Critical Focus | Beer and Pizza: A Slice of Ancient Life
THE MICROSCOPE
2016, Volume 64:4, pp. 173–185
DOI
https://doi.org/10.59082/WCZE9959
AUTHOR
Brian J. Ford
EXCERPT
There is a remarkable story hidden in a sandwich. Fifty years ago, generic white sliced bread was everywhere. It’s harder to find today; modern shops are piled high with every kind of traditional loaf, and sourdough has crept out from San Francisco into everybody’s neighborhood store. On the cold cuts counter, you find salami and chorizo jostling for the attention of the modern shopper with rollmop herrings and gravlax. Foods that were once restricted to a specific ethnic sector are now mainstream, as saké and pulque are stored in drinking cabinets alongside cognac and wine. Ancient foods, like cheese, have always gone well with beer, while beverages that were once foreign to European tastes (like coffee and chocolate) went on to become universally accepted alongside age-old concoctions like vinegar and Worcestershire sauce. Specialties ranging from kimchi to cassava are now available worldwide in our era of globalization. Yogurt was unfamiliar to many grandparents, but is now one of the most popular of all dairy products, and soy sauce, now used daily, was an exotic import within living memory. The range of foodstuffs and beverages we have around us is astonishing. There is a theme here, which you will recognize if you read The Microscope (if you don’t, you probably won’t).