Friday, December 11, 2009

local pizzeria conducts OFFICIAL PIZZA business in china



David Smith of Smith's Pizza Palace Plus returns from food show in Shanghai .
Oxford, Miss. (December 4, 2009) - David Smith II, owner of Smith's Pizza Palace Plus (pizzapalaceplus.com) in Emporium, Pennsylvania, just returned from participating in the PMQ Pizza Pavilion at the FHC Food Show (fhcchina.com), home to China's first National Pizza Championship in Shanghai. PMQ China sponsored the Pizza Pavilion in order to bring recognition to pizza related products while building information bridges between China and the rest of the world. Joining Smith was Steve Green, publisher of PMQ Pizza Magazine, and Stephen Millar, senior consultant in the industry from Australia.
While at the FHC Food Show, Smith exhibited his dough-making and tossing skills, acted as lead judge for the Chinese culinary pizza and acrobatic contests, and delighted the crowds with his Cajun pizza.
Green says, "As a member of the United States Pizza Team, Dave was the ideal candidate to perform dough-making demonstrations and showcase his dough tossing skills."
Smith was able to tour Shanghai when he was not working the PMQ Pizza Pavilion. Once home, several employees and customers asked Smith about his trip. "That's a hard question to answer," says Smith, "I had a fantastic time even though talking to my family in Emporium was a little hard. There is a 13-hour time difference between Shanghai and Pennsylvania so they were often asleep when I was awake and vice-versa."
The city of Shanghai houses over 20 million people and is the largest city in China. Smith tells others how incredible traffic can be in a city that size. "For starters, the traffic in China would push a New York taxi driver's skills to the breaking point. You have so many pedestrians, bicyclists, and scooters competing for the right of way, horns sounding almost nonstop, and red lights frequently ignored. I had to admire how close an automobile could squeeze between two other autos. I searched for crumpled bumpers and fenders, but was surprised when I couldn't find any."
Of course, to someone in the restaurant industry the most important thing about visiting a new area is the food. It took a few days, but Smith finally learned how to use chopsticks. With those chopsticks, Smith ate some exotic food. "I had never had frog legs before, but once I got over the sight, I had to laugh when they actually did taste like chicken. We also got to eat the hoofs and spine of a goat. Sounds gross, but the food was really good. For the taste of home, we once ate breakfast at a McDonald's," recalled Smith.
Smith will not be bringing food quite that exotic to Smith's Pizza Palace Plus, but he is working on learning how to make the hand stretched noodles he enjoyed at a small restaurant in Shanghai and experimenting with forming the extra dough on top of calzones into shapes like dragons and crabs like the FHC featured chef, Francesco Sanna.
For interview requests, contact Dave Smith directly at (814) 486-1819 or mhtml:%7B318F3060-5205-4465-85E5-448061B5521C%7Dmid://00000065/!x-usc:mailto:pizzapalace@zitomedia.net. For more information about the U.S. Pizza Team, visit USPizzaTeam.com.

About PMQ Pizza Magazine
In publication for 12 years, PMQ Pizza Magazine reaches 40,000 owner/operators of America's 70,000 pizzerias. In the 36 billion dollar pizza industry, PMQ is the business monthly with the busiest website, hosting 5,000 Web visitors each day at www.pmq.com, and 10,000 newsletter subscribers each week. PMQ Pizza Magazine also has publications in China and Australia.

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