Pizza Is the Most Delicious Food Ever

Everybody likes pizza. It’s one of the oldest rules in the book (since it was invented, anyway). Consider its perfection: a round, doughy piecrust featuring whatever toppings anyone may want. It’s quite possibly one of the best things about this specialized pie: the toppings suit whatever the diner prefers—a completely tailored meal anyone can enjoy. For Americans, the staple ingredients are cheese and pepperoni. Although many other toppings have entered the American diet over the last 100 years, the pepperoni pizza remains the most popular. Nevertheless, Americans enjoy other types of sausage, chicken, vegetables, and sometimes even seafood can be placed on the pie as a topping.

In many Europeans countries, sliced boiled eggs, raw fish, or even eggplant—or aubergine—can appear as a topping. Despite this, one thing holds true; every pizza is made with the same foundation of bread dough and generally a tomato, garlic, or white sauce. Be it deep dish or thin crust, a piping hot pie with the right ingredients can brighten anyone’s day. While often considered a comfort food, pizza is a large part of the diet of many around the world. While invented in Italy as a staple dish for the Neapolitan cuisine, this food can be found in Brazil, Israel, Malaysia, India, Pakistan, and even Japan.

In Japan, for example, this dish can sometimes be found with the popular moshi cake. The moshi cake is a gluten rice cake that is molded into a shape with a fruit or vegetable center seasoning. It may be one of the most original takes on the Italian cuisine, and remains extremely popular throughout Japan. In Brazil, on the other hand, the meal is made with thin crust and can often feature tropical fruits and veggies as toppings. Some of these include bananas, sugarplums, coconuts, and chocolate.

In places like Nepal, Pakistan, and India, the pizza is made with traditional meat and rice dishes as toppings. Some of these include spicy chicken, spinach, and other tandoori treats. However, few places in Pakistan use pork for any dish due to religious reasons, and it is rather difficult to find beef on a pie in India unless one finds themselves in a tourist or western-friendly area. In Sweden, it is easy to find doner kabob or sweetened, fermented red peppers as toppings.

Unless travelers find themselves in remote areas of the African continent, it is relatively easy to find either a Western-style pie or one made with traditional, local ingredients. Italian pies are protected under European Union law, and only pizzas made in a specific fashion are, according to these provisions, able to be labeled “Italian”. Much of the reasoning behind this law had to do with native Italians who had a stake in fighting a large influx of immigrants who opened pizzerias and began to label their pies as traditional Italian types. This, it was argued, confused tourists and could have had a chilling effect on traditional Italian restaurants.