaurants
from opening in its historic center.
Supporters of the law say that it
finally regulates a sector that had existed in a confused legislative status
for years. Rather than restrict what takeouts sell, they say, the law legalizes
what had been under-the-counter behavior, while protecting bars and restaurants
from unfair competition on the part of fast-food businesses. "Bars and
restaurants have to follow strict sanitary codes as well as numerous other
laws that takeaways didn’t, and that wasn’t fair," said Lino Stoppani,
president of the Italian Federation of Bars and Catering.
Violators of the new law, which also
mandates closing hours for the establishments, are supposed to be fined
about $195 to $1,300....
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/24/world/europe/24kebab.html?_r=1&emc=eta1
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