Spain Sunday: Pizza

No one could ever beat Japan and Korea’s nonsense/amazing/wonderful pinnacle-of-creativity pizzas. Ever. So with that said know that Spain has some pretty good ideas with pizza and even more amazing pizza-thing combos.

Thing? That’s right. A pizza and a thing.

Telepizza is the big Spanish brand here. We have a Telepizza in Martos but no Dominos or Pizza Hut (which do operate in Spain).

Telepizza knows what’s up because I have never seen Dominos of Pizza Hut do this:

Oh what’s that? Those are movies. Buy a pizza and get a movie. A medium pizza and a movie just 12.95. Or you can order just a drink and a movie for 2.95. Damn. You get a code that you can choose from the movies they’re offering online – so it may not be  a great selection but this is still a really good idea. No redbox runs (none of those here anyway), no Netflix subscriptions – it’s simple. Just a pizza and a movie.

The next thing Telepizza does which we think is too clever is the kids meal.

This thing is full and only 4.95 which is absurdly cheap for everything you get.

• First you choose if you want a baby pizza, a chicken hamburger or chicken poppers.
• Then you choose laughing cow cheese dippers or smiley face potatoes.
• Then you get a drink.
• And then you choose if you want gummy bear ice cream, Kit Kat yogurt or an ice pop.
• Finally what kid’s meal would be without a toy.

So holy crap that’s a lot of stuff for kids and that’s a lot of stuff coming out of a pizza place.

Keeping with the theme of getting a thing with your pizza:

Dominos offers strippers with your pizza.

Or at least that’s what they have unfortunately named their chicken strips.

In all seriousness you can get pretty much anything with your pizza. Here’s what most places (Telepizza, Dominos and Pizza Hut) will deliver with your pizza:

• Chocolate turnovers
• cookies
• apple pastries
• smiley face potatoes
• normal potatoes
• about 20 different ice cream bars
• Ben and Jerry’s ice cream pints (which they deliver)
• jalapeno poppers
• beer (yes they deliver this too)
• salad
• lasagna
• 6 different pastas
• hamburgers
• a ham sandwich -no real frills just a ham sammie
• chicken burgers,
• Camembert cheese poppers (ooh fancy!)
• normal cheese sticks
• onion rings
• french fries
• a hot dog – yup. A hot dog.
• 4 different crostinis (for those who are not fancy that’s usually just some stuff on a piece of toast)
• strippers/chicken strips
• or 4 different tortilla wraps (like a pineapple veggie wrap).

So those are all the things that you can get with a pizza. Which we find to be insane. In the USA you can get some dessert-like things. But mostly you can get a couple pastas, salads, or breadsticks delivered with your pizza. Not camembert cheese balls, beer, or Ben and Jerrys. Spain has the superior delivery.

Besides the things the pizzas are pretty well thought out.

Here’s a pizza that is also nachos. The whole middle of the pizza is a nacho dipping bowl you can eat. Then there is iberian ham (serrano) pizza with fresh tomatoes on it.

There are many carbonara styled pizzas (with 5+ cheeses). Instead of tomato sauce there is a cream base. Also plenty with barbecue sauce (usually called something like American or Cowboy or Texas).

Here is a burger-pizza because why not. And next to it is a pizza made of liquid chocolate and kit kat pieces.

For more gourmet pizzas there are spinach with goat cheese; parmesan, bacon and asparagus; or Iberian cheese with cured serrano ham.

Most of them seem to be more fancy than what we’re used to. Yes there are Hawaiian pizzas or just pepperoni, but most seem to have fancier things like caramelized onions or cured ham. There’s even a Caesar salad pizza with arugula, tomatoes and blue cheese with chicken poppers all over the top.

They’re all within the 8-14 Euro range so they’re not extraordinarily expensive. Korea’s fancy pizzas ran at $23-35 sometimes (but of course they had imported insane-o ingredients or a whole shrimp feast so it made sense).

Delivery is by moped here, not car. The back of the moped has a little hot box to keep things insulated.

Sadly they’re closed for siesta and normal Spain dinner-times. So you can’t order a pizza at all from 2pm until around 8pm (when most people start thinking about eating dinner).