Tuesday, 11/13

Yesterday, chocolate. Today, pizza!

At the end of yesterday’s mind-blowing facts about chocolate I mentioned that if science could find a way to make pizza as healthy as dark chocolate, then my diet would be pretty much set for the rest of my life. Well, on the heels of that came a list I found about the ten top pizza toppings in the U.S. They are?

1. Pepperoni
2. Mushrooms
3. Onions
4. Sausage
5. Bacon
6. Extra cheese
7. Black olives
8. Green peppers
9. Pineapple
10. Spinach

And, as always, I have to chuckle at how easy it is for me to be an oddball. You see, out of the ten most popular pizza toppings in the U.S., I usually only have one of them, and that’s the topping at number 10.

Go figure, right?

In fact, my favorite pizza of all time is one that Aubrees in Marquette doesn’t actually make any more, and that was a spinach and artichoke heart pizza, slathered with a white sauce on a whole wheat crust. Yeah, I know most people probably don’t actually consider that a “pizza”--perhaps why they don’t sell it any more--but given a choice between eating pizza with pepperoni or mushrooms or sausage or anything else on that list, I’d take Aubrees’ spinach and artichoke heart pizza.

Assuming, of course, they ever bring it back. Until then, I’ll have to make do with their Tuscan Sun pizza, which still has a little spinach and a few artichoke hearts on it, along with sun dried tomatoes and a red sauce, as opposed to the white sauce on my former favorite.

I know. That’s a major first world complaint, if I’ve ever heard one, so I’ll stop talking about that particular topic. But I will admit I was kind of surprised by one topping that didn’t make the top ten.

Where’s ham?

If I have to eat a “normal” pizza, I’ll go for one with ham on it. Every pizza place offers a variety of ham pizzas, and ham’s favorite pizza cohort, pineapple, is on the top ten list, but where’s ham itself? You can’t tell me that more people like spinach on a pizza than they do ham. Someone like me, I can see. But the rest of the country, the “normal” contingent? They prefer spinach over ham?

Maybe I’ve become a trendsetter and I didn’t even realize it!

Anyway, next time you sit down or call someone and order a pizza, consider your toppings. Will you go mainstream, like pepperoni? Will you think outside the box, and add artichoke hearts? Or will you take pity on the forgotten, and throw some ham on there?

Consider that your (ahem) food for thought today!

(jim@wmqt.com)