A good friend of mine, Jesse, messaged me the other night. “So for whatever reason I’ve been looking through the menus of international Domino’s pizza locations,” he wrote before sending me the menu for Domino’s stores in Iceland. Man, did he deliver.
Now, as I’m sure you’re aware, pizza toppings abroad are wildly different than those at major chains here. Corn is popular in a lot of countries, as is seafood—which, in the scheme of things, aren’t new to me. I’m sure you’ve seen these in some combination, either on the internet or in person. As a former pizzamaker, I always put whatever I felt like eating on pizzas, sometimes to great effect, like poutine, a disassembled Beef ‘n Cheddar from Arby’s, chopped-up bits of other pizzas, Taco Bell, you name it.
But when I perused the Domino’s Iceland menu, I was enraptured. Multiple pizzas feature Doritos-like chips. Some have dates on them. Dates! I would never have considered those. Jesse mentioned briefly afterwards that he’d post more of his his findings on Twitter, and today I discovered his thread, which you can find here. (Feel free to follow him, too.)
Some of the things he found were awesome, and reminded me not to pigeonhole what people find delicious on pizza. For example, Domino’s Nigeria has a spicy plantain pizza. That sounds absolutely wonderful. One of Domino’s pizzas in Ghana features a dish called beef chichinga, which is a popular style of kebab sold on the street. There’s also an asparagus pizza in Japan that sources its cheeses, including camembert, from the island of Hokkaido!
As a Korean-American, I can’t say I’m surprised at the inclusion of our beloved sweet potatoes on one pizza. But interestingly, Domino’s South Korea also offers a chicken pizza called “Carolina Hot” that I think would bang here in the states. And who knew that Domino’s Australia would have such a fancy menu? Peking duck? That’s awesome!
There’s a wild amount of information in the thread, so do yourself a favor and check it out. Now it’s got me wondering what American specialties might also fare well on a pizza. Screw it. Maybe I’ll just put entire fried chicken sandwiches on one. Everything goes back to fried chicken sandwiches these days anyway.