Just add... pineapple. [Photo: J. Kenji Lopez-Alt]
Like most kids, I was an opinionated eater. But my food preferences changed often. Call this an experimental phase, or call it being contrarian, but I'd cycle through very stubborn thoughts on what was, and what was not, worth eating.
For awhile, at "nice" restaurants (i.e. anything not a chain), my order would be Caesar salad and/or salmon, regardless of what else was on the menu. But there was also an I-like-shrimp phase, and a no-pork-or-beef phase that lasted years. (My older brother was a bit easier to predict, living off little else but pasta and turkey sandwiches for his first 18-odd years.)
One of my weirder phases? Pepperoni and pineapple pizza. And having tried it again recently, I have to say—it's not at all bad.
There's no way I would've come up with this combination on my own. Digging deep into memory, I'm guessing it was some Nickelodeon reference (I can kind of imagine Doug getting into pepperoni & pineapple, or one of the Petes making fun of the other for liking it)—but honestly, I have no idea. I just know that at some point it occurred to me to order the P&P combo, somehow convinced my mother to go along with it, and found that, wow, I actually liked it.
I mean, it's sweet and meaty and salty all at once, the flavor equal to bacon-wrapped dates, say, or quince paste with ham and manchego. (Okay, maybe I'm stretching a little here.) And I love the cooling fruit after the little bit of spice. I don't find huge Dole-style rings appealing, but small chunks that sort of dissolve and cook as the pizza fires? I have to admit, I kind of love it.
Given how many major chains offer pineapple as a topping, I have to believe other people are ordering pepperoni and pineapple. Any other P&P lovers out there? And why do you love it?
About the author: Carey Jones is the Senior Managing Editor of Serious Eats. Follow her on Twitter (@careyjones).