My seven-year-old eats anchovies. And he likes them! Perhaps I will have split the readership with this one, but I find myself among those with the normal opinion of anchovies, which is to say I have no use for them. My son, however, has discovered through the most pure and curious of means, that he likes canned fish of all varieties.

It began with many denied inquiries into the purchasing of cans of sardines at the store. For some reason, they all seem to be stocked at his eye level, so between that and perhaps television, I assumed it was just him trying to be provocative. 

After much persistence however, I caved and allowed him to pick some out. We took it home and he tried it alongside his brother. With more grimace on my face than his, he declared it delicious and proceeded to eat the whole can himself. 

Fast-forward a few months to a camping excursion with my good friend and his girlfriend. My wife and I were taking the boys to go glamping in upstate NY with our aforementioned friends. We were renting a cabin, which meant an indulgence in cooking with them. We honestly packed too much food, but the big meal we all ended up tearing into was a few trays of homemade pizza, cooked the evening after a long hike in the Adirondacks. 

We all brought some different toppings to be contributed in part or to the whole of the pizzas. My wife started the dough before we left and simply rolled it out on trays before building each one. The kids had a standard pepperoni-style pizza to enjoy, and the other was an onslaught of mushrooms, balsamic vinegar, cheeses, sun-dried tomatoes and more. AND…there were a few anchovies on the corner of that otherwise delicious pizza. 

Our friends, as it turned out, also liked anchovies, and were excited to try the few pieces there were with my son. To balance their insanity, I enjoyed the furthest corners of the pizza while they made that atrocity disappear. But regardless of my lack of culture as it pertains to shelf-stable fish, we proved one thing quite simply. A pizza brings people together and can be a shared space for all kinds of differences of opinion. 

I for one hold the Hawaiian pizza in high esteem. I understand that there are those who do not. But a pizza can be made in fractions, split into smaller pieces, or agreed upon by a group. As far as I know, I have yet to meet an individual who truly doesn’t like pizza itself. 

The way out here pizza is a cornerstone of family meals. Too tired to cook? Heat up a pizza. Want something fast? Pizza. Something simple? Pizza. Something loaded with variety? Pizza. In our case, it was a great meal for a weekend away. And as it turned out, it was a celebratory meal following the engagement of our friends that day. So get yourself a slice of life, like my friends Jesse and Janel. Congratulations, my friends, may your future together have as much excitement as the infinite toppings of a pizza!