Are you located outside the US, or located some place that does all sorts of horrendous things to pizza like California? (I jest, I jest.) I don’t recall ever seeing broccoli as an ingredient at any pizza place I’ve been to. Maybe on some sort of veggie lovers pizza. Maybe. But, off the top of my head, I can’t think of it. From the standard American pub pizza places to the fancy pants Neapolitan & nouveau pizza brick oven places, it’s really not an ingredient that I see much, if any, of. Granted, it’s not an ingredient I look for, so I could just be glossing over it.
I live in Atlanta. One of the places that has broccoli on it is Rosa’s Pizza in downtown Atlanta which is owned and run by New Yorkers with some really thick accents.
I’m from New Jersey. My favorite local pizza place has broccoli (though usually it seems with a white slice, but you can get it on a red sauce pizza).
The Happy Joe’s pizza chain here in the Midwest has a signature pizza with Canadian bacon and sauerkraut. As I’m not a fan of sauerkraut, I’ve never tried it, but it’s been a staple on their menu for close to 50 years.
Crab Rangoon pizza has become increasingly popular around here (Iowa) in recent years. In this area, it seems to have started with a Des Moines restaurant called Fong’s Pizza (it took over a Chinese restaurant downtown in 2009 and just kept the name and decor). They not only have crab Rangoon pizza, but also Thai chicken and kung pao varieties, among many others. Anyway, crab Rangoon pizza is now available at plenty of pizza places around here. It’s actually pretty good.
I’ve had pizza at a little bar that had a pizza special during their last hour of business each night. The pizza special was half the price of their normal pizza, but toppings were put on in the kitchen according to what they wanted to get rid of; the customer had no say in the toppings.
Never had one I didn’t like, but I’ve seen people get their special and just push it away.
Fresh or canned peaches? Canned peaches, I think, could go either way, but I do lean to the not good side for the reasons you mentioned. Fresh peaches however (and as physically close to the source you can get the better) I can well imagine being a real delight. Paired with bits from a nice ham for instance. Couldn’t use a tomato sauce though, that’d be nasty.
Cauliflower, had a pizza once years ago that had cauliflower. Tasted…like sadness and tears blended with disappointment.
In my experience, the problem is the concept (“Fish on a pizza?”) rather than the actual food.
In my pizza-shop days you got a lot of people calling for a pizza with everything. “You know that includes anchovies?” “What are anchovies?” “Little fish, pretty good.” “Ugh, no.”
The worst pizza I’ve ever had was drowned in barbecue sauce.
It’s not all that odd, but I don’t see apples mentioned yet. A small chain in northern California has a great pizza that includes green apple slices along with pepperoni, sausage, bacon, and blue cheese.
Apples, blue cheese, and bacon are used in Alton Brown’s brussels sprouts recipe. I should try turning that into a pizza.
Jiggly Ray’s in Elizabethton, TN makes a great BBQ pizza.
My favourite ‘pizza’ is pissaladière, which is onions, olives and anchovies on a base. Not that I have anything against tomato or cheese toppings, but they aren’t indispensible.
About 1980 my parents didn’t think highly of pizza as anything other than a poor choice of a snack food. We were home from college, and they “fixed” a cheap frozen pizza by adding cheese to it. Slices of Velveeta cheese. It was edible, or it would have been if they actually cooked it beyond “limp”. They owned and ran a small town cafe at the time, but thankfully that didn’t make it on the menu.
Not weird, unless you are a pizza traditionalist, but likely unusual for a US perspective, but one of the magor chains in Australia, Dominos offer Indian Chicken Tikka topping. Have seen other outlets here which offer Tandoori toppings.
Tandoori seems like a pretty natural ‘exotic’ topping for pizza. Put some tandoori on naan with a saag base, and you have Indian ‘pizza’. It’s not as if any kind of pie you buy in Middle America looks like anything you’d find in Italy, anyway.
Stranger
My only encounters with anchovies came from the Domino’s in my old town, when one of the other pharmacists decided to order dinner for everyone, and this was included. I liked them, TBH although I can understand why so many people wouldn’t. However, after I moved here, I found out that the local Domino’s didn’t offer it, due to lack of demand.
While we’re on the topic of weird pizza toppings, what about weird pizza bottoms? I’ve definitely heard of cauliflower or eggplant crust, or even chickpeas, because it may be gluten-free or keto-friendly.
The comments on the gefilte fish pizza are great!
Maybe durian, hakarl or surstromming would be grosser? Here’s one of my favorite YouTubers, post10, on his second channel, opening a can of surstromming. TL : DW - He makes the big mistake of opening the can indoors, and then admires the marvel of carbonated fish. Enjoy!
Our local place has the B.O.S.S. (Bacon Onion Sausage (BBQ) Sauce) and it’s one of our favorites. It’s not drowned in the sauce though.
Florentine Egg Pizza is on many menus in northern Italy. Broccoli is also usually available. Worst I’ve had was tuna, not some raw placed on top for a tataki tuna finish, just tuna from a can. [not in Italy]
Japan - down near Nagasaki - one thing that was as standard as sauce and cheese - dozens [lots] of tiny squid - kind of a garnish. Put me off calamari for a few years.
Our friends/neighbors have an apple orchard. I once made a pizza with thinly sliced assorted apples, Blu cheese, drizzled caramel, and parsley. It was a semi-joke, but it went quickly.
Shards of glass.
Weirdest I ever had (besides pineapple) was tuna. In Germany.
Not bad, all things considered.
Part of it was not really being super into pizza (It’s good and I’m happy to eat it, just not something I spontaneously crave or seek), part feeling pizza is a group event thing (see previous), part not knowing the legendary status of Zaffiro’s at the time, part not eating out that much to begin with (and still today) but the lion’s share of the neglect was being a broke college student.
Possibly the worst one on the thread.