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At the bustling Pi pizza restaurant in St Louis, the staff has come up with a new mantra: "It's just pizza!"
Just pizza, and yet, customers are happy to wait more than two hours at peak time for a table - ever since news broke out that Barack Obama loved it so much during a campaign stop that the owners were invited to recreate it in the White House ovens.
"We tell them it'll be two to four hours, and they say, OK!" says owner Chris Sommers, who spent his own money on travel to prepare the presidential meal in April.
Pizza from St Louis, pancakes from Pittsburgh. A juicy hamburger or a chili half-smoke sausage in Washington, soul food in Chicago. The new American president eats something and others want to eat it, too. Has there ever been such attention to the food the president eats?
"Well, White House cookbooks have always been popular - but no, there's never been this flood of interest before," says Eddie Gehman Kohan, editor of the blog Obama Foodorama. She sees a fusion of two potent forces: An escalating interest in food and food policy, and enormous curiosity in anything Obama.
And all this interest may have even more to do with first lady Michelle Obama than Barack. Some polls have shown the first lady is even more popular than her husband, and for all the focus on her fashions and her biceps, she's made food a prime area of interest - especially with her new White House kitchen garden.
Indeed, foodies have no doubt that it was Michelle who chose Blue Hill, a pricey but understated New York restaurant, for the couple's much-discussed "Date Night" at the end of May.
"Everyone gave them space and was too cool to bother them," says Marion Nestle, a professor of nutrition and food studies at New York University who ate at a nearby table.
"When they got up, the whole place broke out into spontaneous applause," says Eva Fleischer, who was dining with her husband and friends. "Barack said, 'Hi guys,' and Michelle even touched my friend on her shoulder!"
"No comment," says Blue Hill chef Dan Barber, who won't say another word about the evening, though he's said to have personally cooked an off-the-menu feast for the Obamas.
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(Agencies)
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美國圣路易斯的Pi披薩餅店最近生意火爆，員工們想出一句新口號招徠顧客：“這才是披薩！”。
僅僅是普通的披薩嗎？當然不是。自從媒體爆料奧巴馬在選舉途中愛上了這款披薩餅，并在入主白宮后邀請店主前去烹制后，即便在用餐高峰期，顧客們也樂意等兩小多小時以饗佳肴。
店主克里斯?薩默斯說：“我們告訴顧客要等兩到四小時，他們卻說‘沒問題’！”他曾于四月份自費去為奧巴馬做披薩。
除了圣路易斯的披薩餅外，因奧巴馬而火爆的還有匹茲堡的薄烤餅、華盛頓的果汁漢堡和辣味烤腸、以及芝加哥的黑人傳統食品。新上任的美國總統愛吃什么，其他人就也想嘗嘗。之前人們從未如此關注總統的口味。
“奧巴馬口味”博客的編輯埃迪?格曼?科恩說：“白宮食譜一向很流行，但從沒有受到過這么大的關注。”她發現兩種強勁的力量融合到一起——對食物和食品政策的日益關注，以及對與奧巴馬有關的所有事物的巨大好奇心。
而人們的這種興趣體現在第一夫人米歇爾?奧巴馬身上則有過之而無不及。一些民調顯示，第一夫人比她丈夫還要受歡迎，盡管人們對她的時尚風格和身材關注最多，但她的主要興趣還是食物---特別是她嶄新的白宮菜園。
人們對五月底總統夫婦的“約會夜”大加評論。事實上，美食家們毫不懷疑是米歇爾選擇了藍山餐廳，紐約這家餐廳價格不菲，但風格并不張揚。
紐約大學的營養學及食品研究教授馬里恩?內斯特爾說：“人們沒有打擾他們，酷到連招呼都沒打”。當時他就在鄰桌用餐。
正跟丈夫和朋友在那里用餐的伊娃?弗萊舍說：“當他們用餐完畢起身時，整個餐廳的人自發鼓掌。巴拉克說，‘嗨，朋友們’，米歇爾甚至拍了拍我朋友的肩膀。”
關于約會夜，藍山餐廳大廚丹?巴伯只說了一句“無可奉告”，就再也不肯透露了。據稱，他在約會夜親自為奧巴馬夫婦烹制了一席菜單上沒有的盛宴。
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（英語點津 實習生許雅寧編輯）
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