(WTNH, Apr. 16, 2002) _ What's not to love about pizza? I mean, how many other restaurants will you see people lined up in the streets to order, even in winter.
Here's a little pizza starter, or appetizer if you will. According to the National Association of Pizza Operators, pizza is a $30 billion a year business. Three billion pies are sold in the U.S. each year, which means we Americans eat 350 slices per second every day.
Pizza Hut , the largest pizza chain, uses 360 million pounds of cheese, 700 million pounds of flour and 700 million pounds of pepperoni.
We found an interesting look at the history of Pizza from brandi.it, a pizzeria in Napoli, Italy. Some say Naples is the birthplace of the modern pizza. Lots of flashy graphics on this site (you'll need Flash to view it), but there's some interesting nuggets in here too, including their thoughts about pizza and healthy eating.
Another site that made pizza even more interesting is the Pizza Explorer at www.efph.purdue.edu/pizza/. A researcher at Purdue University created an animated site that teaches a little about history and food nutrition. Just follow 'POP' around and you may learn something interesting. You'll need Flash here too.
Of course, what makes Pizza so great is that almost anything goes with it and on it. Go to Google or Yahoo and search for pizza recipes, and you'll find everything from clams to pineapple, to even a recipe with kim chee .
Ever wanted to start your own restaurant? Pizzatoday.com , a magazine and web site from the National Association of Pizza Operators, is a place entrepreneurs should check out. It has articles about starting or improving your business, a message board to bounce ideas off others, and directory of vendors to get your pizzeria going.
If you eat pizza every day, and dream about pizza at night, some might think you need therapy. Good thing there's pizzatherapy.com . This site, from Hawaii of all places, offers dough recipes, a pizza newsletter you can get in your e-mail, and other helpful tips for home cooks.
And they even tackle that famous debate raging between pizza lovers in New Haven -- which is better; Sally's or Fr
