Improving pizza, Xinjiang Style

Back to HK for a bit, I wanted to share a creative way to make pizza when I was in Dalian. I never wrote about it on my old Dalian blog, so I may as well write it up now.

In the early days of my stay in Dalian, I discovered nang 馕, the traditional flatbread of Xinjiang cuisine. The first thought that came to my head when I saw it was that it looked a helluva lot like pizza crust and I promptly took some home to use as pizza. The experiment worked and it is much tastier than boring old pizza crust.

A couple of weeks ago, my buddy Rick who still lives in Dalian came to visit me and I requested he bring down a bundle of nang from the Xinjiang guys that I frequented back in my Dalian heydays. The nang he brought back was better than I remembered! Lightly seasoned and with little flakes of garlic and some other unidentifiable spice it was good eating on its own. Nope, I had to resist and froze them (unfortunately) to eat later. Well this afternoon, I pulled them out of the freezer and instead of thawing them, I steamed them for 3 minutes to get some moisture back in them. Then I smattered my homemade tomato sauce, cheddar cheese, sausages, basil, red peppers and garlic. Ten minutes in the oven later and Italy's gift to the world was served.

Just a note, these photos weren't taken by my trusty Canon 350D and 50mm prime F1.8 of which I usually use to take food photos.

Last night I bought a Ricoh Caplio R5 which is new on the market and selling for a great price. Check out the latest food photos to see how it shoots....I'll be using the Ricoh as a walkaround camera (ie: with me at all times) and I will be shooting a lot of 'incognito' street photography. Pulling out a big lens camera just spooks people sometimes. Benefits of the camera inlude wide angle and telephoto capability, 26-200mm and a beautiful macro capability.

The drawbacks to the Ricoh point and shoot, or ANY point and shoot for that matter is that it sucks in low light conditions. There is too much noise or "graininess" in darker photos. Don't even bother to pump up the ISO! I don't like shooting photos with flash so Ricoh will strictly be used for its beautiful macro capabilities outdoors and in well lit areas. More fun and photography taking coming up!