I am going to address this first because I know it is a sensitive subject. I will also say this once, and then not again in this post, and I will not be accepting comments about this: Hawaiian pizza is the best pizza and pineapple does belong on pizza. In my opinion.
Now we have that out of the way, let us focus on the main point at hand. Papa John’s has always been one of my favourites for takeaway pizza, and I had intended to try their La Vie collaboration Hawaiian pizza when it was announced for Veganuary this year, but life got away from me and I never actually got to try it. This last week however was a rough one with a lot going on and comfort food was greatly needed, and I was super excited to see that the La Vie pizza is very much part of their main pizza selection! It was not a Veganuary exclusive and appears to be here to stay.
Which is very exciting for me because Hawaiian pizza is my favourite. My husband and I have recently gotten into the habit of making our own pizzas (mainly to cook fresh, but also to save a little money) but after a very manic week, we needed something greasy and high in calories. I will admit though that this pizza didn’t really hit that mark – it was very tasty, but it actually wasn’t as greasy or as heavy as I initially expected. The La Vie bacon pieces add a very nice and rather strong smoky ham flavour to the pizza, whilst the pineapple is a lovely tart flavour to cut through the savoury pizza and the smoky hints. There was a little bit of cheese on it, which was melted perfectly and added a little creaminess to the pizza, but it was a very light dusting of cheese so the actual pizza still felt very light. There was also no grease – normally when we have had a takeaway pizza you can see and taste the grease, and that isn’t necessarily a bad thing if that is what your body is craving in that moment. But this pizza had very little grease (if any) and it did make the whole pizza far more enjoyable.
We shared this pizza and I am glad that we did. I think a whole pizza to myself would have been way too much, and I do tend to save half the pizza for lunch the next day. But 6 slices was more than enough to satisfy that pizza craving and left me feeling very much satisfied and full without feeling bloated or heavy. I think in the moment I could have eaten another 2 slices as my body was crying out for a lot of calories, but as a first introduction this was perfect. I am also very excited that this seems to be a regular addition to the menu. The online menu still labels this as a limited edition pizza, however it is now March so not sure how ‘limited’ that run will actually be.
One downside to Papa John’s is that it is pretty expensive. Yes there are deals you can have that bring the overall costs of the pizzas down, but in my experience this usually means ordering way more food than I actually want simply to save some money in the whole. On their own, one of these pizzas is £24 (£23.99 to be exact) which is quite expensive for just one pizza. Yes, you do get a lot of food for that, but pizzas are such an easy to create meal that it is always cheaper to do it yourself at home. This is also on the same price level as a sit in restaurant, which I am always adverse to as the whole point of going to a restaurant is to pay for the whole experience in the restaurant. With takeaway, I am simply paying someone to come to my house and I eat it at home. Obviously there is a time and place for all of these, but it’s a big reason why I have taken to making my own pizzas more often, and saving the takeaways for either special occasions, emergencies, or for those times when my body is just in need of a takeaway.
Taylor Talks Vegan 