So you thought the hamburger was the world's most popular fast food? After all, McDonald's Golden Arches span the globe . But no, there is another truly universal fast food, the ultimate fast food. It's easy to make, easy to serve, much more varied than the hamburger, can be eaten with the hands and it's delivered to your front door or served in fancy restaurants. It's been one of America's favourite foods for over 50 years. It is, of course, the pizza. It's kind of silly to talk about the moment when pizza was "invented". It changed over the years, but one thing's for certain--it's been around for a very long time. The idea of using pieces of flat, round bread as plates came from the Greeks. They called them "plakuntos" and ate them with various simple toppings such as oil, garlic , onions and herbs. The Romans enjoyed eating something similar and called it "picea". By about 1000 AD in the city of Naples, "picea" had become "pizza" and people were experimenting with more toppings: cheese, ham, anchovies and finally the tomato, brought to Italy from Mexico and Peru in the sixteenth century. Naples became the pizza capital of the world. In 1889, King UmbertoIand Queen Margherita heard about pizza and asked to try it. They invited pizza maker, Raffele Esposito, to make it for them. He decided to make the pizza like the Italian flag, so he used red tomatoes, white mozzarella cheese and green basil leaves. The Queen loved it and the new pizza was named "Pizza Margherita" in her honour. Pizza went to America with the Italians at the end of the nineteenth century. The first pizzeria in the United States was opened in 1905 at 53 Spring Street, New York City, by Gennaro Lombardi. But the popularity of pizza really exploded when American soldiers returned from Italy after World WarII and raved about  "that great Italian dish". Americans are now the greatest producers and consumers of pizza in the world. What do the Italian flag and a Pizza Margherita have in common?
There is a picture of a Pizza Margherita. They have the same colours. Both of them represent Italy. They are both popular in Italy.