The part that strikes me as the weirdest is the fact that they’re banning ethnic food places from importing ingredients. I’m pretty sure that these places buy most of their ingredients from Italy, just like every other restaurant. I wonder if these rules are meant to target ingredients coming from “oriental” (in the Said-est sense of the term) countries, or if things like tomatoes coming from California will be banned, too?

If Italy were to, say, subsidise the establishment of new Italian restaurants, this could be interpreted as some weird nationalist thing, but as it is this just makes me sick. Maybe I’ll just go make myself a donair meat panini.