Silver Case

For my tastes, no pizza satisfies like Pizza Pub of Clarion.    The most common failure is the crust (too thin like a cracker, or something repulsively pillowy and billuous).

Tonight’s pizzas at Nick’s were well on their way to being really good.  Just the right medium thickness, yet crispy.  I noticed the pizza boy running a tool like looked like a lawn aerator vigorously over all the crusts, perhaps that’s why.
The toppings were pretty good.  The mushrooms were the best. The pepperoni was small diameter, would have liked that to be larger gauge.  The cheese, which they brag about being, “low fat,” shouldn’t be — the pizza could have used a more muscular cheese.

The single best improvement?  If I eat there again I’ll request extra sauce.  It simply needed
more. It tasted good when I’d hit a patch of it.  The other improvement?  Provide ice with pitchers of soft drinks. Yuck.
Funny thing was that the 20yo store had the same homey independent feel that Pizza Pub has.  Including a strange semi-roof of brown shingles helping separate the kitchen from the dining.

The only questionable thing I saw was the owner quarrelling with a table of ugly women about a messed-up order. They insisted they had ordered one thing, and the waiter heard something else, and said he’d repeated their order as he heard it.  The owner was stepping in and giving the, “why would the waiter repeat your order and you not correct him?” sorts of lines. By the time he capitulated, “well then what, do you want me to make you a new pie?” the damage was long since done. I don’t know what the point of bickering over $3 of ingredients with customers was. Whatever… not my problem.

Anyway, the place has good pizza.  Order extra sauce.

Open 7 days from 5pm

9416 2276

374 Pacific Highway

Lindfield 2070

It’s exactly what it claims to be. Their ice cream (gelateriaadfaskdfm whatever they want to call it) is really good.

Understand that I am not an ice-cream enthusiast in any way. For me to have eaten two orders of ice cream there says something! I had something called ‘kinder’ which was white chocolate and gnutella. It was probably the creamiest ice cream I’ve ever eaten in my life. The sweetness level was perfect and the texture of ribbons of gnutella in it made it a real treat. My second order was a cone of screaming Blood Orange. It had a fantastic color and a really punchy, powerful taste. Maybe a bit exhausting after a while, in fact, but still, good.

Espresso Bar? Well, yeah, they run lavazza beans. I had an espresso. It was fine.

362 Pacific Highway

Lindfield NSW 2070

9416-2275

My kayaking lessons this week were held at Rose Bay.  On Thursday we went early, in order to have breakfast before my 11am lesson.  Bernasconi’s was well-reviewed in one of my cafe guides so we tried that.

Overall impression?  Fairly large, well-run, busy cafe.  No magic, but also no complaints.

Ling ordered field mushrooms and spinach on thick toast that tasted fantastic.  I think it was  a combination of many types of mushrooms plus a lot of garlic that gave it such good flavor.  Her drink was atrocious, turned out to be a glob of ice cream floating in enormously sweet cocoa milk. She hated it.

I don’t remember my coffees at all, which means they were neither fantastic nor horrible, just fine.  I think it was a long black to go along with my scrambled eggs/toast sort of meal.

I’ve found that most cafes in Sydney can manufacture a coffee that you’d have to at least give an “above average” mark to.  Also, they seem to have dialed in what good toast is:  big thick, crusty slices.

I wouldn’t go out of my way to come here, but if I was in the area, and wanted a cafe lunch or breakfast, this would be a top-three candidate.
23 Plumer Road

Rose Bay, NSW 2029

Phone (02) 9327 5717

On the advice of a Japanese friend of my sister-in-law, we visited this family-style, family-run Japanese restaurant near Darling Harbour, after taking Luke to the Sydney Aquarium.

It looks shabby, like a bad and greasy Chinese restaurant selling “economical rice” to hobo’s. But it only looks old and tired because it’s old and established, run by a Japanese couple, the Oka’s, for many years. It turned out to be very tasty. Half the customers were Japanese, which was also a good clue.
I order Katsu Curry and Ling called a salmon/avocado maki. In a restaurant that looked like this, I thought hers was a brave choice, but she said it turned out to be really good, especially against the standard of other “family” Japanese restaurants we’ve eaten at. My katsu curry was good, the gravy looked rough and from scratch, and had good seasoning. The rice tasted good, too, as if it had been cooked in mineral water.

We ended up calling another dish we saw several people eating, tempura soft-shelled crab. This tempura is not light-colored in the Edo-style, it’s more old fashioned which is darker. Tasted good, no hint of grease-logging, and was sprinkled with a nice, crisp dressing and served on some salad.

My biggest regret? Not ordering the kara-age (deep fried chicken). I saw numerous people call the dish, it’s clearly good. The chicken looked mouth-watering. It was served (oddly) on a bed of penne-like pasta, then sprayed down in a light matrix of Japanese mayonaise. Not exactly healthy-looking, but must taste fantastic.

51 Druitt St, Sydney

Phone (02) 9283 0606