So you’re sitting down to watch TV with your significant other on Friday night and you order your usual pizza from the local joint. If you’re like most people, you’ll probably get extra cheese, maybe some pepperoni, and if you really want to get crazy, mushrooms, green peppers, and sausage. In my family, that’s about the extent of the creativeness we put into designing our pizzas. But all around the world, people put some of the craziest things on these round pie-like entrees.

Pineapple

Ok, so pineapple on pizza isn’t so weird anymore, but I figured I’d start with the more tame toppings and work my way up. Thanks to the California Pizza Kitchen, which popularized this combination, this topping has become more mainstream. And now that you can get offerings from this company in the freezer section of your local grocery store, people all around the country can enjoy pizza with pineapple on it whenever they want. Chains like Domino’s and Pizza Hut have caught on to this craziness, offering pineapple on their pizzas now, as well.

Anchovies

How many times have you heard someone ordering a pizza and they ask that it be topped with “everything except anchovies.” These small fish never get any respect, as this phrase has actually become a cliché when ordering pizza. I’ve never actually heard of anyone getting a pizza with anchovies, but I know that it used to be a topping choice way back when. But now, not so much, as out of the websites of Pizza Hut, Domino’s, Papa John’s, and Little Caesars, none of them offer anchovies as a topping.

Sunny Side Up Eggs

I have read several accounts of this strange phenomenon. Imagine eating a pizza with a fried egg on top. Apparently, many people swear by it, and one recipe has it actually being cooked in the oven with the raw egg cracked on top of it until the egg is set. I guess if you wanted, you could take the crust and dip it into the yolk if you cooked them soft. I’ve heard of having pizza for breakfast, but this takes the idea one step too far.

Venison

For the hunter, this one may not sound so weird. After all, deer meat by itself is too gamey for most people’s taste, so why not combine it with a food that has a strong taste itself? Some people prefer to use fried venison as a topping, while a more conventional compromise would be to use venison sausage. For that matter, I guess other game meats such as Elk and Wild Boar could serve as an interesting substitute as well.

Pine Nuts

I’ve only had pine nuts in some fabulous dessert creations, so the thought of these nuts as pizza toppings doesn’t sit right with me. Then again, my idea of a crazy pizza is to put too much pepperoni on it. You’ll most likely find pine nuts as a pizza topping when it’s combined with other strange ingredients such as brie, pesto, gorgonzola, or tuna to name a few. For me, I can’t imagine biting into a slice only to crunch my teeth on a pine nut. It just messes too much with the texture.