Reading news while sipping your tea is one of the few pleasures that an early reveille can give you. When the tea is an Earl Grey it gives the whole do the same tinge as a breakfast at a gentleman's club. I for one am prone to prefer the PG Tips thick brew with a dollop of thick milk in worker's thermos style (a preference that I share with Gary R here in Luxembourg). My love for workman's tea stops only at the terrible prospect of drinking it out of a coke bottle - a service offered by an enterprising bar (probably called "Friend to All") or kiosk in the limits of Paola.
The news is nowadays easily accessible on the net and a quick surf through the links on the right column of J'Accuse brings the latest developments to your immediate notice. The thing is that while Sharon and the European Consitution's definite demise (according to Netherlands Foreing Minister Bot) seem to dominate the headlines, my morning attention is guided more by the stomach than anything else. It was therefore inevitable that the IHT article whose headline included the words "focaccia" and "Big Mac" would take pride of place among "Interesting News to read while sipping the brew".
Apparently, McD was forced to shut down because visitors and locals in the village of Altamura (Italy) preferred good old focaccias to Big Macs. Baker DiGesu' might have needed some divine intervention but eventually the duh!merican behemoth had to lift stall, arches and all, and leave the village in peace. Fortunately for lovers of duh!culture, Altamuran resilience to the Big Mac was not due to anti-americanism (as Liberation tried to picture it) but to a culturally enhanced palate and a taste for the good, the genuine and the food that resembles what mamma does best.
So with that lovely story full of romance, wheat and a duh!merican defeat at the hands of the warriors of pasta, pizza and focaccia the day has a new savour to me (albeit too full of gluten for my taste). There is some hope in this world.
Now to read the local (Luxembourg) news which, as Majistral (one J I noticed) seems so eager to point out, is never much more exciting beyond the average "man runs over two chickens" bit. All this eagerness because Dave (as Fausto calls him) seemed to revel in the fact that Malta might not really be so happy because so much of its wankellectual fold has called it quits and upped and away to pastures new. The question is .... in this, our very own saga of local vs. international... who's the Big Mac?
A very good day to you all.
1 commentaire:
I drove past that very McDonald a few years back. It looked quite busy at the time, I have to say. And given that wretched town's maddening one-way system that kept leading me repeatedly past the same spot, I am surprised it has contrived to fail.
However, this news does not surprise me, as my only experience of eating in a McDonalds in Italy was a hugely disappointing one. I had a discussion with some friends on this very subject a few days ago, when we concluded that the Italian employees of McDonalds are secretly conspiring to bring the company down by making the Quarter Pounders even soggier than usual. Considering Italian cuisine is one of the greatest in the world, it is a shame they can't even make a hamburger properly.
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