Guest Post: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly-Unusual Pizza Toppings

Pizza has long been a canvas, lovingly embellished with such favorites as pepperoni, mushrooms, cheese. Perhaps pineapple is the craziest you’ve gotten. But there is really no limit to what you can put on a pizza, as people have proven with the following ideas.

The Good

• Seafood pizzas are some of the best pizzas out there, and really don’t get enough appreciation. Crab and lobster have all put in lovely performances on the top of a pizza, and the best pizza I ever had featured salmon.
• Pickles used to be eaten with everything, and that their popularity has fallen off this century is a sad reality. These sour succulents do a great job cutting through the cheese and making your mouth water just a little more.
• Macaroni and Cheese and Pizza are both Italian imports, and American classics. So why not put them together? Why not indeed. This is another bizarre topping that has found many fans—and you may be next.

The Bad

• Pizza being already artery-clogging enough, I don’t believe there’s any draw to put a corndog on top. What’s more, it’s hard to find a good corndog at the best of times. I can’t help but think a good corndog pizza would be even more difficult.
• Now, a breakfast pizza I can see. I just don’t think I fried egg will make it on there. It’s vaguely intriguing at first—could I order my pizza over easy?—but in the end, all I can think of is the usually unavoidable dry white and more liquid yolk, and no way to mix them on the pizza.
• If you can read this next one with a little shiver of disturbance, I will commend you: squid ink. That’s right; it’s the new craze in Asia as a pizza topping. I can’t see squid ink ever being appealing, even on its own, and while pizza can do some miraculous things, it just can’t redeem that.

The Ugly

• You know you’re living life on the edge when you are eating a pizza that includes 10 mini cheeseburgers around the edge. This phenomenon has appeared both in Japan and in the Middle East. If you can’t decide between a burger or a pizza, I guess this is the choice for you, but make sure all your affairs are in order before you start in on that one.
• More vomit-worthy than any other topping I’ve heard of: simply placing the contents for a McDonald’s Happy Meal on a pizza and baking it in. In fact, I don’t think I could look at that monstrosity without going green. That is, in the face, not environmentally friendly.

Exploring new pizza toppings is a growing trend. Finding that new, bizarre flavor combination may be just the thrill you’re looking for, either from the pizza place down the block, or in your own kitchen. Just… leave the squid ink alone, okay?


Jenny Layton is a freelance blogger and occasionally writes for pizzadelivery.org where you can find pizza delivery phoenix.

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