Pizza & Beverage Marriages

Like all kinds of food and beverage pairing, pizza too has its great companions apart from the classic pairing with drinks of a more...ahem... alcoholic nature. Here are some fun beverages to zest up a pizza session, some are DIY and some can be ordered at most pizza outlets!

Citrus mint cooler  

1 cup fresh lemon juice
1 cup fresh orange juice
2 cups sugar
2 1/2 cups water
10 sprigs mint
32 fluid ounces ginger ale water

Just by looking at the recipe, one can imagine how refreshing this drink is. Whether you’re going for a cheesy pizza, spicy one or even seafood marinara, this thirst-quenching goodness works to cleanse your palate so you can enjoy the flavours of your pizza topping better. Of course this a DIY drink, alternatively if you’re eating out, try something along the lines of lemon and lime for the same pairing effect.

Lime Cola



This self-explanatory (recipe) drink works wonders with pizza as we are all accustomed to having a fizzy kick when gnawing on some chewy cheesy pizza. Probably the most logical explanation for this favourite pairing is its burp-inducing factor. Everyone loves a good burp while having some heavy pizza, wouldn’t you agree? Instead of the usual cola, try a squeeze of lemon for that added zest.

Pineapple Pleasure



1 tsp. Honey

1 tsp. Sugar
6oz
Pineapple juice
2oz
Mineral water
Crushed ice

While pineapple may not be everybody’s favourite, this fruit in its juice form is simply hard to resist. It’s always nice to serve up your own mocktails when entertaining guests, so why not try this dead simple recipe at home while you enjoy some piping hot pizza? The obvious match to this tropical mocktail would be Hawaiian pizza but nothing could possibly go wrong with this pairing.

Power Juices

Better yet, head on down to any of the Vivo outlets near you to feast on your favourite pizza and boost up your energy with some great power juices.

By the end of this read, you should feel like a pizza & beverage connoisseur... sort of.  

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Pizza Superlatives

Pizza Superlatives

Biggest, strangest, longest, craziest, smelliest, powerfulest, insanest, explosivest – ok so some of those superlatives don’t apply to pizzas and aren’t even grammatically correct, but who cares. What does matter is that we’re here to take a look at some pizzas around the world that are, well, more than your average pizza… much, much more. To us at least!

Largest

As you can see, the pizza in the image above is pretty darn huge.

This pizza of Godzilla proportions was made at Norwood Hypermarket, Norwood, South Africa on 8 December 1990 and weighs in at a ridiculous 12.19 tonnes. It is officially recognized as the largest pizza in the world, will probably be the world’s largest dust-collecting pizza as well.

Most Nonsensical

We found quite a number of pizzas that don’t make sense scattered around the internet but we picked this one because of its ridiculous $1000-price tag, which strangely wasn’t entered into any official book of records. This made-in-New York “pizza” is made with six varieties of caviar, chives, fresh lobster and creme fraiche. We doubt it even tastes like a pizza anymore.

Hottest / Spiciest

This is, as the small flame in the middle of the dish suggests, the world’s spiciest pizza and it’s available at some place called Crawleys. You’d probably expect the “spiciest pizza in the world” to look a bit, err, spicier, but don’t let this sober-looking one fool you. It’s called “Volcanica” and it’s made of red and green chillis, njuda sausage and extra spicy arrabiatta; it’s even served with a complimentary glass of milk for tongue-soothing purposes. “Side effects include a numb tongue and watering eyes”, they say.

Most Creatively Used

Apparently, a 10-year old kid in a school in Tennessee munched his slice of pizza into a shape of a gun and proceeded to wield it around like one. Creative, but slightly worrying we think. The school leaders there didn’t quite appreciate his creativity though and instead punished him by relegating the poor boy to the “silent table”, where he sat and ate alone. Poor boy.

Famous-est

If you guessed that tofu was the world’s most famous pizza topping, you’ve obviously been living under a rock for a while. In fact, you’ll probably already know that pepperoni stands, lies rather, as the world’s most famous pizza topping – 36% of all pizza orders have had them, with approximately 251,770,000 pounds of those sliced sausages consumed annually.

Hmmm… perhaps we should delve a bit into some superlative feats of our own sometime. For now, you can just come on over to Vivo Pizza for some of the most authentic American pizzas you’ll find around these areas!

Check out our own famous range of delicious Vivo Pizzas at www.vivopizza.com/pizzas.php 

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THE BEST PIZZA SIDEKICKS

THE BEST PIZZA SIDEKICKS

Kato, Robin, Doctor Watson, Mini-me, Samwise Gamgee, Mr. Spock, Chewbacca, and Garlic Bread… see the connection? Yes, they’re all sidekicks a.k.a. assistants, associates, or right hand men to one who has more authority.

Supporting roles they may be, but such sidekicks are often blessed with abilities that their head honchos lack and it isn’t rare that these sidekicks rescue their more illustrious partners from certain peril, more than once.

Hopefully, you’ve gotten the point by now that by sidekicks, we mean side dishes, which we feel deserve more credit than they’re given. They complete a main course, give it added flavour and basically makes the meal all the more satisfying.

And when it comes to pizzas, there’s more than just garlic bread to get the side job done. Here are some of our favourite pizza side dishes!

:: Garlic Bread

Unless you’re a Romanian vampire, you probably have eaten garlic bread at least once in your life. It is perhaps the most famous of all side dishes, although they do come in slightly varying forms depending on the chef – a square slice of bread, a baguette, a round loaf, with a sesame seed bun, a breadstick, and etc. It isn’t only a good side dish for pizzas, but for soups and actually, it’ll work well with almost anything… even on its own!

:: Mac ‘n Cheese

You might argue that Mac ‘n Cheese is more of a dish on its own, but some places do offer them as side dishes, and what amazing side dishes they are. Cheese lovers and pasta lovers alike will almost always find themselves succumbing to the temptations of this simple dish that oozes with cheese, is irresistibly creamy, and has an addictively chewy texture. You’re thinking about having some now aren’t you?

:: Onion Rings

Take a sliced “cross sectional” string of an onion, dip it in batter or breading, and deep-fry it. What do you get?  The world-famous dish known as onion rings. No one really knows where these tear-jerkingly tasty snacks come from (see what we did there?) but one thing’s for certain, they’re great with pizzas, and taste even better if you stuff a bit of cheese into them!

:: Calamari Rings

Few can resist the tantalizing charms of a properly prepared serving of calamari or “sotong rings” if you’re Malaysian. These delicacies add a terrific seafood accent to your slice of Pizza (considering it’s not a seafood pizza) and get even better with chilli sauce.

:: Chicken Wings

Barbecued, fried, broiled, roasted, grilled, or baked – you can cook chicken wings in any way you like, but even with a simple marinade, they’re always a great side dish. At Vivo Pizza, we bake ours or fry ‘em with paprika, and we also have mid-joint wings with barbecue sauce in our menu – both are must tries.  These are fantastic as ways of getting the appetite going before digging in into that 13” pizza and they’ll have no problems holding their own as a medium-weighted snack.

:: Chicken Tenderloin

If wings aren’t your thing and you prefer biting into a meatier, chunkier type of sidekick; perhaps a plate of chicken fingers or nuggets or even our very own crispy crumbed chicken tenderloin will do the trick. Always fried, always best served hot and always delicious; it’ll do more than you could ask it to as a sidekick!

Surprise, surprise; we’ve got 4 out of the 5 side dishes above in our menu! We also have some more interesting ones at well, breaded scallop for example, and it’s served up with a combination of fried fish fillet, calamari, onion rings and fries to create our very own “Ocean Discovery” platter.

but you’ll have to visit one of our outlets and find out about the rest J

More about Vivo’s Side Dishes here:

http://www.vivopizza.com/delicacies.php

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