Pizza fight: sausage edition

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So... there are a few more rounds of chefs vs. food media battles in the The Great Pizza Bake Off.  I supported a friend during one of those rounds last year, and this time around I'm here to support another old friend.

Believe it or not, I showed up at Mercato Hong Kong two days in a row for this.  I had dinner here last night, but chose to show my support for Gourmet KC by only ordering the pizza from his team.  It was good enough that I roped in Fergie for another round at lunch today - which was exactly what I did last year...

So the current battle is between Olivier Elzer - formerly of Seasons by Olivier E., L'Atelier de Joël Robuchon, and Pierre - and the team from Fancook Productions (飯局製作公司).  Coincidentally, both teams used Cantonese preserved sausages on their pizzas, so this should prove interesting!

Yun cheung pizza, by Fancook Productions - with foie gras sausage (鵝膶腸, actually made with goose liver), marinated Japanese Nanko plum (南高梅), preserved pork belly (臘肉), and Mozzarella.  This was so good that I had to come back for another round.  I looooove liver sausage, and I already have a stash of the same goose liver sausage at home.  The flavors are heavy, but nicely balanced by the sweetness and acidity of the marinated plums.  It also helped that there wasn't a whole lot of cheese on the pizza, so the crust stayed crispy and crunchy.

Chinese preserved sausage pizza, by Olivier Elzer - with lap cheong (臘腸), crispy potato, Reblochon, and bacon cream.  This was apparently inspired by tartiflette, and this interpretation certainly isn't any lighter than the original...  The amount of cheese and cream on this thing was a little overwhelming, and made the crust in the middle very soggy and limp.  The genius here came in the form of crispy potato chips on top, which made Fergie and I go "WOW!"  It was delicious, but we thought it was simply too heavy.  Fergie felt stuffed after having just one slice.  But I could certainly see the non-Chinese diners preferring this one for its more familiar flavor combination.

Fergie and I were stuffed, so I passed on dessert.  Both were delicious pizzas, but I hope my friends at Fancook win this round.