It is common knowledge that the birthplace of pizza is Italy. But where can you find the most unique pizza in the world? Of course, in Japan! Here you will find such a combination of products that you never dreamed of!
How did pizza get to Japan?
These days, pizza can be found almost anywhere in Japan: in restaurants, supermarkets; It can also be ordered online. But it was not always so. It is believed that pizza first came to Japanese shores thanks to two crew members of an Italian naval ship that arrived in Kobe during World War II. For the first time, the title “pizzeria” was awarded to a restaurant called “Nikola”. This pizzeria was opened in Roppongi (an area known as a business and nightlife center) by Italian-American Nick Zapetti in 1954. A decade later, Japan began importing frozen pizza from America, which was sold in supermarkets throughout the country. By the 1970s, pizza could be found almost everywhere: in cafes, family restaurants and Western-style restaurants.
Would you like delivery?
In 1985, the first Japanese pizza was made for home delivery in the Ebisu area of Tokyo. The concept, which originated in America back in the 1960s, has now become popular in Tokyo. Soon this practice (where pizza is still hot and delivered straight to your door in a short time) became a nationwide phenomenon. With the advent of the new millennium, pizza delivery chains began offering online ordering services, further simplifying the delivery process. Nowadays, the Japanese pizza delivery business is more popular than ever. But now the menu of such establishments has expanded significantly: you will find not only a variety of pizzas, but also desserts, drinks and the like. Pizza delivery companies have made their websites even more attractive by allowing customers to create their own online profile. There are also various smartphone apps that can even be used to get discounts.
Although pizza has become common throughout the world, what makes Japanese pizza special is the incredible number of unusual toppings. Many pizzas in Japan are created to suit Japanese tastes. Japan is known for its variety of seafood dishes, which has also influenced the country's pizza production. However, pizza is by no means limited to purely Japanese taste preferences; There are quite a few that have incorporated combinations of various dishes from world cuisine, giving pizza an unsurpassed taste.
We would like to present you the most unusual pizzas in our opinion. If you go to Japan, be sure to visit a local pizzeria! After all, there you can find pizza that is not at all typical in our understanding. So, let's go!
Pizza Mayo with chicken teriyaki
Although chicken is a popular food in many countries, you'll be hard pressed to find a pizza that tastes the same! Grilled meat with sweetened soy sauce, along with mayonnaise, corn and shredded nori seaweed, gives the pizza a Japanese flavor. Everyone will definitely like this dish!
Squid pizza
Don't worry if you see someone eating black pizza in Japan. No, the cook didn’t forget about it, and it didn’t burn! It's just squid pizza! Black squid ink combined with tomato sauce and the squid itself is a rather unusual dish that will amaze you both in appearance and taste. In fact, squid ink is also used in Italian cuisine, but this does not make the pizza any less exotic.
Pizza with natto
I don't think you expected this - pizza with fermented soybeans. Natto is one of Japan's most loved or hated foods. Despite the fact that it enjoys the status of one of the healthiest traditional Japanese foods, its unforgettable “aroma” repels not only Europeans, but also many Japanese. If you still want to “get to know” natto, then the best option is to try it as a pizza topping, where natto will be combined with processed cheese, nori and bacon and corn.
Cod roe pizza
Cod roe is used everywhere, as a separate dish or as a filling in sushi or pasta. However, its most interesting use may be in pizza. It also includes potatoes, nori, corn and squid. Consolidation!
Although pizza is certainly not the first dish that comes to mind when Japanese cuisine is mentioned, it is nevertheless worth your attention. Every day new combinations are invented, new fillings and shapes appear - the art of making pizza does not stand still. What kind of pizza would you like to try?
Well, those who for some reason did not make it to Naples can find out how the favorite dish of the Ninja Turtles is prepared in different countries of the world, or offer their own version.
White pizza, USA
Ketchup, tomatoes, tomato paste... Everyone is accustomed to considering these to be the standard ingredients of any pizza. But there are also those chefs who deny this norm and offer their own pizza color - white. The peculiarity of this dish is that there are no tomatoes in the composition. The sauce that covers the dough can be prepared on the basis of olive oil or mayonnaise, and garlic is considered one of its key ingredients.
Upside Down Pizza, Philadelphia, USA
An unusual type of pizza can be found in Philadelphia restaurants. Despite the fact that its ingredients are not much different from the standard set, it looks very unusual. This is explained by the fact that in upside down pizza, the first layer is not dough, but cheese. Only a thin layer of dough, smeared with sauce, is laid out on it. Cheese fried in olive oil quickly hardens and becomes crispy, so the easiest way to eat this pizza is to roll it up.
Taco, Mexico
A compromise taco pizza can be considered a Mexican variety of pizza. This combination of traditional dish ingredients and new design appealed to many young residents of the country. The taco is prepared on a corn tortilla, and the filling includes meat, seafood, vegetables, herbs, fried over an open fire, and, of course, a variety of hot sauces. According to the old tradition, this pseudo-pizza is eaten in the same way as regular tacos - folded in half.
Thai pizza, Thailand
The Italian cult dish, which has long become an international cult dish, is loved even by the residents of Thailand. True, their interpretation began to bear little resemblance to what was in the classical version. The thin dough is brushed with soy sauce or barbecue sauce and then topped with bean sprouts, spiced carrots and marinated chicken. This pizza takes only a short time to cook over an open fire, less than ten minutes, and is one of the hottest in the world.
Local residents, no matter what, prefer traditional pizza, leaving the right to enjoy Thai delicacies to tourists.
Okonomiyaki, Japan
Japanese pizza is completely different from its European version. Okonomiyaki is prepared from flour, grated cabbage, water, eggs and dried tuna powder. The flatbreads are baked on a hot table surface (teppan), and then all restaurant visitors can independently sprinkle them with meat, fish or seaweed filling, pour soy sauce on them and eat. In a number of restaurants, by the way, when ordering okonomiyaki, the waiter brings the customers only a dish with dough, and he must bake the flatbread of the required size himself, since each table is equipped with teppan.
Smazhenka, Belarus
An unusual and very filling version of thick-crust pizza can also be found in the fraternal republic. Here, small round buns made from yeast dough and stuffed with cheese, sausage, pickles, olives and whatever else is lying around in the refrigerator are called smazhenki. They are prepared not only in cafes, but also at home, and the best smazhenki, according to the Belarusians themselves, come from loving grandmothers.
Traditional Italian pizza
And of course, the first place is still traditional Italian pizza, the recipe of which has been known for hundreds of years. According to most connoisseurs, the taste of real pizza depends only on the freshness of the ingredients used, the quality of the oven and the experience of the chef.
The composition and method of preparing classic pizza is very simple, but certain culinary skills are required.
So, for cooking you need to take 400 grams of flour, 2 teaspoons (15 grams) of dry yeast, 3 tablespoons of olive oil, 250 milliliters
water, 1 teaspoon salt, 4 tomatoes, 200 grams of mozzarella, herbs to taste (oregano, basil).
First of all, prepare the dough. To do this, you need to sift the flour, mix it with salt and yeast. Add olive oil to the mixture and gradually add water, stirring constantly. After thoroughly kneading the dough until smooth, cover it with a cloth and set aside for an hour in a warm place.
In the meantime, you can prepare the filling. The classic version uses only ripe tomatoes (and/or tomato sauce), cheese and herbs, but you can also add sweet peppers and salami to taste.
Once the dough has doubled in volume, you can start rolling out. The cake should be thin, but not torn. After greasing the crust with sauce and placing the filling on it (grated cheese, tomatoes in rings and chopped herbs), you can sprinkle the pizza with olive oil and put it in the oven, preheated to 200 degrees, for 15-20 minutes.
Bon appetit, share your recipes in the comments!
Photo: thinkstockphotos.com, flickr.com
Japanese chefs are known for their ability to create unusual, vibrant culinary dishes from the most unremarkable product. Visitors are happy to try different national dishes, but often ignore Japanese pizza. But in vain. Here it is completely different, although you need to be careful with some of its types.
The thorny path of pizza to the Land of the Rising Sun
Initially, the Italian dish pizza came to the United States, and from there it was transported by a Japanese-American, Ernest Higa. In 1985, he opened the Domino Pizza pizzeria chain, but in his historical homeland he was faced with a lack of consumer understanding of the product. After moving to Japan, he realized that a foreign dish needed to be adapted to local customs and tastes.
We had to add more seafood and local spices to the assortment, and teach chefs how to combine them. The appearance of the dish has also been completely changed. The Japanese “eat” food primarily with their eyes, so the standard design did not attract the native Japanese at all. They also had to compete with local analogues of pizza - Mochi and Okonomiyaki, which were sold in any tray and were much more familiar to the consumer.
Together with the chefs, a new pizza design was developed, but this option was not immediately approved in the United States. It was important for the owner to do something that would unite both his native countries. We created a menu that everyone could understand, employees were trained to deliver quickly, and consumers were trained to order pizza at home. It was possible to connect two different cultures only after a long time.
What had to be changed in Italian pizza to adapt it to Japan:
- Stuffing- in Japan, seafood is more often used, but in some types you can find potatoes and even noodles.
- Spices- Japanese pizza is much more aromatic and richer due to special spices, which not all Europeans like.
- Submission- in a Japanese restaurant you can not only choose the toppings and its quantity, but also cook the pizza yourself.
- Form- in a desire to be different, the Japanese added different base shapes to the classic round one.
- Decor- while eating, you will appreciate not only the taste, but also the special decor and beauty of the dish.
- Slicing- if you order Okonomiyaki pizza, it will be cut into squares with a special spatula.
Ernest Higa believes that it was the fusion of two cultures that gave impetus to the development of pizzerias in Japan. It took 5 whole years for new types of restaurants to open across the country.
Why Japanese mochi pizza is more dangerous than fugu fish
There is also a purely Japanese version of pizza; it is very popular among the local population, but is hundreds of times more dangerous than the famous fugu fish. If a fish delicacy kills no more than 20 people a year, then after eating mochi, about 4,000 gourmets die per year. True, it is not the mochi pizza itself that is to blame for this, but its base - rice dough, which is also used for the dessert of the same name, and the figures for accidents are general.
What is the danger of this dish? Everything is simple to the point of banality; the sticky substance made from rice flour can lead to an accident. Pizza and mochi dessert are made from a special dough mixed with rice starch.
You need to eat such dishes very carefully and chew them thoroughly. If you swallow a slice of mochi pizza while running, your throat will easily become blocked with paste and you will suffocate. Due to such a high mortality rate and the national love for mochi, the authorities are even forced to distribute special warning leaflets.
How to prepare Japanese mochi pizza
In our country, it is almost impossible to prepare this dish authentically, due to the lack of the main ingredient, but some housewives have come up with a replacement for it. Instead of rice sticks, they use rice ground into flour. Only varieties with a high starch content are suitable for this.
Flour is mixed with water and flat cakes are made, which are then baked in a frying pan with hot oil, covered with a lid and adding water. After both sides are browned, the flatbread is greased with sauce and sprinkled with grated cheese. Now cover the dish again with a lid and cook over low heat until the cheese melts.
Okonomiyaki - a worthy answer to Italian pizza
A local equivalent of pizza, Okonomiyaki, is considered a more suitable option for Europeans. These are flatbreads with various fillings. Their analogue appeared back in the 16th century as a treat during tea drinking, but in wartime the recipe was simplified and became a kind of fast food. It was the famine during World War II that expanded the range of okonomiyaki fillings. Residents used everything they had at home. Cabbage, potatoes and even leftover noodles were used.
Today, every second restaurant offers us Japanese cuisine. Basically, such establishments offer visitors to enjoy rolls, try sushi or eat soups traditional for this colorful eastern country. It turns out that the Japanese have another very popular fast food dish. It's called Okonomiyaki.
Okonomiyaki- a kind of Japanese pizza. This is a fried flatbread that is prepared from a mixture of various ingredients and smeared with sauces. We'll tell you what to do to try this vegetable delicacy without going on a trip to Japan. We’ll also share the recipe for the legendary Japanese Hoisin sauce.
Okonomiyaki Pizza
You will need
- 1 egg
- 150 g fork white cabbage
- 1 zucchini
- 1 carrot
- 1 stack whole grain flour
- 50 g mitsuna salad
- 1 lemon
- 0.5 bunch. green onions
- 2 teeth garlic
- 3 tbsp. l. Hoisin sauce
- 2 tbsp. l. liquid mirin seasoning
- 0.25 stack. sour cream
- 0.75 stack. water
How to cook
How to make Hoisin sauce
You will need
- half a chili pepper
- 3 tbsp. canned red beans
- 2 teeth garlic
- 3 tbsp. l. soy sauce
- 2 tbsp. l. rice vinegar
- 1 chip cassia
- 1 chip Sichuan pepper
- 1 chip anise
- 1 tbsp. l. sesame oil
- 1 tbsp. l. honey
How to cook
- Wash and remove seeds and membrane from half of the chili pepper. Peel and press the garlic. Place beans, garlic, chili pepper, honey, soy sauce, rice vinegar, oil and spices in a blender bowl.
- If possible, it is better to add 1.5 tbsp. l. liquid from a can of canned beans. Beat the ingredients until smooth.
Of course, if you have it ready Hoisin sauce, it's better to use it. This way, preparing the legendary Japanese pizza will take much less time. If you're interested in seeing how to make Japanese rolls at home, check out. Share these unusual recipes with your friends!
Japanese cuisine is loved all over the world, because it is very unusual, sophisticated and healthy, and most importantly - incredibly varied and tasty. Japanese dishes use ingredients that are unusual for Europeans (seaweed, seafood, delicious fish), and therefore surprise him with their taste. In recent years, our country has seen a real explosion in the popularity of Japanese cuisine: new Japanese restaurants and sushi bars are opening, and some Russians are happy to prepare rolls and miso soup at home.
The Japanese are very conservative, and the main dishes of their national cuisine have not changed for decades. But they are not alien to the influence of other cultures. Therefore, the famous Italian invention, pizza, has gained popularity in Japan. As well as the accompanying service - home delivery of pizza. Surely pizza attracted the Japanese, who are very careful in matters of budget and restrained in food, with its economy and ease of preparation. But here it acquired local characteristics and became a completely special dish: neither in Italy nor in any other country will you try pizza with such an exotic taste as in Japan.
Chefs in Japan boldly experiment with combinations of products, and therefore the pizza on the Japanese menu will surprise you with its unusual toppings. You can order pizza on sale and get not the usual flatbread with bacon, tomatoes and cheese, but, for example, with octopus and Japanese shiitake mushrooms. And even the appearance of this simple dish will surely surprise you! So, what should you be prepared for when ordering Japanese pizza?
- Unusual filling. Despite the fact that in a Japanese pizzeria they can prepare a dish according to a classic European recipe (the familiar “Margherita”, “Four Cheese”, “Hawaiian Pizza”), flatbreads stuffed with local seafood (shrimp, eel) and seaweed are still much more popular .
- Seasonings. The Japanese use their traditional spices, which are different from European ones.
- Appearance. The cult of everything beautiful in the Land of the Rising Sun is a national character trait. This also applies to cooking. All dishes should not only be tasty, but also beautiful in appearance. Therefore, only in Japan is it customary to decorate pizza: for example, with curly cuts of ingredients or small rolls on the side of the pizza.
- Method of serving: in many Japanese restaurants, the client does not just wait for the dish to be served to him, but also watches the cooking process.
The Japanese have invented several of their own varieties of pizza. You should memorize them so that on occasion you can impress your companions with your knowledge of Japanese cuisine!
- The most popular Japanese pizza is a thick flatbread topped with nori (seaweed), shitake (Japanese mushrooms similar to oyster mushrooms) and chicken. A mandatory ingredient is teriyaki sauce, in which the chicken is marinated before being added to the filling.
- A gourmet variety is Okonomiyaki pizza. The guest assembles it himself, like a designer: he chooses what exactly and in what proportions will be included in the filling. The base of this pizza (also quite thick) is not baked, but fried. And everything on top is chosen according to your taste: tuna, shrimp, anchovies, meat, vegetables and even traditional Japanese noodles! Add sauce and cheese and your Okonomiyaki pizza is ready.
- Perhaps the most exotic variety of Japanese pizza is a dish with rolls that are baked along the edges of the base. This pizza is not only tasty, but also very filling.
And now some good news for all lovers of Asian cuisine: you don’t have to go overseas to order real Japanese pizza! Now an exotic dish made from traditional ingredients is available to everyone. You can try it in our restaurant or order it to your home (we deliver pizza to the Kirovsky district) to appreciate this unusual dish with your family.
Bon appetit!