aeiger

Hi
Just wanted to add my 2 cents to this posting. I had the capriciosa pizza at the La Monte Carlo in Rome. Theres had a fried egg on it. We're unacustomed to it. It's good. Years ago I had it with a raw egg on it. Wasn't bad either.

Therese

And here I am trying mightily to get pizzerias (Italian style ones, that is) here in the U.S. to add an egg to mine. Or to my kids' actually, who love this sort of pizza. Some pizzas come with them as part of the formula (but this will vary a lot, so no point trying to figure it out, and in any case "formula" pizzas typically have the ingredients listed) and you can also add one if you'd like. They often come from the kitchen with the egg already on (still pretty soft); added at the table the heat of the pizza will partially cook it.

If you're bound and determined to avoid raw eggs you'll want to stay away from mayonnaise in a nice restaurant (as they'll have made it fresh) and chocolate mousse (should you happen to visit France anytime soon). Or you could just bring all your own food from home.

m_kingdom

Nice to finally see some people who aren't afraid to live a little by eating uncooked eggs! Mousse can only be made with raw eggs.

Cocktails often, as I've said before have raw egg products in, it won't kill you, don't worry.

StCirq

I've never had a raw egg broken over a pizza anywhere, but I'd eat it if I did. I love eggs in all shapes and forms, and particularly the ever-so-slightly poached ones I've had on pizzas in both Italy and France. I also love a poached egg on top of an endive and lardons salad - yum!

cmt

I wonder what it is about eggs that turns people into intolerant and unkind zealots. Eggs were the single food that I simply refused to eat. I had no problem as a child with brains and eels and bitter greens and blood pudding and things that many adults to this day are afraid to try, but just didn't like eggs. I was practically tortured and forced to swallow eggs raw, because of some fanatic notion that children MUST eat eggs in the morning. People have strong likes and dislikes about all sorts of controversial foods without feeling smugly superior to those who have an aversion to those foods AFTER trying them. Yet eggs seem to bring out the worst in people. They inspire Therese, for example, to make the incredibly arrogant, patronizing, belittling comment that people who won't eat raw eggs might simply take their own food from home. Must be some strange nasty chemical in the eggs...the hen's revenge perhaps.

mjnbrown

Thanks to everyone for their information and thoughts. I'm a person who does not like the thought of an egg - raw or cooked - on top of my pizza and I now have some good advice on how to avoid the situation. I'm sure I'll enjoy many great Italian pizzas while I'm there - even if they don't have an egg on top.

Thanks again.
Martha

Sue_xx_yy

There seems to be some disagreement as to the relative harm of raw eggs:

http://www.warrington.gov.uk/service...dvisory_05.htm

m_kingdom, I don't think eggs are 'treated'to reduce chances of salmonella poisoning. You might be getting confused with the trend to use pasteurized liquid egg products in the production of such foodstuffs as tiramisu, mayonaisse, etc.

This is not to say that salmonella poisoning is necessarily fatal or even severe in many people. But having had it I can assure you I don't want to repeat the experience.

StCirq

Well, I don't want salmonella, either, but I do think Americans are incredibly finicky about their eating habits, not wanting unpasteurized things or things that haven't been chemically treated, or thigs that are raw, and all the while being more obese and unhealthy than many other populations.

I love eggs, particularly those of my French neighbor, who gives them to me right after they are laid - it's incredible the difference in the taste between these eggs and ones you get in a carton at an American supermarket - no comparison at all!

There are lots of things in Europe that are prepared with raw eggs that unsuspecting Americans probably never ever realize, like mayonnaise and tiramisu and chocolate mousee - as well as unpasteurized cheeses - oh no!

I agree that there is a small risk for a very small proportion of the American tourist population in eating these things, but in all honesty, there's never been a scandal of any sort associated with this, and if Americans grew up eating things other than those flame-dried, pasteurized, chemically melted, and "processed" foods, I am convinced they would have absolutely no bad reactions to such foods in Europe.
Mind you, I've gotten dysentery in Morroco and Tunisia and Mexico, so I know about germs, but that wasn't from raw eggs or unpasteurized cheese - that was from GUCK.

cigalechanta

For Americans: I assume you know that a true Caesar's Salad has a raw egg.

MzPossum

I know I couldn't eat a raw egg on pizza but, like StCirq, I've had pizza with cooked egg in the middle. Had a spinach, garlic, and white cheese pizza that had an egg broken over it in the middle before it was baked, so that the egg was fully cooked. Delicious!

cmt

Apparently there's more consistency among the various versions of pizza capricciosa than I thought. Some may include an egg, but that doesn't seem common. There are several common elements in the following recipes, but eggs are NOT among them. So, egg haters, there's no need to avoid a pizza just because it is called capricciosa, though you might want to read the list of ingredients or ask to be extra sure, if, like me, you'd be repulsed by a raw or poached egg on your pizza. I hope these links will not be ruined by those little emoticons where letters and numbers should be:

http://www.theitaliantaste.com/itali...ricciosa.shtml

http://www.i2000net.it/cucina/pizzeria/p4.htm

http://www.incucina.tv/default.asp?c...cetta%2EASP%3F

http://www.cucinaevini.it/ricette_de....asp?p_id=1130

http://www.cucinareconamore.it/ricet...apricciosa.htm


The self-righteousness of the raw egg supporters still amazes me. (Could it really be a side effect of eating eggs?)

marktynernyc

cmt -
I think we "righteous raw egg eaters" really are talking broadly about natural foods that are handled/raised/produced properly are fairly safe to eat, except if your allergic.

Remember the Chi-Chi's green onion incident just a few months ago? And the bad strawberries and the Jack-in-the-Box incident. All three outbreaks were due to bad handeling or processing.

I agree that a lot of Americans are germ obsessed yet eat all sorts of processed, un-natural, chemical, hormone and antibiotic laden foods. That has to have more of an negative effect on the human body than the bacteria in a piece of raw milk cheese.

cmt

Mark, you said: "I think we "righteous raw egg eaters" really are talking broadly about natural foods that are handled/raised/produced properly are fairly safe to eat, except if your allergic."

I agree completely. I eat raw milk cheeses, and I think most people with uncompromised immune systems, who are not pregnant, should not fear eating well-prepared raw milk cheese. I also feel a lot more comfortable eating unwashed fruit from an unsprayed tree in a relatively unpolluted area, than the heavily treated supermarket fruits, even after they are washed. Unpasteurized apple cider was fine, when produced from clean apples under proper conditions, but because some people got sick from cider pressed from apples that had lain on the ground and become contaminated, unpasteurized cider has been taken off the market (at leasx where I live). I also think that healthy children, growing up in excessively sterile conditions, may not develop as strong an immune system as children who are exposed to somewhat more natural conditions, and their exposure to all those germ-killing chemicals can hurt them a lot more than a little dirt.

I don't avoid raw eggs because I'm excessively delicate, unwilling to experience foreign cultures, finicky about trying new things, ignorant, etc. I simply don't want to eat more than a small amount of egg, cooked or raw, because they are hard for me to digest, and I find raw eggs repulsive because of their texture and because I was forced to eat them in a very unpleasant way in early childhood and the physical memory of the experience is still vivid. I'm not germ phobic.

I did not include you among the self-righteous just because you eat those awful raw eggs. But if you read through the thread you will see some pretty self-righteous comments. (It appears that the effects of egg consumption haven't yet warped your personality )

rex

Carol,

I hope I can be kind in telling you this. You re not seeing yourself as others are seeing you. Look at the language you have used. You have called this "egg on pizza" disgusting, repulsive and said that you were horrified. You referred to a sadistic chef. You speculated (in joking hyperbole, one hopes) to a strange nasty chemical in eggs. You labeled most of the readers of this forum as self-righteous - - when you were upset with one person, and you slung some rather vitriolic language at her: arrogant, intolerant, unkind and more. Might it be that her suggestion that you bring food from home was the same joking hyperbole as your "chemical" assertion?

This thread started out not even focused on whether the practice was tasty or healthy, but rather simply a question on language used to identify it.

You have tried to turn it into something quite different. And the language you have used has held a mirror up to you, not to eggs, their consumers, or pizza-lovers.

ira

We should just like to mention that we find the whole idea of eating eggs in any manner to be absolutely disgusting.

Chicken Little,
Henny Penny,
Turkey Lurky,
Mother Goose,
Ugly Duckling

rex

Nice comic relief to add some levity, ira.

I suppose that Mickey and Minnie aren't too crazy over the idea of chocolate "mousse" either.

Ditto Bullwinkle.

hopscotch

Spaghetti Carbonara (sp?) in Nice: the waiter made a small indentation on top and ceremoniously cracked an egg and poured it in. Fine eating.

Orange Julius is not Julius without the raw egg. At one time in my life that was my daily breakfast.

wesley

What this thread illustrates to me is the great number of people who know nothing about food. (So, what else is new?)

Even sadder, European artisanal food preparation is a dying tradition and feel free to blame the trial lawyers. I do.

Even though no one has died in France from any of these artisanal methods, the threat of the possibility (real or not) looms like a black cloud and modern politicians are running scared and signing on to non-artisanal "regulation" legislation.

These are tough times for us devoted purists and its only going to get tougher. The world keeps changing.

As for that slice of capricciosa, bring on the egg, please, as long as the egg isn't from an American Supermarket.

cmt

Apparently there are enough others who find the raw egg on pizza idea distasteful, or they wouldn't be so concerned about the "language issue" in order to avoid it!

You are having a language problem yourself, if you honestly think I referred to "most" posters on the thread as "self-righteous." A few (very few) of the comments WERE extremely self-righteous and patronizing and that's what I called them.

If, in fact, the thread was indeed simply about a "language question," (and I don't agree that the focus needed to remain so narrow, by the way), there was no need to turn the the discussion into insulting criticism of what some "sophisticated" posters apparently view as germ-phobic, unadventurous American diners. (I'm American, but neither germ-phobic nor unadventurous, not that that particularly matters in the overall scheme of the whole thread.) It's true that travelers will have richer, more stimulating experiences if they are are flexible about trying unfamilar things. But we still have the right to our individual tastes and preferences, which are often based on plenty of experience and not necessarily on ignorance.

The reference to the psychotropic arrogance-inducing chemicals in eggs is so obviously a joke that I can't imagine anyone taking it seriously. On the other had, the standard Fodors refrain suggesting that those unwilling to eat eggs, or use turkish toilets, or tolerate smoke in restaurants, or tolerate any of the other little uncomfortable differences that foreigners occasionally complain about, somehow don't measure up and might as well stay home or lug all their own stuff with them, comes across as just plain condescending and not really humorous at all.

Clifton

I agree with Carol. It has been an interesting thread in both the language question (been listening to CDs daily) and the deviation into general pizza topping knowledge (always a hot topic).

But there was certainly a certain tangent there where a few shifted onto the subject of not just how to avoid eggs on pizza, but what *sort* of person would avoid them.

I guarantee you that I could bring you something that you wouldn't like, somthing that others in the world may consider delicacies. Maybe even entire cultures of people. So what?