We like pizza. There are a few pizza places in town, but we don't like going to them. First off, their pizzas aren't *that* good. Secondly, we're not willing to pay the price. A small pizza usually costs about 50 yuan and a large one is between 75 and 100 yuan.
Enter the world of "REAL" pizza!
People from the Uyghur minority group make an amazing flat bread that looks just like the Boboli pizza crust you can find in a grocery store. However, I've never had a Boboli that tastes like this! This flat bread has sesame seeds all over, as well as a lightly salted spice mixture.
Most of the time, I buy this from sellers who are selling from a cart. I've never seen anyone make them before, so I was thrilled to discover the process.
The first photo is a huge cauldron. The flash whited out the red glow of the flames at the bottom of the cauldron. Someone makes the dough (usually just flour, water and a bit of oil) and flattens into shape. It then gets placed in a pan of spice and sesame seeds. The baker then places the dough on a cloth-covered pillow type thing and brushes the edges with oil. He then takes the pillow and inserts his whole hand into the cauldron and presses the dough against the side of the cauldron. He can have as many as six or seven pieces going at once.
He takes the crust out at some sort of halfway point and brushes the sides with oil again and puts it back in. For this procedure, he uses long tweezer types tongs.
When the bread is done, he places it off to the side to cool for a minute and then the customer can bag up what they want and go.
Second photo is the top of the bread and the third photo is the bottom (the part that sticks to the sides).
The last photo is what this bread looks like after we make our simple cheese pizza. (I didn't have time to run out and get other toppings for them.)
Four crusts . . . fresh as fresh can be . . . 10 yuan
Pizza sauce . . . yes, I bought a sauce that is a simple recipe of crushed tomatoes and salt . . . can use it as a base for anything . . . 35 yuan (that's for 2.5 liters!). . . enough left over to freeze . . .
1 kilo of mozzerella cheese . . . enough for four pizzas . . . 54 yuan
Total cost for our terrific pizza meal? 99 yuan! And we had leftovers! And we have enough stuff to do it again next week . . . provided I go back to the same place and buy more bread!
1 comments:
Yum, yum - looks delish!
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