New York - pizza

I'm sometimes surprised at how habitually SG and I eat pizza when we're away. We make it and/or order it at least once a week when we're at home but even so, whenever we're travelling, it comes up on the food menu pretty quickly.

We tried three pizzas in New York. We started on our first night, languishing under the burden of jetlag and envying the rest of the city their enthusiasm for Friday night. We ate at Benito II, in Little Italy. It was hardly a little out-of-the-way find, but walking was tough enough, let alone hunting down and discerning between restaurants.

We got their primavera pizza, offering seasonal vegetables, which turned out to be broccoli, mushrooms, and beans. Green beans. Not a toppping I'd seen on a pizza before. The topping choices were weird, but the base and the overall dish were fine. The base was thicker and crispier than we're used to, and quite biscuity.

Two Boots pizza was a food option I'd noted from a random article in the New York Times I'd read months before eating. We came across an outlet in the food court beneath Grand Central Terminal, and a slice each provided the perfect snack/dinner before heading for a late-night visit to the Empire State Building.
This is their pepperoni and mushroom pizza, and for ready-sliced pizza in a public transport food court it was pretty darn good. Much more in the thinner, floppy-base style than the other pizzas we tried while away. Two Boots are all over the city - worth checking on the basis of this sample.

Across Thompson St from our apartment was Arturo's, clearly something of a Greenwich Village institution. Customers spilled out to the sidewalk tables every night, and the sounds of live music and carousing from the inside bar and restaurant slipped through the door with the constant coming and goings. A New York ingenue, who could have been anything from 16 to 30, perched on a railing outside the door and guided customers to their preferred type of table with precision - heavens forfend another staffer seat anyone or bring them menus.

Their pizzas, despite our hostess' assertions that they were the 'best in Manhattan', really weren't that good, to my taste. They weren't bad, they were just in that older, thicker-based style that doesn't get served up in many pizzerias or trattorias round these parts. The meat didn't seem to be anything special, the cheese was just cheese (though not as oily as you get out here, at least). They're big on the coal-fired oven over there, and I don't know if that's imparting less distinction to the dough and toppings.

What was most notable about our meal at Arturo's was the arrival of this fire engine. It clanged past, then braked and deadset reverse parked right in front of the restaurant. It made enough noise that the boutique-dressed and coiffed lady next to us, who hadn't disengaged from her iPhone to talk to her partner or partake in ordering food, had to head round the corner to continue her conversation. Six firies jumped down from the truck and headed in for a slice of pie.

Western Australia

As we've already discovered in South Australia and Tasmania, making travel plans centred on Australia's great wine regions is a sure way to develop a holiday punctuated by exciting tastes and experiences.

Margaret River is a special region, situated so close to some truly stunning coastline features, with crystalline beachs of aqua, turquoise and white, and phenomenal limestone caves with hidden entrances and enchanting, glittering interiors. (Happy to stand corrected on this, but is it also quite a bit flatter than other wine regions?)

The Cape Dutch-style buildings at Voyager Estate proudly display their construction date of 1996. With the food on offer inside, however, here's hoping they are able to one day indicate a rather longer heritage! The menu descriptions leave you well-prepared for the price when you get to the end, but if you've got the funds, it's worth it. It's rare that a meat dish can be presented with such visual appeal that it's a shame to cut into it, but they achieve that with the (world's largest) mustard-rubbed pork cutlet with Persian fetta crumble (yes please!), celeriac mash and roasted apples. That's right, apples, not potatoes (no, the cider from Saturday's festival at Kellybrook hasn't addled my recollection!).
I'd been dreaming of a tasting plate of local produce, picked at while gazing onlawns rolling away to rows of vines dreaming of autumn. Voyager's 'breads and spreads' allowed a close approximation: toasted slices of their own bread with venison chorizo and a range of house condiments, olives, dukkah and oil. Oh, was I happy. While I normally eschew venison, this chorizo was superb. The star of the condiments was eggplant kasundi (can anyone offer more info on kasundi?). It's essentially eggplant pickle, with onion, chilli, lime, ginger, sugar, five spice, vinegar, cardamom and oil. (My taste detectors aren't that good - I read the label on a jar!)
Several breweries have sprung up in the region as well. Bootleg Brewery describes itself as 'an oasis in a desert of wine', but there are more of them around than you might expect. Their tasting tray of six beers is a very reasonable $12, and the setting in which to sample - under awnings or at a generous table by the lake - is entirely congenial. While sipping, one can sup on dips, enormous burgers skewered with a steak knife, fish and chips battered with house Pils (left), or daily specials including a curry, or in our case, Mediterranean vegetable risotto.
Speaking of breweries, Little Creatures is a WA export likely to outlast the commodities boom, and its headquarters in Fremantle are, dare I say, an experience not to be missed. Housed in a couple of mills' worth of port-side real estate, the barnlike Little Creatures Dining Hall serves their signature beers straight from the silo. On busy nights, patrons 'register' for a seat (with a number displayed on a snorkel, flipper, etc) and wait for their number to come up on the 'seating blackboard', heralded by a ship's bell.

The woodfired oven pumps out some classy-sounding pizzas such as chorizo, sweet corn and danish fetta, or zucchini, gorgonzola and semi-dried toms. One of their signature dishes is proscuitto-wrapped tiger prawns (right), which serves up eight satisfyingly plump prawns, each blushed with a paper-thin, swallow-and-miss-it piece of proscuitto. Our second choice, marinated kangaroo and tomato chutney, brought another set of moreish, skewered meat to the table.

Returning to Little Creatures in full sunlight a day or two later, we took advantage of their free bike hire offer (also available at their Melbourne site on Brunswick St) and rode these slightly dubious, but sturdy enough, vehicles up the coast to Cottesloe Beach, about as pleasant a way to spend the afternoon as I can imagine.

Daringly, Mad Monk has set up an ambitious space on Fremantle's South Terrace, where they push their own pale ale in direct competition with Little Creatures' founding product. They've purloined a large property on Fremantle's renowned restaurant strip; one renowned for all the touristy, rather than gastronomic reasons. It's more Lygon St, Carlton than Lygon St, East Brunswick, replete with local institution Ginos, which would undoubtedly serve up a fine bowl of pasta, but you could eat at University Cafe back home instead :)

It would, seem, however, that there's only so long SG and I can go without a pizza, so for our last dinner we headed to Sandrino, just across from Ginos, on Market St. Their pizzas feature the thicker-style bases, but the dough is sweet and fresh and they've taken a little bit of time putting together combinations of pizza toppings. On the left we have roast capsicum, eggplant, ricotta and salciccia; on the right is a pizza special with chicken, bacon, pinenuts and aioli hiding under the spinach. At about $18 each, with local wine available from $6 a class, we were quite satisfied with the arrangement.

Market St, for me, is where it's at in Fremantle. Closer to the station are a clutch of reputable cafes, including Long Macc (great name), and the delightful Hush Espresso (32 Market St). With glass frontage, including a hutch for those stopping by for takeaway coffee, this cafe is small enough that you can read the blackboard menu from your table, but big enough that there's space to pay at the counter without elbowing other diners. There are some fine-looking focaccias and muffins on display, and for breakfast diners are spoilt for sweet choices featuring organic bread and brioche.

Pancakes with berry compote are positively lathered, and could probably have done with a good dose of maple syrup to sweeten up the berry tang and lighten the dough load. French toast, with brioche, raspberry jam and mascarpone, was delightfully presented, the 'soldier' pieces allowing for well-controlled bread-to-condiment allocation.

One thing I learnt on this trip interstate may not concur with the current thinking of some of my blogging brethren, but I do now believe that we are protected in Melbourne from the worst of menu-pricing excess. In Dunsborough, a regional town of around 4000, we had the choice of half a dozen restaurants asking $30+ for the majority of main meals (pastas, maybe $25). One restaurant/wine bar had a $44 steak on the menu. Some of the highest echelon restaurants in Melbourne ask that, and I just couldn't trust that I could walk into an unheralded tourist-town restaurant and feel that I would get over four times worth a $10 steak and pot at the Rathdowne Tavern.

Coffee prices are in a similar state. I paid $3.80-$4 for coffee, including at one cafe where a waitperson (who mercifully handed over the barista reins immediately after!) asked 'What's in a cafe latte?' Some of the coffee was very respectable, but I can get great coffee for $2.50 in Melbourne, superb coffee for $2.70 and astonishing coffee for $3.

What I can't do is swim in the ocean in late April...

I Carusi

46a Holmes St, Brunswick East; 03 9386 5522

It's a wonder that this blog has existed for over two years without a post about i Carusi, the closest dining establishment to our abode, and an establishment often exalted for developing a new model for pizzerias.

I Carusi's menu is as long on flavour sensations as their restaurant is short on space. Tables are squeezed onto every available bit of floor, even immediately in front of the kitchen, which is our coveted spot - it can make a daunting ordering decision easier when you can watch others' food being prepared and see what takes your fancy!

The menu is a handwritten page of pizza options, but before you think that limits choice, note that they do come in two sizes! The main offerings are bracketed by foccacia (with, for example, garlic, rosemary and sea salt) for nibbles, as well as a couple of simple salads (tomato, cucumber and red onion), and their renowned dessert pizzas (oozing with Belgian chocolate).

I challenge anyone to easily settle on their pizza of choice at i Carusi. If you're fond of classic pizza toppings like proscuitto, basil, mushrooms, artichokes, sopressa (salami) etc, you'll be presented with a list of all your favourites spread over 22 permutations. Over many visits I've worked my way through at least half, including -

Gamberi piccante: with gentle prawns, a touch a chilli, semidried toms, basil and fior di latte
St Alain: with a simple combination of provelone, artichokes and rocket
Pizza for a Friend: higher vegie content with roasted pumpkin, plus pinenuts, rocket and goats cheese
Capriciosa: a classic, done with virginia ham and black (unpitted) olives

Tonight there was another classic on the table: the funghi porcini. There are no extraneous toppings; it's just tomato, mozzarella, porcini mushrooms and prosciutto. And it's delicious.

My choice looks remarkably like SG's! In this case it's the Genovese: tomato, goats cheese, pesto, roasted peppers and proscuitto. A little more involved, certainly. I Carusi get the thin, bubbled, slightly nutty, slightly sweet bases spot on every time. The toppings, while more copious than on many other offerings, aren't overdone. Salty cheese matches sweet, almost-charred peppers and there's enough proscuitto to enjoy a little bit on its own with enough left to keep your pizza covered.

I Carusi had applied for a liquor licence; however, due to objections from neighbours they've had to stick with BYO and offering the San Pellegrino range of Italian soft drinks. So grab a cheeky red, call to make a booking, and settle in for your fave pizza, done Brunswick-East-style.

Golden Pizza II

500 Lygon St, Brunswick East; 03 9383 1386

Are you ever inclined to show no restraint when ordering a pizza with your own selection of toppings? To go for everything that you like, rather than just three or four complementary flavours? The staff at Golden Pizza have done just that with one of the gourmet pizzas on their specials board, the aptly named 'Fusion'. It features: three types of tomatoes (the standard tom base, sun-dried and roma), two types of cheese (mozza and bocconcini), three vegetables (eggplant, roasted peppers and pumpkin) plus a meat (Virginian ham).
Golden Pizza's standard base is a lot thicker than many, so it can handle the overload. And so can my tastebuds. This pizza was delicious. The thicker base is fluffy on the inside with a crisp base, and not too sweet. There wasn't huge evidence of the sun-drieds, but the romas added juicy bursts of tomato flavour. I think pumpkin is a natural fit as a pizza topping, but perhaps its preparation needs dictate the fact that it's not always popular. Here it was wonderfully mushy against the crisper base. My goodness, there are still so many flavours to describe! Both the eggplant and roasted peppers added their own degree of smokiness. The eggplant, happily, was finely cut so it didn't 'string out' as can be the case when it's laid on in larger slices. The Virginia ham contributed some subtle meatiness much as bacon might. All in all, I was thoroughly impressed.

SG did in fact construct his own pizza. Ordering from the everyday menu, he went for the chicken pizza, which invites you to pick your own accompaniments. His choices were capsicum and mushroom, with the requisite BBQ sauce.The chicken pieces were chunky and as such dried out a little in the oven. This pizza was perhaps more akin to something we'd be likely to rustle up in our own oven, as far as the toppings went in any case. But the proof for any pizza establishment is in the base, and Golden Pizza have a lot to lay claim to in that regard to make them well worth the stopover on the way home.

Golden Pizza I

Pizza Farro III

608 High St, Thornbury; 03 9484 2040

Pizza Farro is rightly renowned for its spelt-based pizzas and on our most recent visit I'd had every intention of furthering my acquaintance with their selection. While browsing the pasta specials, however, the combination of pumpkin, spinach, pine nuts and ricotta became too tempting to forego. Nor would I forego spelt by choosing this option, as it's also the grain of choice for their pastas.

Pizza Farro isn't the cheapest eatery around - in most sections of their menu dishes start from around $18, travelling up to $23 or so for those with finer ingredients - but their produce is high quality, their cooking well-considered and their serving sizes ample. Their pizzas only come in one size, but it's a large one. The pasta alla zucca is similarly generous:The generosity extends to flavour. The cubed pumpkin is at a stage of mushiness that leaves it at the whim of your fork: pierce to pick up whole, or squash to dissolve. The ricotta, by comparison, holds its firmness; the pinenuts as always bring the crunch and the spinach some coarseness. The spelt pasta, too, brings a subtle distinction to the dish: matched with the pinenuts its hint of nuttiness lifts the flavour.

SG also managed to wrest his tastebuds from the salsicce pizza of our last visit. He's not one to stray too far from the pork, however, and selects the calzone with napoli, bocconcini, spicy pork sausage, mushrooms and, wait for it, truffle oil. The combination of field mushrooms and truffle gives a wonderful earthiness to balance the spicy sausage. Some mouthfuls of the folded pizza are a little heavy on dough, but that's more about filling distribution than any fault of the dish.

Service, as always, was helpful and friendly. We'll need to call on their help during future visits, I would think, as the menu keeps getting harder to choose from.

Tasmania - Restaurant dining

One thing about living in Melbourne is that you sometimes feel a bit silly heading out for Greek or Italian when you're interstate. We did sample a couple of the Apple Isle's offering of the latter, but on other occasions were left with just what was open in the town that night.

T's Chinese Restaurant, Main Street, Sheffield

Our plan had been to eat at Weindorfers, a restaurant attached to our accommodation, on the first night. It's only open for group bookings, however, but the proprietor was kind enough to recommend a Chinese restaurant in nearby Sheffield. We would have eaten there without the recommendation since I think it was the only place in town serving up, but it was good to know it had had good reports.

It got good reports from me as soon as I stepped into the dining room. The restaurant is in a converted house and the dining area at the back defines 'bright', both in its lighting and decor. The menu kept things pretty simple: there were three meats on offer for mains and they came with something, usually a vegetable or a herb. Our picks were the garlic pork and the beef with sweet corn.

We started with some vegie spring rolls, which came served on a sweet blue dish. The dough managed the happy duality of being both crispy and very oily and the cabbage, onion and carrot filling suitably flavoursome.

The garlic pork preceded the beef dish by some minutes. While the amount of meat was undoubtedly generous, it was ably matched by the quantity of garlic laced through the dish! Not that there's anything wrong with that. From the taste samples I took while awaiting my beef dish I thought the meat had been well-handled, the vegetables were suitably crisp and the sauce was undoubtedly stocky, but worked well with the meat.

I wasn't as convinced of the kitchen's merits by my beef and sweet corn. The sauce here took on more of a gelatinous texture, and there wasn't a lot to distinguish it from what had already been served with the pork. Again, however, the meat serving was sizable. It would want to be, however, since the dishes described plus rice for two (no drinks) came to a $50 meal! Most of the mains were priced at $17 or $18.

La Calibrisella
56 Wellington St, Launceston

We sourced a winning recommendation from our hostel to head to nearby La Calibrisella for dinner. We twinged momentarily at heading out to a good pizza joint while on holidays, since we live in rolling distance of a couple of the better ones in Melbourne, but this restaurant had an ultimately redeeming feature: it was BYO-only, charged no corkage and was across the road from a BWS!

The menu was extensive Italian: a range of pastas as entree or main (with some thought to sauces), pizzas, and more substantial meat dishes (stuffed chicken breast, veal scallopine etc). SG went with the inexplicably named 'surprise' pizza: the listed ham, capsicum and mushroom topping wasn't particularly unexpected, either on the menu or plate. The base smelled wonderful, as only freshly cooked dough can, but it was actually quite bready and a bit too sweet.

I chose the Penne Fontana, which, unlike the pizza, actually did come with some surprises. The menu promised hot salami, chilli and mushrooms. The dish arrived with capers and olives as well, so it was a welcome addition. It was properly hot and more enjoyable for the salty extras.

We shared a tiramisu for dessert, which was really more of an espresso sponge cake with a mascarpone layer than a traditional rendering of the dish, but the caramel sauce was a nice touch.The restaurant was well-patronised by locals, and the service was excellent.

Ristorante Da Angelo
47 Hampden Road, Battery Point, Hobart

The last night should always be a special dining night. I'd spied an intimate-looking Spanish restaurant called Franciscos across from the famous Jackman and Ross bakery, but they'd decided to take Anzac Day off. Almost straight across the road was Da Angelo and when we went in at 8pm to find there were no tables until 9pm, we took it as a good sign.

Clearly a local favourite, Da Angelo's was chocked with both diners and customers waiting to collect takeaway pizzas and pastas. They make all of their pasta on site, daily. This really came across in the moistness of the dough and its ability to absorb the sauce.

What to order?? The menu offered spaghetti, fettucine and macaroni, each with their own half dozen sauces (though you're welcome to mix and match), plus three types each of ravioli, gnocchi and risotto plus veal and chicken dishes. Feeling our hunger enhanced by the Tasmanian beer we'd already consumed, we hastily ordered some garlic bread. It came as grilled squares of fresh bread, actually dribbling with oil and butter and sprinkled with garlic pieces.I could have eaten several bowls of that and gone home happy.

SG mixed his pasta and sauce, going with a heavy option of ravioli di carne with molisana sauce: bacon, onion, olives (first time he's ordered those!), capsicum, tomato and garlic.The ravioli was particularly fine, al dente in the way only freshly made specimens can be. Like me, however, there was no way he was going to do justice to the size of the portion.

I needed assistance and decided to run with the waitress' recommendation of the fettucine matriciana (top tip: order entree size on the pastas!)It was hot! The sauce was well-balanced though, as the bacon contributed salty flavour to balance the sweeter tomato.

I would have liked the red wine I'd ordered to be at hand to complement the sauce and temper the chilli, but our drinks were absent. One enquiry to a waitress elicited that 'they're probably on their way'. Even in a rammed restaurant, when the patrons' food is already at the table that's an insufficient answer. An enquiry to our original waitress revealed that she had in fact forgotten to order them. After tasting my wine I mustered courage to check with the manager as to whether I had actually received the Ninth Island (Tamar Valley) pinot I'd ordered, since the wine had all the aroma and earthiness of what I'd expect from the house cab sav. I was assured it was correct, but after the other issues I remained a little sceptical.

It was a small downer to what was otherwise potentially a near perfect Last Night Out. Suffice to say that on the up side we were very happy (though distressingly over-supplied!) with our food.

Zonzo at Train Trak

957 Healesville-Yarra Glen Rd, Yarra Glen; 03 9730 2500

When the sun shines bright blue above the green of the vines and hills of the Yarra Valley, and you have a designated driver or seat on a coach sorted, plus you're sporting a wristband worth $40 of entitlements, Grape Grazing is a wondrous festival. Held over 10 days in mid-February, and featuring the majority of vineyards in the area, it culminates on one weekend with a dozen or so wineries putting on food and entertainment.

We were just in Yarra Glen to visit family, however, and thought initially that, since we weren't officially taking part in the festival fun we might miss a chance to try out one of the region's newcomers. I had been keen for some months to try Zonzo Pizzeria at Train Trak vineyard, but the restaurant itself was closed over the weekend. Luckily, they were selling a selection of pizzas as part of the festival and, since we got there late in the afternoon, they didn't need us to be paid-up festival goers to gain entry to the party.

The vineyard is worth visiting for its situation and view. The outlook, over the vines in one direction and the valley and hills beyond in the other, is a wonderful contrast of deep blues and greens.

When the restaurant is running at full swing it offers a range of almost 20 pizzas, all priced at $16.90. Pancetta, proscuitto and gorgonzola feature strongly. For festival day they had four pizzas available and I didn't need to read any further than the Pizza alla salsiccia: pomodoro, taleggio cheese, Italian pork sausage, Spanish onion and rosemary.

The pork sausage lay on the sweet, chewy dough base in chunks, with visible studs of fennel in the sausage meat. The rosemary, though dried, was a strong presence. Happily the taleggio didn't fight against the meat and herbs for flavour dominance and instead met its purpose in holding the pizza together. This single example off their menu hit the spot and left me very keen for our next trip to the valley and opportunity to sample more.

www.traintrak.com.au

Pizza Farro II

608 High St, Thornbury; 03 9484 2040

What to do when a multi-page menu has no dull bits, no sections to skip over before you get to the good stuff? Pizza Farro's current menu is temptation from the off, with the front page pasta specials - such as spicy pork sausage in a carbonara sauce - almost luring me away from my dining intention: their excellent, spelt-flour pizzas.

As described in a previous post, the menu is divided into pastas, antipasti and meat, non-meat and fish pizzas. We managed to delve into three of these subsections between us. First out was garlic bread, which was moister than on our first visit and glowing with garlic flavour. Four arancini balls came with a pert, minty yoghurt sauce (handy I guess after all that garlic!) The rice balls were suitably crispy on the outside and held their filling well.

The pizzas were, again, delicious. The spelt dough base is very giving and perhaps a little nuttier than a standard flour one. And it's just not as heavy, so even after bread and a starter you can really hoe into the laden pizzas. First up was the ricotta, with olive tapenade, spinach, pine nuts, garlic and artichokes. What a list! It's a superb flavour and texture combination, as the salty tapenade layering the pizza base is perfectly countered by the sweet, fluffy ricotta. The pine nuts add a tiny bit of crunch and the artichokes give some roughage, in a good way, against the downy cheese.

The salsicce - spicy pork sausage, roast capsicum, spring onion, bocconcini and parmesan - flies the Italian tri-colour flag and looks as tempting and fulfilling as a pizza can. It delivers on the flavour promise, though all that meat, dough, greenery and cheese shaved on post-oven had my mind tricked into thinking focaccia rather than pizza.

Pizza Farro has made a name out of its rustic charm. BYO wine is served in the same type of tumblers as the water. The waitstaff are keen to help you with the menu, make recommendations and ensure you're aware of any updates since your last visit. A word on corkage though - we were last there in May and the corkage was $3.50 and in our case was actually $0, as they waived it since we hadn't finished the bottle. Last night corkage was $7 a bottle, about the same price as their cheapest by-the-glass. It seems out of keeping with the rustic atmosphere.

La Bussola

319 Lygon St, Brunswick; 03 9387 6779

In an earlier post I commented on Il Nostro Posto's attempts to create a genuine Italian trattoria feel, which I didn't feel were a 100% successful. In part, that was probably because I was subconsciously comparing it with La Bussola, the first restaurant we ventured to in the area and have since returned to probably more than any other. Why? Because this family-run establishment turns out well-priced, generously-portioned, authentically-prepared Italian food. Furthermore, the interior makes me feel like I'm in Italy: elaborate wrought iron contrasts with laminex tables and plastic chairs. The walls at the front of the restaurant are exposed brick; at the back they're a colour-wall of various warm hues being tried on for size.

Their main business is pizza, and they do a nightly, bustling trade in takeaway. The menu, deftly held together on a clipboard at each table, also has a pick-and-mix pasta selection: you select the noodle and sauce of your choice, all at around $10. From this part of the menu I can highly recommend their amatriciana sauce. They offer various other plated dishes, with lots of seafood on offer, a saltimbocca, and a decent schnitzel.

La Bussola also does good things on their drinks list. They offer house red and white at just $4 a glass, as well as several beers at good prices. Even Peroni comes in at $5 a bottle, I think.

On our most recent visit the item of choice was a shared chicken pizza, with ham and mushrooms.It arrives steaming from the pizza oven and is suitably laden with toppings. While I'd never use it at home, I love a trattoria pizza strewn with diced ham. The pizzas are only lightly cooked, but the dough still achieves the crispiness you want to complement the toppings moored in the melted cheese. Excellent value, fresh, quality stuff.

Mark's Pizza

Corner of Grattan and Swanston Sts; 03 9347 0474

Mark's is a great option for a cheap feed, close to the CBD. Most of the pizzas are around $8-9 for a medium size (example below). There's a set menu of course (with selected extras, including chilli and parmesan, at no extra charge), the option to create your own, as well as blackboard specials. The set menu is quite generic - margherita, capricciosa, that curious entity that is the 'Aussie' pizza - but the specials branch out a lot more, with options such as tangy satay chicken. There is also a limited range of pasta dishes, and gelato is available for dessert. The wine list is brief and cheap - mainly Rosemount and Lindeman style wines.

The pizzas have quite a thick base, which was a little on the doughy side. It could just be because I'm so used to the thinner style, but with the cheese cooked almost to crispiness, it was a bit of an inbalance. The toppings are generous, but the heavier dough overwhelms them a bit so each doesn't stand out individually. Regardless, the pizzas are freshly and attentively made; are far, far superior to franchise pizza; and they are served by genuinely cheery staff.

Spuntino Bar, T'Gallant Winery

1385 Mornington Flinders Rd, Main Ridge; 03 5989 6565

If you had to pick a day to head down the Peninsula, purely to augment one's wine supply, this was the day to go. Flooded with sunshine, but too early in the season for the un-ac'ed Pulsar to get uncomfortably hot. Definitely the weather for sundresses, suncream, and sun-drenched lunches!

T'Gallant has an excellent cellar door, with a lot of wines on tasting (including four of their white pinots: makes for a great comparison between the French and Italian styles) and two eating establishments on site: La Barracca Trattoria and Spuntino Bar, which does a simple line of finger food and desserts.

Spuntino has three pizzas on offer, served as half or full. 'Half' refers neither to a semicircle of pizza, nor a mini-disc, rather 12 squares served on a wooden board - a tidy snack for two, whereas a full pizza would provide a more than adequate meal. We went for the salsiccia, with salami, sugo and pecorino.
Foregrounded is a bowl of roasted, herbed potatoes, that we ordered assuming half a pizza wouldn't be enough. Phew, that's a whole lot of carb! And oil - the pizza was smothered with it, pooled into the curled-up salamis. Once the oil was sponged off the salami provided the chewiness, while the base and pecorino where a soft, giving counterpoint. Very moist and very moreish. The spuds were flecked with sea salt and had been scored for extra crispiness.
There's a great view too, over pinot vines that run up and down sloping hills. Next to the wooden trestle tables is part of the winemaking facility, which gives a nice visual flowchart from vine, processing, to the finished product ready to be tasted at the cellar door.

Golden Pizza

500 Lygon St, Brunswick East; 03 9383 1386

Despite its proximity, it's taken me almost two years to get around to sampling Golden Pizza. It's further away than il Carusi and, while closer, doesn't have the trattoria ambience of La Bussola.

They have a blackboard range of standards - variations on ham, olives, salami, mushroom, starting from around $7 for a small or $9-10 for a medium. More exciting are their specials, revolving around more tantalising ingredients such as basil, artichokes and sundried tomatoes. These start at $11 for a medium.

I went for Julie's Margherita:Lots of big torn basil leaves, heavy with luminous white ricotta and dotted around with halved cherry tomatoes. Good, fresh flavours, though perhaps slightly cloying on the ricotta - combined with the thicker base - and mainly because I've eaten so many wafer thin, crispy bases of late - it was a little chewy. The dough was excellent though: firm, but came apart well and ever so slightly sweet.

Update: Golden Pizza have moved across the road to 465 Lygon St, Brunswick East. Their phone number is the same.