Opinion Foodies or Foodists?

I was a parent supporter in my son’s dance group a few years back and as a treat, we had pizza for dinner. But the person in charge bought half with pineapple, not knowing the modern-day pop culture hatred for pineapple pizza.

All the kids made a wide berth until one brave girl, out of desperation or defiance, picked up a slice of pineapple pizza. Another girl saw this and immediately alerted everyone to this alleged food crime. Some of the other kids laughed.

As a responsible parent supporter, I needed to stop this immediately with my level headed adulting powers. So, without thought I responded to this finger pointer with ‘Ew, shut up ya food racist’. All the kids laughed and people began enjoying the pineapple pizza. I was a hero.

Why are we like this? Why do people get so aggressive if pine apple goes on pizza? If you think, I have answers, then you’ve prob ably never read my work before. This weird foodist behaviour permeates every aspect of dining out. I was at an Indian restaurant with friends, and when one of my friends saw that the chef was Indian, she commented that this place is ‘authentic’.

This is an odd thing I’ve noticed most of us do. Go to a restau rant, if the people working there match the ethnicity of the res taurant, then it’s certified au thentic. But for all we knew, this guy could have been born and raised in Lumsdon and this was his first cooking experience outside of 2-minute noodles and he was checking to make sure no one saw the ten thousand jars of Patak’s he was intending to heat up. I wonder if a Chinese chef who was born in India and spent three decades perfecting the fine from that kitchen, would this place be authentic? sauce was Wattie’s spaghetti with mixed herbs. On top of was bacon, onion, cheddar cheese and, of course, tinned pineapple. I left it in the breakroom. The young workers and anyone from overseas recoiled. Whereas any kiwi over the age of 35 took one look

Just last year, I am not afraid to admit, I did quite possibly the most offensive thing I have ever done. I made pizza and fed it to an Italian. But not just any pizza. An ‘authentic’ kiwi pizza.

Italian co-worker did eat it and admitted it tasted good, but will never admit that it’s pizza. Personally, I think if you want to put pineapple on pizza, tomato sauce on sushi, or drink gravy like a thick meaty beverage, then go hard. If it tastes good, do it.