It’s as Swedish as banana pie.
Think putting pineapple on pizza was controversial? Pizzaphiles are furious over the Swedes’ penchant for topping their slices with – wait for it – bananas.
While this pie-in-the-sky trend has been around for years, pie-hards are only now learning about it, sparking heated debate over whether it’s a delicacy or an insult to the pizza genre.
Many were horrified by the Frankenslice, which is often seasoned with curry powder and sometimes garnished with bacon and pineapple—another divisive concoction.
“Yes, I’ve tried AFRICAN pizza, pineapple and bananas in Sweden,” one reviewer quipped to X. “That was probably the 3 worst things I’ve ever tried in my life.”
“People have no right to do this abomination,” declared another on a Reddit thread discussing the invention of bananas.
One even called the banana pizza “a hot circle of junk.”
However, others considered this banana-speckled slice a Swedish deal that isn’t as saccharine as it sounds.
“It turns out it’s really good,” declared one Redditor defending the so-called merits of the seemingly inappropriate piece. “The banana loses a bit of its sweetness and caramelizes, and it works really well with the curry.”
“It’s just amazing,” declared one Swede in the thread. “The banana on the taco is great too. Don’t hate it before you try it.”
There is no definitive date as to when the dish was created.
However, Stockholm University food historian Richard Tellström traces the pie’s origins to the South Pacific culture craze that captivated the West after World War II (read: Tiki bars).
“This [Polynesianism] it creates a kind of postwar Polynesian food culture that I would associate this banana pizza with,” the professor told Smithsonian magazine.
He described how the flavors of the South Pacific were featured in Swedish cookbooks in the 1960s and 70s to inspire the country’s somewhat laid-back chefs.
“Deep fried bananas served [with] steak [or] VEAL [is] an early 1960s dish served in some restaurants,” said Tellström. “Banana can be served alongside bacon as a hearty dish for a Saturday night with the family watching TV.”
He added, “In the 70s, a simple, everyday dish at home could be sausage stuffed with tomato, pineapple, mustard and bacon.”
One of the best examples of this culinary cross-pollination is the Flying Jacob, a casserole made with chicken, chili sauce, bacon, bananas and pizza that was dreamed up by Swedish air transport worker Ove Jacobsson in 1976.
In fact, pizzas topped with bananas and other exotic ingredients are actually quite common throughout Sweden.
“We have a lot of pizza shops in Sweden, probably more than McDonald’s has, and there are a lot of them,” explained Tellström “If you go to a Swedish pizza shop, you can probably choose between 75 and 100 different pizzas.”
He added, “You can always put your own mix of toppings on it, too, so you pick your favorites and it usually doesn’t cost anything extra.”
Other varieties that seem to go against pizza orthodoxy include beef tenderloin and kebab meat, pepperoni, sour cream and vegetables.
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Image Source : nypost.com