10 weird pizza toppings in Asia, from banana and sweet potato to durian and spaghetti – with a shout-out to the pizza crust stuffed with cookie dough
- Pizza purists balk at pineapple, but is there something to be said for Asia’s out-there toppings? In Taiwan there’s a bubble tea pizza, in Australia kangaroo
- Thailand has a shrimp cocktail pizza with Thousand Island dressing – also used in Hong Kong – Malaysia has durian pizza, and South Korea … well, what to say?
Not so long ago, the big debate among pizza purists revolved around whether pineapple chunks were ever acceptable as a topping. A Japanese chain has apparently concluded that pineapple is not nearly divisive enough and has this month added to its repertoire a multicultural pizza that will delight some – but horrify others.
The World 9 Cheese Quattro, unveiled for the month of November by the Domino’s chain, incorporates no fewer than nine types of cheese in its four international quarters, including Camembert from Hokkaido, oak-smoked English Cheddar, mozzarella, Parmigiano and Bocconcini from Italy, and Egmont and Gouda from New Zealand.
Add to that slices of salmon, Italian pancetta, burger pieces and the flavours of a cottage pie. It’s a mouthful – and 3,000 yen (US$26.30) delivered to your door in Japan.
It was also arguably a brave move after the company released, for its July special, the Crispy Fish and Chips pizza – topped with chunks of fried fish, chips, slices of lemon, basil, tartare sauce and tomato sauce.
One pizza aficionado was so outraged at the concoction that he took to Twitter to declare that Domino’s “have invented a dish that insults both England and Italy”.
But maybe the sheer inventiveness and devil-may-care approach to pizza toppings that we see in Asia is something to be embraced. Judge for yourselves with this list of some of the most head-turning concoctions from across the region.