A favorite fast food dish in almost every country in the world is pizza. But not all pizzas are the same. Each country has its own unique pizza and has come up with new methods of making pizzas and new ingredients to suit their taste.
In Australia, barbecue pizza is very popular while in Pakistan and India, curry and tandoori pizzas are the fastest selling.
When it comes to dressings, many different ingredients have been tried, some with success and some with not so much success. Bacon and eggs as a topping is common in Australia. The Japanese serve bacon as a topping along with mayonnaise and potato and call it ‘Mayo Jaga’ while the French serve it with crème fraiche and onion and call it ‘flambée’. In Brazil, be prepared for bacon with anything!
Gourmet pizzas in Australia come with some truly exotic ingredients like dill, tiger prawns, salmon, emu, shrimp, pineapple, bocconcini, BBQ sauce, and even kangaroo and crocodile. Most prefer wood fired pizzas where the pizzas are baked in a wood fired ceramic oven.
Although seafood as a topping is not very popular, there is still enough demand for it. In Japan, you can find squid and eel toppings on your pizza. And in Russia, herring, tuna, sardines, mackerel and salmon are in high demand. In the United States, although pepperoni is the most common topping, there are also buyers of Cajun shrimp. crayfish, oysters and tuna.
Russia may be the only country that serves its pizzas with fried eggs as a topping! In India, fully vegetarian pizzas are as much in demand as non-vegetarian pizzas. You would find ‘panneer’, a type of cottage cheese, as a topping on most Indian pizzas. A pizza topped with just onions, olives, jalapenos, tomatoes, mushrooms and ‘paneer’ can be a perfectly satisfying pizza in India.
Ground bacon, beef, and lamb are also favorite ingredients in some parts of the world. Sausage is also a huge favorite in the United States, just slightly less popular than pepperoni.
Brazilians take their pizza-making skills very seriously, especially when it comes to the ingredients. Their pizzas are usually made with very little tomato sauce. Don’t be surprised if you find ice cream, strawberries and whipped cream, cooked apples, guava paste, bananas, and plantains on your pizza! You can even find mashed potatoes or potato sticks, chicken curry mixed with coconut milk, and grilled sausages, sharing headspace with regular tomatoes, oregano, ham, olives, and bacon.
But to experience the authentic taste of each country’s pizza, you will have to eat it in that country as nowhere else will you get the same taste.