Ave Ceasar!

To be honest I was a little apprehensive about driving down to Mundaring to check out the pizza. It is a fair distance from home after all! But in the spirit of adventure and finding a decent feed, Char and I made the trek up to the hills with her folks to see what all the fuss was about.

Having a little spare time, we did the touristy thing and went to the visitor centre to have a quick browse through before heading to Mundaring Weir to see the dam... and predictably it rained on us a couple minutes after stepping out of the car. I swear, some days it feels like I'm living in England with all this intermittent blustery days and shrieking rain.

And then naturally when we got back to Mundaring town, the rain stopped. Bloody weather!

Now to be entirely honest, I wasn't sure what to expect at Little Ceasars. Hearing stories about the great pizza and reading the news clippings about the awards the pizzas' won is one thing, but actually eating it is a whole different kettle of fish. Maybe I'm a little cynical about the whole 'best in wherever' tag because you see it around so much, but this really lives up to its reputation. The pizza is awesome!



We ordered the Oyster Kilpatrick (Char's Dad's choice) and Jane's Addiction (my choice) pizzas, and damn were they good!



The Oyster Kilpatrick is a truly interesting blend of bacon, smoked oyster, onion, parsley, worchestershire sauce and cheese. It's a very interesting flavour, almost a little tangy and sweet, then you bite into these little smoked oyster or bacon pockets of savoury goodness and you're inundated with a flavour explosion I can only call 'big'!

I admit that I was a little confused over the use of worchestershire sauce, but it blended in perfectly, and the onions just added enough of a counterbalance to the bacon and smoked oyster flavour that it wasn't overwhelming.



I love how they've named a good number of pizzas after bands. There's the Smashing Pumpkin, Eskimo Joe and White Stripe pizzas. Then there's what we tried, Jane's Addiction... and yes I am addicted!

I must say, I'm not a huge fan of the band, but damnit that's good pizza! Marinated prawns, prosciutto, garlic cream, rocket pesto and cheese? Sign me up! I've had a couple of garlic prawn pizzas in my time, but this one takes the cake, the cream, and the cherry on top too. It's that good. The combination of flavours is truly sublime. My sole complaint is that the prawns are just a shade this side of salty, but otherwise, it's as close to prawn pizza heaven as I've ever been.

When I next make the trek up to Mundaring, I'm definitely having another one of them Jane's Addictions! (Light on the Dave Navarro if you please.)



And then there's dessert. A pecan pie pizza. Lord knows I'm not the world's biggest fan of the sweet stuff, but this wasn't too bad. Little slivers of pecan and caramel dusted with sugar over a butterscotch pudding mix. Sounds interesting, no? Thankfully it wasn't too sweet, although after the really big flavours of the savory pizzas, I was expecting something with a little more zing, which this really didn't deliver. (Then again my taste buds might have been fried by flavour overload at that point!)

Overall I must say that I'm very impressed with the pizza. It's really worth making the trip and waiting and fighting the crowd for. Thankfully we where there early so we missed the bulk of the rush, but it was still pretty jam packed with people. Lots of Asian fellows there too. Guess we all subscribe to the 'don't care how far it is as long as it's good/cheap' ethic, eh?



If anyone wants to head up Mundaring way for a pizza any time soon, let me know! (Hi Robin! This means you! :)

Still no mini-village pics.

I can never get over how beautiful the beaches are here, compared to the yellow-brown water and coarse sand we get back home. I doubt I'll ever head to a Singapore beach under my own volition after seeing these beaches in Australia. This is a beach at Hall's Head, just a couple minutes south from the Mandurah city centre.



Shot this at the miniature village. It looks much like a doorway to some hidden garden, eh? Guess what's behind the door? You guessed it... the 'secret garden'. Seriously, the imagery might be apt, but there's only so many 'secert gardens' behind artfully overgrown wooden doors that my lame-o-meter can take.

Nice door though.



And beyond the door of lame secrecy we find... A random tree with some odd shaped fruit that looks suspiciously like macadamias... with star shaped spikes! Well, at least I think it's a fruit. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, after all I probably am! My intimate knowledge of horticulture begins and ends with what veggies I eat.

Still, it is a marvel of creation. I'm continually amazed at the sheer diversity of life that God has placed upon this earth.




I like little wooden bridges like these. They remind me of the little red wooden bridge over the pond in the quadrangle of my primary school. I spent many recesses catching tadpoles in a little paper cup in that pond. Even contrived to fall into it once.

I've got a huge sentimentality for my childhood - things always seemed much simpler then. You were less jaded, didn't have responsibilities, and everyone was your friend. Things would be simpler if we all just got along hey? Well, we can only imagine.



Note the little eski in Char's hand in the bridge pic? That carried our picnic lunch. Smoked salmon, olives, cheese, smoked oysters and crackers. Might not sound like much, but it gets really filling. Going for a picnic at the beach later today too. Hey, it's summer! Time to hit the beach and soak up the sun!

Note to self: put down camera and start eating when girlfriend gives you the 'feed me' glare!

Later all! I'm off to the beach!

Absofuckinglutely good pizza

Found a little Italian cafe place in Subi today that serves the most amazing pizza ever!

Delizioso Café is on the corner of Rokeby and Churchill (diagonally across the street from Jackson's art supplies). It's a small place, and I was really impressed with the customer service. The guy at the counter forgot my coffee, and gave me a free one. Char was ready to pay for it, but the guy said never mind. That's just great service in my book.

The pizza is excellent. Delizioso's won an award for best pizza in the world (2007) with their mushroom trio pizza, and I can taste why! We shared a mushroom trio (wild shrooms, white buttons, ricotta, oregano) and a ham & mushroom. The mushroom trio was simply the best mushroom pizza I have ever had, hands down. The crust is light, slightly chewy and very flavoursome, and the gourmet toppings are top notch.

At $5.30 for a slice (about six inches by four inches), I think it's good value for money. Seriously, if you're in that neck of the woods, you have to give Delizioso Café a shot.

I'll take photos next time I'm there. Food this good must be shared! :p

Fish, chips, and giant robots.

Went to Freo with Adrian on Friday for dinner, and ate the ubiquitous fish and chips. Must say, this is the first time I've actually tried to snap food proper (I blame Robin), and it's really rather difficult with low lighting. Oh well.

This was my dinner. Fish and squid. Yes I know my health isn't great, but I didn't eat the batter. Or finish my fries. See? Moderation is good for you!



And this of course, is Adrian's dinner. Approximately twice the size of mine. No wonder he now weighs more than I do. Scary thought, eh?

The seafood chowder they're got isn't too bad, but it's a little salty. And personal opinion, I like the normal fish they use for fish and chips much more than Adrian's snapper. It's less chewy, I guess. And you know what? I think I prefer Kailis to Cicerellos. The fish and chips are less oily and the portions are actually normal human sized.



And on a completely seperate side note, Tengan Toppa Gurren Lagann is the most exaggerated anime I have ever seen. When giant galaxy sized robots start throwing galaxies at each other, the brain simply stops working.

It is good for one hell of a laugh though. Check out the subtitles for all the moves. I kid you not.

Giga Drill Breaker!!!!

Hungry. Irritation. Rar.

(Why yes, I do believe I AM complaining!)

So since I've got no one to have dinner with after mass, I pop down to Taurus to have wonton mee, and find that I've got no cash on me because I've forgotten to visit the ATM.

Drive to the closest ATM, which is conveniently out of order.

Decide to go home to cook up mushrooms and eat some chicken I've got marinading. Sister's beaten me to it. My mushrooms and chicken are gone. (And she's gone out too, otherwise I would raise hell at her)

And someone's eaten the chicken burger I had in the fridge. Someone owes me $6.35.

Miso soup and tofu are options, but they're not very filling, and I am very hungry. Decide to cook instant noodles because they're faster.

Discover that I've got nothing to go with the noodles, so it's just plain indomee. How exciting.

Eat my one packet of indomee. Still hungry. There is no food in the house!

Discover that FoxTel does NOT screen live Euro matches. What's the fucking point of having cable if you can't bloody watch football?

Guess I'll just go to bed.

Dinner date.

Just had our 6 month anniversary dinner (love you babe!) at Viva, which is this nice little Italian place in Applecross.

We got there pretty early (6:15pm?), so the place was quite quiet. Quite nice and friendly sort of ambiance, lots of yellow lighting... and surprisingly comfortable chairs! Actually, the chairs sort of remind me of the old cane garden chairs. A little nostalgic... and creaky! Food is pretty good, and the portions are big. Then again, you get what you pay for, and things are a little on the pricier side after all.

Food was simple, hearty fare. Char ordered roast goat, which came on a very savory rissoto. The goat itself was quite nice, although I'd imagine you'd get a little blah after eating the rissoto after a while. It's very heavy! I had a steak. Medium rare. No complaints there! I feel fat now though.

And they have a very interesting sounding salmon on the menu. I'll definitely try that next time I'm there.

(Sorry to the foodies out there. No pictures! Haha. Maybe next time!)

Finished dinner right around the time it was starting to get busy (and a little noisy too!), and ended up taking a little drive through Freo before finding a nice quiet spot along South Beach to just sit and talk and listen to the sound of the sea meeting the shore.

I had a great evening.

Love you Char!

*pokes*