WHATS SAUCE FOR THE GOOSE….

Interesting things happen at the dinner table ever since I have started living in my new apartment with my American friends.

The other day we ordered a pizza from Papa Johns. I put a slice on my plate and was rooting around in the refrigerator for my bottle of ketchup. Ketchup is a life saver. I use it on everything from idlis to my Americanized version of chicken curry. Back to the story, I straightened and began the complicated process of getting the ketchup onto my plate after a series of violent shakes to the bottle, when I saw both A and C watching me curiously. I wondered what gaffe I had committed now. They waited till I sat down and then C asks me with an incredulous look on her face, “ You eat your pizza with ketchup?” Now this mystified me completely, because as far as I was concerned tomato sauce and pizza go together like curd rice and pickle.

Delving into the root of the matter, I discovered that in America, people eat their pizzas as is or with ranch dressing. According to the Wikepedia, Ranch dressing is an American salad dressing and vegetable dip made of buttermilk or sour cream, mayonnaise and minced green onion along with other seasonings.

Its popularity likely stems from the fact that it is easy way to add extra fat to a dish.(Yeah I really needed that!!!). Compared to mayonnaise, dieters may view it as more acceptable condiment though nutritionists do not(I bet they don’t!!) , and it has a generally more pleasing texture than mayonnaise.

I did ask my friend in Italy to resolve this issue once and for all and she more or less said the same thing. She said the toppings were really diverse anything from ham to jam, yes I said jam. Phew!!

I had spotted a box of rice (yeah, rice in a box) during my hunt for the ketchup and I asked C excitedly, “ Oh you guys eat rice too!!” “What do you eat rice with?” And she said “Oh plain, we sometimes mix it with salt and pepper or butter.”

To each his own I guess.