Our favorite pizza place (we don't eat Spanish food every day) — here in Los Boliches, Fuengirola, Málaga, Spain — is another great spot just a few minutes from home called Pizza Maestro.Pizza Maestro, although in Spain and serving excellent Italian food (and thin-crust, very healthy tasting pizza), is Finnish. Well, Finnish-owned.
Everyone speaks Spanish. One of the waiters hails from Morocco and his native tongue is Arabic. Some people find English easier. But the language one hears most often is Finnish.
They've been playing great music lately. Perfect atmosphere.
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"What?"
"They're singing Yiddish!" he exclaimed.
Here's what was playing (for the umpteenth time, by the way). Yiddish?
(The translation isn't the best, but you get the idea.)
No, not Yiddish! I had an Italian pen pal and when I was a teenager I visited her in San Benedetto del Tronto on the Adriatic coast in 1957 and 1958. That song was very popular then. I spoke Italian but could not understand it because it is in Neapolitan. I could understand the refrain as it sounds more like the French which would be “tu veux faire l’americain” than the Italian that is “vuoi essere un Americano.” I may have it in my old 45s from Italy. It was on the radio in Italy all the time.
ReplyDeleteVagabonde:
DeleteI love the song. Stick with us and you'll learn about Jerry's (San Geraldo's) very interesting perspective on ... everything! I spent my time in Italy on the opposite side of the country, home-basing in Carrara. But that was in the '70s.
LOVE this song as well! A great jive piece!
ReplyDeleteHey, I could eat pizza Hawaiana to this all day long!! lol
Yiddish, American, Italian.....SG is multi-cultural!!
Jim:
DeleteJerry actually went to a Klezmer concert in Málaga last year before meeting me in New York!
Pizza in the piazza sounds pretty great to me!
ReplyDeleteYou know this song sounded familiar to me. I did some digging, it turns out someone made a pop remix of this song that became a popular dance club song in the last few years! I never knew the original. It's better as it is. But here's the link anyway for comparison https://youtu.be/vShGg5rADJ4
Maddie:
DeleteThanks for the link. I'm listening to it right now. I love it, but still like the original better. The opening was brilliant; the dance beat loses me; although it REALLY sounds like Klezmer. Jerry will love it.
Pizza in Spain sounds radical.
ReplyDeleteI don't care for Klezmer music but I give it credit for successfully combining joyful and sad music together.
Spo:
DeleteI sometimes like Klezmer, but I can do without anything depressing (enough of that without any unnecessary assistance). Spain is closer to Italy, so I suppose pizza should be more natural here. Anyway, last night we went to a local (excellent) Asian Fusion restaurant!
Asian Fusion does not sound right either.
DeleteI used to have a favourite band (back in the UK) called Los Albertos; they were named after a pub'. They described their music as a blend of Ska and Klezmer; I never did work out what they meant, it all sounded like Ska to me.
ReplyDeleteCro Magnon:
DeleteI think it either all sounds like Ska or it all sounds like Klezmer.
hawaiian pizza is damn good anywhere!
ReplyDeleteanne marie:
DeleteJerry usually has barbecue pizza with chicken and mushrooms. I vary among Hawaiian, Napolitana, Four Cheese (plus pepperoni). And I've even had some pastas!
That pizza looks delicious! I will have to add pineapple to my Friday night home cooked this week.. ;)
ReplyDeleteSnoskred:
DeleteHome-cooked! I'm so impressed. The only home-cooked pizza I ever made was from a box out of the freezer.
I remember having pizza in Spain with some other friars, cannot recall where, exactly, almost forty years later. I remember two things: one pizza arrived with a fried (baked?) egg on top and the other had pulpos, octopus legs, radiating out from the center like spokes on a wheel. I do recall that both were good.
ReplyDeleteMichael:
DeleteThe fried egg is a very common topping, for hamburgers, too. I've also seen pulpo on pizza. No thanks!
SG sure has an ear for music and language. Great music.
ReplyDeleteWilma:
DeleteHe's actually very musical. I can understand the connection with Klezmer, but the Yiddish was a bit of a stretch for me.
I don't think I'll ever get used to pizza with pineapple. It just doesn't taste right, but I know many people who love it.
ReplyDeleteStephen:
DeleteI think we've had the pizza and pineapple conversation before. I DO love it. Pizza and octopus, however, is a non-starter for me.
Yiddish? Klezmer? Oy vey, boys!
ReplyDeleteNot sure how I missed this post...sometimes I just don't pay attention. But Debra just did a post today. Anyhow, Napolitano dialect is very different, ( they often use the verb fare (to make) for essere (to be) among many other things; I don't speak or understand it, though I recall the cadence and accent from elders back in my childhood. Not quite Yiddish. As for pizza...I guess it is everywhere and people of all ethnicities are making it; it has turned up with some weird local toppings (pineapple? smoked ham? hot dogs? green chili?) that would horrify Neapolitans. I am on a very unpopular (in New Mexico) one-person crusade against menu items that are "smothered in green chili"....but I digress.
ReplyDelete