Deep thoughts...

I've been wondering about this for many years now and have yet to find an answer. Why are Italian pre-sliced loaves of bread treated with ethyl alcohol? The first time I bought a bag, I opened it and was blown away by the smell of rubbing alcohol. I thought the bread had gone bad and threw it out. I bought another bag, opened it and it reeked of alcohol again. Upon reading the label I discovered this...

...it actually contains ethyl alcohol (trattato con alcool etilico).

Oddly enough, American pre-sliced bread loaves do not:

Now before you start getting all bread-snobbish on me, let me defend why, on occasion, I buy this kind of bread: bread goes stale quickly and sometimes I like to have an egg & cheese sandwich for breakfast but don't want to have to go out and buy fresh bread before I've even had breakfast SO it's handy to have a bag of this stuff sitting around. Okay?

Back to the point- I don't understand why ethyl alcohol is used in Italy but not in USA, where they tend to do all sorts of strange shit to food. Any clues?

Love at first sight

I just discovered the BEST wallet in the world. And guess where it's made? Yep... in good ol' Italy.

Check out my new obsession here.

Greasy hands

It's official: Bertolli olive oil brand has been sold to a Spanish company (as was Carapelli in 2004). Seems like Italy's hands are so greasy, they can't keep hold of anything these days, not even prized possessions like olive oil. Wow, what's Italy going to sell off next, the Colosseo?

Hotdogs?

Whenever I see these "Wudy" hotdogs in grocery stores or on TV, I can't help but chuckle. Maybe it's the Beavis & Butt-head in me...