Food: Typical Pizza Toppings in Japan

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Typical Pizza Toppings in Japan
Sunday, October 02, 2005

You definitely have to have a sense of adventure in order to try foreign foods. Some people really enjoy the experience and try as many different kinds of foods as they can. Others, however, can find it quite difficult to muster the courage to try something that looks and smells so different from from the kinds of food that they are used to eating. This is particularly true of Japanese foods, which often have very distinctive looks, colors, consistencies, and smells.

I am not very adventurous when it comes to food, so living in Japan was a bit of a challenge at times. Even foods that sounded "safe" could turn out to taste much different than expected. Take the pizza for example. I was in heaven when I discovered a small take-out and delivery pizza place by my apartment. I figured I would be ordering from them at least a couple times a week. So I stopped by after school one day to pick up a menu. When I got home and examined it, I was very surprised at what I found.

Instead of the typical pepperoni and sausage toppings that you would find on pizzas in the United States, these pizzas came with toppings that I never would have thought to put on a pizza in a million years.

The menu had pictures of all the pizza offerings, and the first thing that caught my attention was the fact that about 75% of the pizzas came with corn on them! I don't know about you, but that didn't exactly strike me as appetizing. Another thing that I was able to decipher from the descriptions was that a lot of them came with mayonnaise as a topping. For some of the pizzas, the mayonnaise was just drizzled over the top, looking somewhat like icing on a cake. For other pizzas, the mayonnaise was mixed in with the toppings.

Several of the pizzas on the menu featured tuna as a topping. Others teriyaki chicken chunks or squid pieces. There was even a pizza with toppings like pumpkin, mushrooms, mayonnaise, onions, corn, and Canadian bacon.

I thought this pizza place might have been a bit of an anomaly or something. I was still relatively new to the country, so I hadn't had a chance to try the pizza yet. I didn't know if they were all like that or not. I phoned a friend of mine and revealed my discovery. She didn't seem fazed at all. In fact, she asked me if they had any curry pizza! She said all those toppings were very normal for Japan.

I took one more look at the menu, determined to find a pizza that I could eat. I finally decided to try one that came with cheese, potato slices, onions, and mayonnaise. I had my friend order it for me that very night. To my utter astonishment, the pizza was actually very tasty! I know it doesn't sound like it would be, but it was. There are a few things I miss about living in Japan, and this pizza is one of them.

Anyway, if you ever have a chance to try different pizza toppings like these, go for it! You might discover a new treat for yourself.

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