I ordered a pizza with anchovies one time, just because I know it’s a thing and I was curious. Never again. It was disgusting. How much salt do they put on those things?
I’ve never had pineapple on a pizza but the thought makes me shudder. It just seems so… unnatural.
Green peppers would be disgusting, and I’m also not crazy about spinach.
Pine nuts? Red grapes? Corn? WTF? I don’t think it’s even possible to order things like that around here. Some of the pizzerias around here would probably order a mob hit if you tried.
Thank you for this poll ! Not so much for identifying what most people don’t like on their pizza, but rather to show that most people don’t like something.
When pizza is ordered for work, the logic is typically “just order an ‘everything’ because you’ll be sure it will contain something all people like”. The logic is reasonable. But as this poll shows, it is most likely to also contain something most people will NOT want (and thereby require some “picking”).
So I’ve always advocated to go for the “least common denominator” approach: minimal so as to not upset many.
In fairness, I’ve only seen one place with grapes on one of their standard pizzas–a pie with Italian sausage, Gorgonzola cheese, and red grapes. The sweetness and juiciness of the grapes balances the salty bite of the cheese. I’ve found they go well with other cheeses that I like better, though, so I use them when I make my own pies.
I’ve also had pizza with sliced pear and walnuts. It wasn’t bad, but not something I’d bother to seek out or make for myself. I don’t care for corn on pizza. Pine nuts might be good, but I think they’d get lost on a loaded pie.
Dietary restrictions may come into play, too. “Everything” means meat, meat and cheese in the same dish, and pork products. In a diverse group, that can be a problem for quite a few people. At minimum, it’s best to order a plain cheese or a cheese and veggies pizza as well as one with the works, unless you know for a fact that everyone is okay with it.
I love pizza and love all the toppings listed. I’m especially fond of anchovies (have eaten them straight out of the can), but I limit how many I eat due to gout.
I tried anchovies for the first time, too, out of curiousity…a few years ago.
I wanted to like it, I really did. I like most fish. … but damn if it was just wayyyyyy too damn salty. Every bite was like taking a bite of pure salt. It ruined the pizza. I didn’t mind the fish flavor, just the saltiness was too much to bear. Calm the salt down on it, somehow, and I wouldn’t mind it on a pizza.
The trick is to work your way around each anchovy, taking in a great amount of pizza with every small bite of fish. In this way you get that whiff of the docks you crave, but keep the lashings of sodium under control.
Onions and pineapple are my absolute nos. I’m not a fan of green or red peppers, nor black or green olives. Banana peppers are way too strong. I’ve never had anchovies and I’m in no hurry to try.
I don’t like any pork products on pizza - too greasy. Not crazy about peppers, olives, little dead fish, or fruit. My go-to is usually just mushroom or mushroom with ground beef. I’m OK with onions as long as they’re cooked before they go on the pizza.
When I was in Sicily, I had pizza with green peas on it - that was surprisingly tasty!
I am sick. unto. death. of pepperoni. I never get to order a pizza with the toppins I like, it’s always always always pepperoni. Sick of it! I’m getting weary of sausage, too, though if I’m really hungry I like it.
There are frozen clams casino (‘Dave’s Locker’?) I buy once in a while at the grocery store, and they are clams with a wonderful bacon/breadcrumb topping. I always thought what a wonderful casserole of some sort that could be made - but ideal for a pizza topping.
Huh. That’s odd logic to me. Like you note, it increases the chances of there being something someone doesn’t like or can’t eat on there. Since I’ve been a kid, the normal order to satisfy most everyone was a cheese pizza and then a meat pizza of some sort (or any combo the rest can agree on). (Or, if we’re just ordering one pizza, half plain cheese, half with toppings.) Ordering with everything on it would make the pizza undesirable to the most amount of people (veggies, folks with religious restrictions on eating pork or meat & cheese, people who are squicked out by mushrooms, people who hate peppers, etc. All these are common.) Ordering one with only cheese would make it at least edible to everyone (except vegans and perhaps some asshole who’d rather not eat than eat a pizza without meat on it.)
Most objectionable items can be easily removed with a fork. My wife wants mushrooms. I get a lot of practice removing them from my slices of the pizza pie.
Onions are the most objectionable. They are too small to pick off. They hide in the cheese. I won’t even waste my time eating pizza contaminated with onion. I can eat a slice just to be polite. But that’s it.
Anchovies leave behind their fishy taste. Removing them with a fork doesn’t help. Anchovy pizzas go straight into the garage. Imho
I’m pretty liberal on toppings; I’ll eat pretty much anything listed, although I would not order for myself green olives, chicken, banana peppers, pineapple or spinach. Anchovies are fine, but I’ve got to admit, who the hell looked at a pizza the first time and said, “you know what would really go great with that? Anchovies!”
My ‘go to’ pizza is pepperoni and/or sausage, onions and green pepper, so judging from many of the responses here, I get it all to myself.
Here in the Houston area, it seems to be the done thing to get a red pizza with ranch dressing. That is simply wrong and bad.
In France, it seems popular to put a sunny-side-up fried egg on one’s pizza. Not actually bad, but took a bit of getting used to.