Latest update April 23rd, 2024 12:59 AM
Feb 22, 2016 Features / Columnists, Tony Deyal column
Trinidad is fun and funny including one of my favourite comic calypsonians, Lord Funny, who postulated that our naming a red woman “Green”, a black-head woman “Whitehead”, another “Grey” and other such inconsistencies in nomenclature are responsible for the country and the world being in a confused state today. What Funny did not mention is that in TNT someone with the surname “Bhola”, like my friend Orland from Siparia, might well be of mainly African descent and the patronymic Daniel or Charles might look as if they just stepped off the Fatel Razack.
But even so, when on June 2, 1972, Trinis found in what was formerly a sandwich shop in Valpark Plaza a place called Mario’s selling something called Pizza which was known mainly to people who had travelled to or lived in Canada or New York, they were surprised. The fat-faced, mustachioed chef on the advertisement and pizza box led them to expect a chubby Italian. It turned out that the key person in the ownership mix was a Trini named Richard Harford (appropriately known as “Slice”). For the record, there is a Mario in the pizza business.
His name is Mario Sabga-Aboud and he started with “Burger Boys”, then “Pizza Boys” and later, the “Rituals” coffee chain.
By that time Pizza had become almost as much a Trini staple as Kentucky Fried Chicken. At first many people pronounced it Piz-zah (as in pizazz) and liberally bathed it in the readily available ketchup and mustard. Purists might condemn this practice since Pizza already has a lot of tomato sauce but Trinis found this the best way to transition into the unique taste. Spaghetti was a different story. I once overheard a conversation in the food court of a mall. A young lady said to her companion, “I can’t deal with the spriggedy. It like squinge-up macaroni but it don’t taste good in fish broth. And I can’t take all the tomato.” What made Mario’s Pizza more than acceptable is that it contained cheddar cheese instead of the traditional mozzarella which is the most popular cheese in the U.S. Cheddar is what we grew up with – the “rat” cheese to which the British introduced us. It is oily instead of stretchy like mozzarella but it suits our taste and made Pizza popular.
Additionally, recent research suggests that the popularity of pizza is mainly due to the fact that cheese is addictive and we eat about 65 pounds of cheese per person per year.
Around Carnival time, Mario’s was springing surprise visits to panyards as part of its Carnival promotions and they were featured on Facebook. A few of my friends liked the ads and I wrote that I had not bought anything from Mario’s for years and would do so only if the company used Mozzarella in its pizzas instead of cheddar.
Early on Ash Wednesday I got this Facebook response, “Mario’s Pizza Anthony, we have introduced the option of either cheddar or mozzarella on any pizza, check us out next time.” I was surprised. In this column (Funny Business) and in my Saturday column which goes round the region (Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica and Trinidad), I have referred to products from TNT mostly in complimentary terms and never got any kind of feedback. In this country where a beer is one brewed in Trinidad and named after an indigenous inhabitant with cannibal tendencies, a warlike nature and constantly aggressive intent, or where a biscuit is considered a vital supply by those whose mental state can be clinically declared “crackers”, there is no response even when paid the highest compliments. I was pleased that Mario’s kept its side of the bargain and I will do the same. I will order a vegetarian pizza made from mozzarella and then pronounce judgment. “Richard, the cheese is good but there’s mushroom for improvement.”
LISTEN HOW JAGDEO WILL MAKE ALL GUYANESE RICH!!!
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