Hello my fellow steemians,

Finally the debut of my steemit series is here! So, let's do some introductions first...

Why "Wacky" Facts? 

Some of you probably wonder why did I pick this title for my series, right? Well, wacky is a good thing; at least in my mind. The plan is to enlighten (keep in mind that I enlighten myself first, after many hours of research), entertain, surprise and shock you at the same time with REAL stories that may sound surreal, or just happen to be lesser-known for some reason. The ultimate goal of this series is to make you be like this after reading my Wacky Facts:

Who's Agent K

Definitely not Tommy Lee Jones from Men in Black. Please don't judge me, but truth is that I have a name for my laptop and its name is "K." Inspired by Ryan Gosling's character in Blade Runner 2049. On the one hand, my laptop is my most expensive belonging (when it comes to materialistic things), and on the other, my laptop has been feeding me for the past five years. We spend a lot of time together. I would dare to say that we have developed the kind of relationship this lunatic boy had with his fancy red car named Christine. 

 Main Menu

Enough with the introductions though. Let's have the soup of the day. I am quite positive that some of you have probably met at least once in your lifetime, the "Everything Started in Greece" type of Greek fella. If not, you really don't know what you're missing in life. He's usually older, kind-hearted, ultra patriotic in a bizarrely healthy way, friendly and takes his "teachings" way too seriously, simply because nobody else does. He kinda looks like this guy right here:

I had a really joyful conversation with two of them a few days ago in Plaka, where they tried to convince a Swiss tourist that it was the Greeks who first made Swiss cheese. The Swiss tourist had some really valid arguments to throw back at them, but I honestly don't know how the debate ended, as I had to leave when Mr. Panos was telling Bertrand (the Swiss guy), how he grew up with Roger Federer's Greek grandfather in Ios island, before Roger's grandpa migrated to Switzerland. 

Interestingly, even those types of Greek fellas ignore that Greece has parental rights when it comes to Italy's most famous food: pizza. 

So...What's The Story? 

It's no secret that everybody (or almost everybody) loves eating pizza. Pretty much everybody thinks that it’s Italian, too. But, in reality, pizza is 3,000 years old, and wasn’t even created by Italians.  It’s almost certain that every culture has its own traditional bread and pie recipes. If we look back throughout history, we will definitely find foods that resemble the pizza we know and love today.  

Thus, various ancient Mediterranean civilizations, hosted a wide variety of samples that can be considered "ancestors" of modern pizza.  More specifically, the Ancient Greeks developed a unique tradition in the preparation of a type of unprecedented pie, considered by most contemporary historians to be the prototype pizza.  The Greeks called this large round pie plakous. It consisted of dough made of barley flour, water, and wine. After baking this pie in a wooden oven, the Ancient Greeks seasoned it with olive oil, topped it with goat cheese, and cut it into pieces just like we do with pizza. 

 Modern Pizza Anyone?

Throughout the years, plakous pie evolved to encompass more variations, including pies with vegetables, onions, garlic, chickpeas, and even honey for those with a sweet tooth. “Mass” became a massive hit as the people’s choice of junk food in Ancient Athens. In fact, it became a big hit among the Romans too; when they finally invaded Greece, they took it back home, where it became Rome’s and later Italy’s most famous international dish. 

In the 1800s, two thousand years after the Ancient Greeks first invented it, modern pizza would take its final form. According to a famous, but disputed urban legend, the first modern pizza was Pizza Margherita, and took its name from Queen Margherita in 1889. 

As maintained by local rumors, the Royal Palace of Capodimonte commissioned a Neapolitan pizza maker to create a pizza in honor of the queen, then visiting Naples. Of the three different pizzas he created  – inspired by a Greek-Byantine cookbook as many historians report – the queen favored the pizza boasting the colors of the Italian flag: red (tomato sauce), green (basil), and white (mozzarella).   

If you enjoyed what you just read, please like, resteemit and follow @tkappa. It will be much appreciated by the Dark Side!!!

References:

Don't tell the Italians, but Greek invented pizza 

Where did pizza originate?

Was pizza not invented in Naples after all?

Pizza Margherita: History and Recipe

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