WaPo’s Bonnie S. Benwick wrote about the apple pie contest at the State Department timed for the 4th of July celebration last week. Quick excerpt:
Apple pie contests are pretty gosh-darned all-American, which is one reason why the State Department decided to make it a feature at its Fourth of July celebration this evening. Post Food critic Tom Sietsema’s one of the three judges, and we hear that Libya is among the 15 countries who are competing for top honors. They’ve had about a month to work on their dishes, some of which are being made by embassy chefs/representatives and even ambassadors’ wives.
(For the record, “Libyan apple pie” gets zero Google hits.)
Other nations who accepted the invitation to compete: Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Cypress, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Lithuania, Macedonia, Slovenia, Turkey, Ukraine, Denmark and the United Kingdom.
Read in full here.
Follow-up post with the winners in Apple pie, diplomatically interpreted (with photos)!
First place: Belgium
Second place: United Kingdom
Third place: Hungary
Sorry, Cypress did not make the cut; and that’s a good thing, too.
Related articles
- Fourth of July pie: the delicious and quintessential American treat (guardian.co.uk)
- Diplomacy Travels on Its Stomach, Too (nytimes.com)
- A Shining Drone Upon a Hill (lewrockwell.com)
Why? Greeks make an excellent apple pie.
Besides it’s spelled Cyprus the last time I looked.
Aha! Well, thought it’s a good thing Cypress did not win because we’d be searching for that country on the map.
Subtle irony is a dying art. Bravo.
It is, unfortunately. Thanks for the bravo, El Snarky. Need a wooden mallet these days. Can’t believe how many emails I got saying Cyprus is a country, Cypress is a tree. Tee-hee! We know that, or this WaPo news would not have been worth blogging about.