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| Pippaloo |
(I almost forgot, but a post at Doll Diaries reminded me.)
Most accounts agree that pretzels have Christian backgrounds and were invented by monks, with references dating back to 610 A.D.
German and Swiss German immigrants (who became known as the Pennsylvania Dutch) introduced the pretzel to North America in the 19th century.
Soft pretzels became extremely popular in other regions of the United States in the 20th century, and cities like Philadelphia, Chicago, and New York became renowned for their soft pretzels.
They particularly became iconic with Philadelphia and was established as a cuisine of Philadelphia for snacking at school, work, or home, and considered by most to be a quick meal.
The average Philadelphian today consumes about 12 times as many pretzels as the national average - and the average American consumes about 1.5 pounds of pretzels per year!
In fact, Philadelphia opened a soft pretzel museum in 1993, and Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell declared April 26, 2003 National Pretzel Day to acknowledge the importance of the pretzel to the state's history and economy.
Yikes! As a proud Philadelphian, I better order more pretzels from Pippaloo!
How funny - I was just reading about this in my art history book! Now I'm hungry...
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