Do you live in Sydney? Great. Chances are, you have eaten Crust pizza. And chances are, you LOVE it.
Caliban and I are pretty spoiled for choice when it comes to pizza. With our proximity to Sydney's real Little Italy, Haberfield, we could eat at a different pizza place every night if our waistlines and wallets allowed it. But we do hold a very special place in our hearts for Crust, the gourmet pizza chain that's in just about every Sydney suburb by now. When we first started dating, we'd regularly eat their garlic prawn pizza (washed down with a couple of Becks each) while watching DVDs, cuddling, gazing lovingly into each others' eyes, and so on.
So you can imagine my excitement when I opened the mailbox last week to find a Crust menu - for our new, very local, very own Crust. Yes!
That very night, I treated Caliban to an at-home dinner date and we feasted on Garlic Prawn, White Anchovy and Herb and Garlic pizzas.
I'm pretty particular about pizzas. I don't like meat on them (save for salami) and I recoil when people order stuff like "barbecue chicken pizza". That's not pizza. I like thin-based pizzas with a handful of quality toppings. This is why margherita pizza will always be my favourite - chewy, milky buffalo mozarella on a thick, rich tomato base and a sprinkling of oregano. You can't beat it. But I do like seafood pizzas, even if purists will draw and quarter me for it.
Crust does do meat pizzas, and seafood pizzas, and even (quel horreur!) heart tick-approved pizzas. I've tasted from their menu extensively, and it's all pretty amazing, with quality ingredients and hard-to-beat bases. The menu is laid out really nicely, with a guide to bases (your standard tomato base is there, along with less traditional pumpkin, spinach and ricotta blend and olive tapenade bases) that's handy for first-time customers.
It's fairly expensive takeout (over $50 for our three pizzas and a - very - small tub of mango gelato) but Crust is such a standout standby option. While we didn't love the White Anchovy pizza (it was our first foray into white anchovy-land, and we weren't happy tourists: they're far fishier than their black counterparts), everything else, including delivery time - about 25 minutes - was spot-on. A fab, easy way to spend Saturday night.
Crust Gourmet Pizza Bar
Various locations
www.crust.com.au
Showing posts with label pizza. Show all posts
Showing posts with label pizza. Show all posts
Wednesday, December 2
Saturday, September 26
haberfield post/il goloso
A week ago, my friend Ed sent me an email inviting Caliban and I, and some friends from high school, to dinner to celebrate her return to Australia. She's been to Africa, Europe and America. I'm - how do you say? - incredibly jealous.
But as well as being really, really, insanely jealous of her travels, I was also really, really, insanely impressed with her choice of restaurant. We met last night at Haberfield Post (which also, confusingly, goes by its former name of Il Goloso) and I swear to blog, I ate more food in that one sitting than I did in this entire last week.
We live very close to Haberfield, so Haberfield Post is our regular pizza place now. It's very old-school Italian in a sophisticated setting. The food is affordable and um, delicious. Very, verrrrry delicious. It's also BYO. Bonus.
So last night, the eight of us settled in with a couple of bottles of white and a bottle of red (for dessert). It wasn't nearly enough wine, but that's OK. We made up for the lack of alcohol indulgence with food.
While we waited for the last of the party to arrive, we ordered the bruschetta pizza. As the name suggests, it's a fresh, doughy, thin pizza base topped with diced roma tomatoes, olive oil and basil. It's amazing. Paired with a cold glass of sav blanc, it's a perfect summer dish (too bad it was freezing last night!)
There was a bit of confusion with our mains. Caliban and I ordered the fiori dello zucchini (zucchini flowers) and a Siciliana pizza for our mains, to share. Unfortunately, the zucchini came out as an entree. Not even close to a dealbreaker, to be sure...but it's nice when waiters get these things right.
I love zucchini flowers for the delicate taste of the flower, which is usually paired with something more robust. In this case, the flowers were stuffed with ricotta and anchovies. It sounded promising, but the batter they were deep-fried in was far too thick - you couldn't taste anything but oil. A little disappointing.
Then, the table was filled with pizza. Caliban and I ordered the Siciliana (bocconcini, eggplant and tomato sauce), Nurse Jacquie ordered the Appetitoso (chicken, sundried tomatoes, avocado; she also requested fetta, but it never quite arrived...), Ed and Miss C shared a Super Alex (surprisingly, the restaurant allowed a 'half-half' order...Miss C didn't want proscuitto on her half of the pizza for some reason that defies, well, reason) and Tara (DDS commenter!) had the spinach, ricotta, parmesan and bocconcini calzone. I've ordered it before, and it was easily the best calzone I've ever had. Soft, almost sweet dough filled with three types of creamy, sharp cheese and spinach. Heaven. The Siciliana was standard Italian fare: rich, sweet tomato sauce topped with the mild bocconcini and squares of fried eggplant. Yum. Nurse Jacquie's Appetitoso didn't really whet my appetite: I'm not one for chicken or avocado on pizzas. And, pretentious as it sounds, I think sundried tomatoes have had their day. Enough with the sundried tomatoes. I've also eaten the Super Alex (proscuitto, olives, tomatoes, bocconcini and baby spinach) and I feel for Miss C. The proscuitto really makes it. As for the other boys, I can't remember what they ate...even for the lack of booze.
To finish the night, we ordered three Nutella calzones, a pannacotta for Caliban and tiramisu for Miss C and I. The tiramisu was amazing - super-light sponge soaked in sweet coffee with layers of thick, fluffy cream laced with amaretto. So perfect with a glass of cab sav that I had to have two (glasses, that is). Caliban loves pannacotta, and HP's is no exception. Served in a sundae glass, the pannacotta sat on a bed of strawberry syrup - so when you spooned the creamy pannacotta, you got a good serve of sweet syrup, too. Nice touch. And the Nutella calzones were so, so, so good. Really. Sweet dough blanketed the creamy, nutty chocolate paste...and all mention of boxing classes and Weight Watchers flew out the proverbial window. The four girls (with a little help from Caliban and Chef James) polished off all three of the calzones, with just a few slices left for Nurse Jacquie's lunch today.
And would you believe it? When the bill came, we all owed just $30 each. Great value, amazing food, perfect Saturday night company.
Haberfield Post/Il Goloso
60 Dalhousie St, Haberfield
(02) 9716 9744
But as well as being really, really, insanely jealous of her travels, I was also really, really, insanely impressed with her choice of restaurant. We met last night at Haberfield Post (which also, confusingly, goes by its former name of Il Goloso) and I swear to blog, I ate more food in that one sitting than I did in this entire last week.
We live very close to Haberfield, so Haberfield Post is our regular pizza place now. It's very old-school Italian in a sophisticated setting. The food is affordable and um, delicious. Very, verrrrry delicious. It's also BYO. Bonus.
So last night, the eight of us settled in with a couple of bottles of white and a bottle of red (for dessert). It wasn't nearly enough wine, but that's OK. We made up for the lack of alcohol indulgence with food.
While we waited for the last of the party to arrive, we ordered the bruschetta pizza. As the name suggests, it's a fresh, doughy, thin pizza base topped with diced roma tomatoes, olive oil and basil. It's amazing. Paired with a cold glass of sav blanc, it's a perfect summer dish (too bad it was freezing last night!)
There was a bit of confusion with our mains. Caliban and I ordered the fiori dello zucchini (zucchini flowers) and a Siciliana pizza for our mains, to share. Unfortunately, the zucchini came out as an entree. Not even close to a dealbreaker, to be sure...but it's nice when waiters get these things right.
I love zucchini flowers for the delicate taste of the flower, which is usually paired with something more robust. In this case, the flowers were stuffed with ricotta and anchovies. It sounded promising, but the batter they were deep-fried in was far too thick - you couldn't taste anything but oil. A little disappointing.
Then, the table was filled with pizza. Caliban and I ordered the Siciliana (bocconcini, eggplant and tomato sauce), Nurse Jacquie ordered the Appetitoso (chicken, sundried tomatoes, avocado; she also requested fetta, but it never quite arrived...), Ed and Miss C shared a Super Alex (surprisingly, the restaurant allowed a 'half-half' order...Miss C didn't want proscuitto on her half of the pizza for some reason that defies, well, reason) and Tara (DDS commenter!) had the spinach, ricotta, parmesan and bocconcini calzone. I've ordered it before, and it was easily the best calzone I've ever had. Soft, almost sweet dough filled with three types of creamy, sharp cheese and spinach. Heaven. The Siciliana was standard Italian fare: rich, sweet tomato sauce topped with the mild bocconcini and squares of fried eggplant. Yum. Nurse Jacquie's Appetitoso didn't really whet my appetite: I'm not one for chicken or avocado on pizzas. And, pretentious as it sounds, I think sundried tomatoes have had their day. Enough with the sundried tomatoes. I've also eaten the Super Alex (proscuitto, olives, tomatoes, bocconcini and baby spinach) and I feel for Miss C. The proscuitto really makes it. As for the other boys, I can't remember what they ate...even for the lack of booze.
To finish the night, we ordered three Nutella calzones, a pannacotta for Caliban and tiramisu for Miss C and I. The tiramisu was amazing - super-light sponge soaked in sweet coffee with layers of thick, fluffy cream laced with amaretto. So perfect with a glass of cab sav that I had to have two (glasses, that is). Caliban loves pannacotta, and HP's is no exception. Served in a sundae glass, the pannacotta sat on a bed of strawberry syrup - so when you spooned the creamy pannacotta, you got a good serve of sweet syrup, too. Nice touch. And the Nutella calzones were so, so, so good. Really. Sweet dough blanketed the creamy, nutty chocolate paste...and all mention of boxing classes and Weight Watchers flew out the proverbial window. The four girls (with a little help from Caliban and Chef James) polished off all three of the calzones, with just a few slices left for Nurse Jacquie's lunch today.
And would you believe it? When the bill came, we all owed just $30 each. Great value, amazing food, perfect Saturday night company.
Haberfield Post/Il Goloso
60 Dalhousie St, Haberfield
(02) 9716 9744
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