Emirati pizza? Really, it's a thing and it's got potato chips

In the eternal quest to bring Emirati food to the mainstream, pizza chain Paavo's has launched a new pie inspired by some traditional UAE foods - namely, cheese, hot sauce and Chips Oman!

With a new outlet on the Palm Jumeirah, the chain wanted to do something special. Al Dar Pizza is the answer. And it arrives just in time for UAE National Day.

“We couldn’t think of a better way to celebrate the UAE’s 44th anniversary this year, other than providing our customers with the Emirati Pizza," says Burhan al Hashemi, Managing Director of ENOC Retail, which runs the outlet. ENOC Retail is an arm of the Emirates National Oil Company.

Using an old-fashioned margherita pizza to start with, the pie is assembled with generous lashings of craft cheese and hot sauce. As a finishing touch, it's decorated with Chips Oman. Although the potato crisps, as some readers no doubt call them, were first created in the eighties in the neighbouring Sultanate, they're extremely popular with UAE nationals and residents who've been here since then.

The new pizza will be available from December 2, which marks the day the UAE was federated in 1971.

Paavo's Pizza is better known for letting customers build their own pizza, a feature they are now extending to pasta. "Consumers wanted to customise their own pasta. This is why we are offering a variety of ingredients to choose from. Our signature pasta comes in three versions: chicken, meat balls, and veggie, with an option to enhance the dish with various toppings and sauces," Al Hashemi says.

The new outlet is on Dubai's Palm Jumeirah and is located in Palm Views West. It is the seventh outlet to be rolled out in the emirate and has a seating capacity of 60 people. Another outlet is set to open up at the Jumeirah Lake Towers by the end of 2015.

Paavo's Pizza is a US brand that was born in South Dakota.