Pizza in Rhode Island is often topped with this favorite unpopular in the rest of the U.S.
Here's a real brain teaser for you:
What's the most popular pizza topping in Rhode Island?
Need a hint?
It begins with pepper- and ends with -oni.
OK, well, that's pretty obvious. Pepperoni is not only Rhode Island's favorite, it's also the most popular pizza topping in the United States, according to YouGov, a market-research firm based in London that surveyed more than 6,000 U.S. adults last year.
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Top 5 pizza toppings in the US
1. Pepperoni
2. Sausage
3. Mushrooms
4. Bacon
5. Onions
Where is RI's list different?
The state and national Top 3 are the same, though in a different order.
But No. 4 sets the Ocean State apart, with an ingredient that didn't even hit the Top 5 nationally. (You just knew that Rhode Islanders would find a way to be different, didn't you?)
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How the RI pizza-topping rankings were determined
The Providence Journal on Thursday conducted an exhaustive but unscientific survey of pizza shop owners from every corner of the state, and places in between, from Burrillville to Little Compton, Westerly to Cumberland, and even out to Block Island. Big cities, like Providence, and small towns, like Exeter, were included, along with suburbs.
In all, 16 pizzerias participated.
Two things were excluded from the pizza-topping survey: plain cheese pizza, because most people would consider that a necessary ingredient, not a topping, and plain pizza, with no cheese, just sauce, because there's definitely no topping there.
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Each pizzeria was asked to rank its five most popular toppings, according to how often customers order them.
First place at each pizzeria got five points, and on down the scale to one point for fifth place.
Pepperoni was so popular it was ranked first by all 16 pizzerias, earning a perfect score of 80.
After pepperoni, mushrooms and sausage, Rhode Islanders chose chicken, though it came in many forms: grilled, roasted, barbecued and Buffalo-style Rhode Island also had a few regional favorites, though only one cracked the Top 10: chourico, with clams, ricotta cheese and soppressata further down the list.
Hovering near the bottom were anchovies, which also ranked at the bottom nationally.
"You get the old-timers like anchovies," said John Campagnone Jr., of Caserta Pizzeria, in Providence.
Top 5 pizza toppings in Rhode Island
1. Pepperoni
2. Mushrooms
3. Sausage
4. Chicken
5. Bacon
6. Olives
7. Peppers
8. Meatball
9. Onions
10. (tie) Chourico; Pineapple; Steak
The restaurants surveyed for this story were: Block Island Pizza Pie Company, Block Island; Serio's Pizza, Burrillville; Catanzaro's Pizzeria, Cranston; Yovanis Pizzeria, Cumberland; Frank & John From Italy, East Greenwich; Little Country Pizza, Exeter; A-1 Pizza, Little Compton; Nikolas Pizza, Newport; Caserta Pizzeria, Fellini Pizzeria, Pizza Pie-er and Providence Coal-Fired Pizza, Providence; Famous Pizza, Scituate; Pasquale's Pizzeria Napoletana, South Kingstown; Frank Pepe Pizzeria Napoletana, Warwick; and Pizza Place, Westerly.
This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Favorite pizza in Rhode Island: Toppings unique to Ocean State
