‘the council banned any new ethnic food outlets from opening within the ancient city walls’

‘The antiimmigrant Northern League party brought in the restrictions “to protect local specialities from the growing popularity of ethnic cuisines”.’

‘Luca Zaia, the Minister of Agriculture and a member of the Northern League from the Veneto region, applauded the authorities in Lucca and Milan for cracking down on nonItalian food. “We stand for tradition and the safeguarding of our culture,” he said.’

‘Davide Boni, a councillor in Milan for the Northern League, which also opposes the building of mosques in Italian cities, said that kebab shop owners were prepared to work long hours, which was unfair competition.’

Those are all discriminatory, racist remarks.

And btw, eatNrun, you nimrod: “The San Marzano tomato, a staple ingredient of Italian pasta sauces, was a gift from Peru to the Kingdom of Naples in the 18th century.” Your precious tomato is from South America. *rolls eyes*

From what I gleaned on the excerpt above, they aren’t banning ethnic foods but rather importing foods. This isn’t new – many places have strict regulations on import and export. As far as Lucca goes, the section’s a historic district. Many such places have strict regulations not only on food. Williamsburg, VA will not allow buildings to be higher than three? four? stories tall. That one guy mentioned may be a food racist but other aspects of this article aren’t all that shocking.

http://www.neatorama.com/2009/02/01/italy-bans-foreign-food-italians-m ust-eat-italian-food/#comment-1432476

We may never know the answer, especially since each person who supported the bans may have his/her own reasons. However, unless the bans are restricted to specific historical sites, they’re just plain authoritarian.

The oldest pasta in the world is over 4,000 years old and was found in China. So it’s definitely looking like they were the first to have pasta.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/article577909.ece

Actually Marco Polo brought back pasta from China didn’t he?

Anyway, it makes more sense that they’d be trying to get foreign restraunts to buy their products within Italy as other commentors mentioned as what was really happening. THAT I could understand. It’d help them regulate what was being used so nothing ify found its way on to someones plate.

BTW Northern league is a party of dumbass and racist.

Italy largely survives on tourism. Tourist come to italy to see the sites and the EAT Italian food. Italians protecting their local cuisine is not racist or xenophobia. They are protecting their livelihood. If people come to Italy looking for Italian Food/Culture and see more & more non-Italian eateries, the country will lose it’s luster/character and inevitably fewer people will come to visit. This happens and the local economy gets hammered , people lose jobs, and there is a strain on the already strained social state. This is a scenario that is repeated in many locations around the world as we speak and it just sounds like these folks are trying to keep it from happening in their city.

Like I said this is just another theory but I think it makes sense based on the state of the world’s economies today.

This is a good thing to do because the quality of what many of these restuarants bring in is BAD and even dangerous.

When I was living in France, it was on the news many times that asian resturants were using meat and fish that they bought cheap. Why was it cheap? Because it was unsafe! Thawed products that were re-frozen; meat that had been expired for months, even years was being cooked and sold.

The Italians are right to worry.

The Lucca story is that they banned ethnical foodstalls from the inner city, which is a medieval architecture beauty and thrives on its historical identity. Kebab, Chow Mein and Sushi can be found just outside of the small area of the ancient citadel.

Milano has no ban at all.

The minister is a member of a political party founded on xenophobia and which is widely criticized by most Italians. Said party comes up every single day with absurd proposals (“let’s change the constitution!”, “let’s put local armies in the streets!”, “stop paying taxes to the Evil Capital City”…) and it is obvious they went along for the ride and for a little publicity.

I mean, I can understand if they want to preserve the “Italian” identity of these cities for purposes of tourism, but it’s absolutely ridiculous, and no intelligent person should believe, that the only options are kebabs or linguine.

Anyway, I find it ironic, since all mediterranean cuisine comes from an ancient history of cultural exchange.