AsdaHere’s one for all you indecisive people out there – rather than fretting about what to choose for your next takeaway, just stick it all on a pizza and job’s a good’un!
In a move never seen before, and one that’s sure to split opinion, Asda have gone and launched a vindaloo pizza. That’s right, you can now get that notoriously hot Indian curry on top of that notoriously delicious cheesy and tomato-y Italian base.
The 14-inch pizza will set you back £3.50 and, according to Asda’s description, is ‘prepared with a vindaloo base sauce, succulent spicy chicken pieces, and a lime pickle drizzle’. It also comes topped with mini poppadoms. It might not be the most obvious pizza topping, but it sure is intriguing.
The supermarket is launching the experimental dish to celebrate National Curry Week, which runs from October 22 to October 29. Asda, however, know how inventing such a meal could make a fair few people eager to try it, so it’s already on sale.
Nick Robinson, Asda’s Category Planning Assistant, said, as per Mirror:
We know Brits love a unique hybrid product, and we wanted a way of honouring the flavours of National Curry Week, so what better way to do this than on the UK’s most loved takeaway – pizza. The fusion of Italian and Indian flavours works extremely well, providing a pop of spice in every slice, so we know it’ll be a hit with customers.
So if you’re ever torn between pizza and curry, fear no more, it seems Asda wants to give you the best of both worlds. Whether it works is yet to be determined, though.
If you’re worried about what all this sumptuous food might do for your health, I wouldn’t suggest eating it for every meal, but then again, it has been found that curry can make you happier and is good for your brain.
A compound found in turmeric, the ingredient used to give curry its bright colour, could also improve your memory and mood, claims research, published online in the American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry.
The compound curcumin is hailed as an anti-inflammatory with antioxidant properties.
It has also been suggested as a possible reason senior citizens in India – where curcumin is somewhat of a staple – have lower rates of Alzheimer’s disease and better cognitive performance.
Dr. Gary Small, director of geriatric psychiatry at UCLA’s Longevity Center and of the geriatric psychiatry division at the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at UCLA, was the study’s first author.
He explained the positive correlation between curcumin and cognition:
Exactly how curcumin exerts its effects is not certain, but it may be due to its ability to reduce brain inflammation, which has been linked to both Alzheimer’s disease and major depression.
These results suggest that taking this relatively safe form of curcumin could provide meaningful cognitive benefits over the years.
Whether a pizza-curry hybrid has the same effects is yet to be seen. However, I will offer myself as a test subject if needs be.
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Charlie Cocksedge is a journalist and sub-editor at UNILAD. He graduated from the University of Manchester with an MA in Creative Writing, where he learnt how to write in the third person, before getting his NCTJ. His work has also appeared in such places as The Guardian, PN Review and the bin.