A lot of countries make claims for the invention of various foods, devices and miscellaneous discoveries. The French claim that they invented movies, the automobile,the airplane and many more. They did establish the way to hold the bloodiest revolution, invented a number of cheeses and perfected the look of indigestion whenever someone speaks English. The English invented cigarettes, the English breakfast, they also claim the sandwich from the Earl of, but later facts show that it was the American, Duke of Earl who can make that claim. The Chinese brag about a number of items from gunpowder to spaghetti. They did not invent Egg Foo Young, as it is well known now, that it was invented in the 1880s in a small Brooklyn deli. There are many other claims and counter claims and arguments about many dishes and great discoveries. This led me to go on a search of my own about a famous food item.
In the late 13th century, at the court of Kublai Khan, lord of the Mongol Empire there were a number of foreigners employed by the Mongols. Some were there by choice and others were captured on some of the various Mongol raids into Europe. Working in the kitchen of one rich merchant by name of Sammi Khan, was a Polish man called Pinkos Zabrowski. Sammi was a music buff and with music in mind he bought Pinkos from another merchant who said that the Pole could really sing a tune. Unfortunately for Sammi, that was not true and making the best of a bad bargain, dispatched Pinkos to his kitchen. Sammi commanded Pinkos to invent dishes that were foreign to Cathay and something that would make him the talk of the town. Pinkos of course whipped up a batch of perogis and then some kielbasa and czarnina, none of which appealed to local palates. He put together vegetarian dishes, fondues, soups and even some duck chow mein, Just like in his singing, he could not hit that high note. It is at this point of the story, that we can refer to Marco Polo’s Travels for what happened next. Marco and his entourage were hanging around the court of Kublai Khan at this exact time. If you refer to the narrative of all his adventures, turn to page 384, about half way down the page, continuing on through page 388, and a few sentences on the next page. It is here that we find the tale of who invented a world renowned delicacy.
Pinkos was now working with a new type of bread, a flat bread unlike the other doughy types then in use. He began to experiment with various types of toppings on this bread and then baking it in his large oven. He tried fish, rice, mutton, vegetables and other things. One day he had been working with tomatoes and came up with a tangy sauce, but had no idea where to use it. He decided to spread it on the flatbread and sprinkled some of his spare cheese on it. Marco and another Polo happened to be sniffing around for something to snack on, as they were always looking for free handouts. In fact, the locals were calling them ” ching wow hong chow Marco”, which loosely translates to – Marco and his moochers. Anyway, they were present when Pinkos pulled his bread out of the oven. Marco hinted that he would like to have a sample of this and grabbed it and took some large bites for himself. “Bellisimo!!!” shouted Marco, what call you this? Or something of that nature. Pinkos had to think quickly, so he said :”…it’s Pinkos tomato baked babka.” Marco thought this naming was a little overwrought, but humored him. “Senori Pinkos, this is the best chow that I have had in all of Cathay, lately. Pray share your recipe with me and I will make you a rich and famous man!” Pinkos was a little hesitant, but after reassurances from Marco, he finally drew pictures and inscribed measurements on a parchment and wrote his full name and address on it to be sure that he would get credit for this invention.
A week or two later, when he went to go visit Marco to see what progress was being made to making him a prominent chef and rich man, he found out that Marco had left town. It seemed that the great Khan was getting tired of these freeloaders hanging around the palace and gave them a bunch of stuff and sent them on a mission to go back to Italy and tell the world about what he saw in China and beyond. Pinkos was disconsolate, but he did receive some reward for his tomato baked babka, the merchant was delighted with the dish and gave Pinkos the hand of his favorite daughter in marriage. They soon opened a little restaurant in a trendy part of town and had a successful operation as word got out about the place and the crowds began to pour in.
Now Marco wended his way over a few years and eventually made it back to Italy. He unpacked his saddle bags with all his riches and started telling the tales of the Orient to all who would listen. One day he was doing some downsizing and he came across the old parchment with Pinkos recipe on it. He immediately hastened to his cousin Tony Rotini who ran a local beanery. Marco showed him the recipe and asked if he could make this for him. Tony experimented for a couple days and finally baked up a reasonable facsimile of the original. They cracked open a bottle of wine and went to work on the concoction. Tony was very impressed and soon had visions of liras in his head. “Marco, what do you call this stuff?” Marco thought for a moment, Pinkos was back in China, so forget about him, I could call it Chinese Pie, but what about, Polo Pie? “Tony, we call this—Marco Polo Pie, or Polo Pie for short.” So Marco took credit for this invention and helped his cousin market the pies and collect the money. Soon Marco got the itch to travel again and he left town, never to come back to Tony’s. Tony was happy with his new found menu item, but secretly envied Marco for all of his fame and decided to remove Marco from the equation. He was in the kitchen studying the recipe and happened to notice at the very bottom of the parchment, someone had cut off part of the bottom, but a faded name still remained. He could see that it said Pinkos Ignasz Zabrowski! So, he thought, Marco the crook stole this from some poor guy in China and took credit for it. Tony decided to change the name immediately. He pulled out a bottle of some good red wine and his pipe, and worked to find a better name than Polo Pie. Pinkos Ignasz Zabrowski, was shortened and shortened to Piza or Pizza Pie. He changed the signs on his door and remade his menus to reflect the change. With the new name, Tony’s business really took off and he soon had a small chain of restaurants that only sold the piza pie. He hired young boys to deliver the pies all over the city and the pizza pie became one of the main food groups of Italy and eventually the whole world. So you can see how the Chinese and the Italians might take credit for this pizza pie, but it looks like it might belong to the Polish after all. A heart and stomach warming story.
copyright 2017