December 2000
This is my contribution to a long-running alt.polyamory thread on the subject of pizzas - favourite pizza toppings, regional variations in pizza construction, and so forth. Apparently, Australian pizzas are rather different in a number of ways to American ones.
In Adelaide, you mostly tend to start off with a list of standard pizzas with listed toppings - there are some fairly common styles that most pizza places will do - for example, the meat-lover's pizza with lots of different sorts of sausage type things, or the "hawaiian" with ham & pineapple, and so forth. My favourite one used to be available at one of the Adelaide Uni eateries, and isn't any more (sob!) - it consisted largely of chunks of smoked salmon and fresh basil leaves on a thin layer of tomato paste - mmmm! From there, most places will allow you to add any other toppings you want, at a small extra cost per topping.
That being said, I definitely prefer my home-made pizzas to the commercial (mostly) cardboardesque offerings. My creations are rather more substantial. I currently have one in the oven for eating shortly, which consists of the following, on a base smothered with tomato paste, garlic and mixed herbs: sliced fresh tomatoes, chopped bacon, anchovies, crushed pineapple, sweetcorn and an inch-thick layer of cheese.
It's a bit sparse since it's the end of the pay-fortnight and most of the fresh vegies have been consumed (except for a few unfortunates deliquescing in the bottom of my fridge), along with most of the interesting things in my pantry. If my pantry were better stocked, that pizza might also contain any combination (depending on my mood) of the following: thinly sliced broccoli, prawns, crabmeat, baby clams, fresh basil, thin slices of kangaroo steak, slices of onion, mushrooms, olives and capsicum.
Now, that is what I call a pizza.