It has been a while since we did a Only in Korea post, due to our trip to Taiwan and taking most of our time to blog about our experiences while there. We are excited to start writing about Korea again and get back to showing you what life here is like. We really love all the oddities that Korea has and this segment is one of our favorites.
This weekend we didn’t have to look far to find yet another strange and wonderful thing that you will find Only in Korea. We headed downtown in search for Mr. Pizza, a chain restaurant that you can find all over the country. Korea does have Papa Johns, Dominoes, and Pizza Hut, all of which offer typical American style pizzas such as supreme, pepperoni, and even Hawaiian. However, we were in search for the Korean take on pizza, which Mr. Pizza specializes in.
Yes, I am posing with a fork and knife. Something we haven’t used in months!
Most Korean style pizza comes with one vital topping: corn. We aren’t really sure why this topping is on every pizza we’ve ever had here. Even the Dominoes supreme pizza we order from the Dominoes conveniently located on the ground floor of our apartment complex has corn on it! It is a staple in all pizzas here, and we eventually just got used to the idea. Many foreigners in Korea really hate the pizza here, especially the ones with the strange toppings, but we actually don’t mind them! Maybe we have just been away from the states long enough that we have lost all of our inhibitions?
Mr. Pizza has many strange pizza toppings to suit your mood. Wish you were outside barbecuing instead of eating pizza? Then the ‘Omy Rib’ pizza is for you. Craving a taste of the sea AND Italian? Lobster, crab, and shrimp pizzas are also offered here. Needing more carbohydrates in your diet than just a regular pizza can offer? Potato pizza. Can’t decide which one to choose? Half and half pizza will let you pick two of your favorites!
The next decision to make is what kind of crust. Sure, you could go with a boring ‘gold crust’, a regular crusted pie, but why would you when there are so many exciting options? Cream cheese crust pizza is full of sugar and is therefore a perfect pair to all the carbohydrates you are about to consume. Cheese filled pizza crust, is much like the ‘stuffed crust’ pizza you find in the states. Then there is ‘eggtart’ crust. This is the one we choose thinking it may just be egg surrounding the crust, which is strange enough. However, upon taking our first bite of it, we found it to be really sweet and creamy.
We choose to do a half and half pizza to get a better idea of what Mr. Pizza had to offer. We went with the “Potato Pizza”, which was topped with giant potato wedges, bacon, ham, cheese, onion, mushroom, and sour cream. The second half of the pizza we choose a seemingly more mild pizza, the “New York Pizza”. However, unlike the picture on the menu, the pizza came with a shrimp topping! We were prepared for the worst since we have heard many people say that these pizzas are to be avoided at all costs.
We cautiously tried our first few bites of pizza. The pizza was very sweet and that was not what we were expecting. The sauce at Mr. Pizza is not the typical tomato sauce you normally have under all your toppings. However, we didn’t think it was that bad. Maybe it has just been too long since we had a deep dish Chicago style or a three meat Calizone, but we ate the entire Frankenstein-esque pizza without much complaint. We probably won’t be ordering another crazy Korean pizza anytime soon, though, since our supreme Dominoes pizza is much tastier.
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Hedgers Abroad 
Looks like food you’d find at the fair!
Wow! Think we’ll stick with our homemade supreme:)
I think the Asians would always have their version of the Italian pizza! 🙂 Here in the Philippines, we have “pinakbet” pizza, which is basically topped with vegetables (eggplants, bitter gourd, tomatoes, etc.) having the distinct flavor of pinakbet (which is like a vegetable stew with fish sauce). Very interesting flavors! 🙂