If you thought pineapple-topped Hawaiian pizza was a culinary crime, wait until you hear about Sweden’s take, a pie topped with curry, pineapple, and banana.
I believe I would actually order this in Sweden, not because it sounds good, but because it’s the only food item in Scandinavia that contains neither herring nor lye.
Before I became a lawyer, I was a pizza man. I started working in a neighborhood pizzeria when I was in high school and worked for a Domino’s clone in upstate NY when I was in college. Lots of people ordered Hawaiian pizzas, but I never tried one. I didn’t mind making them, though. Anchovies, on the other hand, are absolutely disgusting. I hated putting anchovies on pizzas. Washing your hands after touching an anchovy is mandatory. Otherwise, the next customer you wait in gets anchovy taste for free. Fortunately, not many people ordered them. We probably got more orders for EBAs, everything but anchovies, than we did for Hawaiian pizzas, but we almost never got an order for everything, including anchovies. That’s really not surprising because the taste of anchovies is so strong there’s no point in having other toppings. At least that’s what I’ve been told because I have never eaten one of those slimy bastards. Eating an anchovy is not on my bucket list. I might be convinced to eat one for the right price, but that price would have to be a minimum of 6 figures (to the left of the decimal point).
Once i lived with two guys who each managed a Little Caesar’s. (Eventually, LC would piss them off. They picked a day, called everyone at both stores scheduled for a shift that day or the next, told them don’t come in. They both called corporate, got dumped to voicemail, left messages quitting, effective immediately. But anyway…)
Seems it was a pain to fire someone. You had to give a reason, do a buttload of paperwork, etc. So when they wanted someone out, they gave them a job which they made up called “splitting the anchovies”. You were supposed to filet each anchovy & remove its spine “to prevent the customer from choking”. Every single person given this job quit in under half an hour.
I’m one of the weirdos who loves Hawaiian pizza. Not all the time, but as a change up. One day when I’m old and about to die anyway I might work up the courage to eat one while walking down the street in New York or in Italy to see what happens.
I mean, I’ve eaten curry with pineapple in it and it didn’t seem weird. And pizza dough is just a different carb than rice. The banana is a tough explain, but I don’t think that it’s as crazy as it initially sounds.
Yeah, I was thinking the curry sounded like a decent idea.
The bananas – not so much.
Also, it can’t be that easy to get bananas in Sweden. It’s not exactly Ecuador up there, so it’s not like they just had an insane banana surplus and were just looking for creative ways to use them up.
I am sad to say that Hawaiian Pizza originated here in Canada. I apologize on behalf of our country. After having it a few times as a kid, I assure you that it will never get past my lips again. Anchovies, on the other hand are great – on pizza and for other dishes, such as Caesar Salad.
You guys could have done a poutine pizza. But no, you do pineapple. For shame! But then I have my own odd topping, which is canned tuna, broken solid, packed in olive oil, never water (dries out).