Unashamed plug - ANZLF Preferred Vendor??

[Bruce McC]

I hereby nominate Nick (Nickusa) of Your Italian Kitchen at Ocean Shores in NSW
as a preferred vendor of pizzas. Nick makes bloody good pizzas as my wife and I found out
when we visited him recently. If you don't believe me then ask him yourself. Better still
next time you are up that way try one yourself, I am sure you wont be disappointed.

ps. I paid full price for my pizza and received no inducements to make this plug.

[GregL]

I second that nomination! I've eaten a couple of Nick's pizzas - tasty!

(I also received no inducements to make this plug)

Thanks,
GregL.

[liam_fnq]

I'll happily take pizza inducements to make plugs.

[Nick]

Do you deliver Nick? I'll take a Vegetarian with bacon bits (I kid you not! I was offered bacon with my order of a vegetarian at a 'reputable' pizza outlet over here in un zud ) and it better be bloody hot too! can't stand pizza being half cold.
Must remember to visit if I'm ever over your way.

[ozziebluesman]

Recently I asked Nick a few questions regard pizza making. I received a Weber Baby Q for my 60th birthday and I had a few goes at making a pizza but some things where not quite right. Nick gave me a flour recommendation and some great advice on how to prepare the dough. My last batch was much tastier.

Thanks Nick.

I would much prefer to taste the Masters though. Maybe at the end of the year I will be taking a weeks holiday in Sydney so I will try and catch up with a few or you guys building guitars down south.

Cheers

Al

[needsmorecowbel]

Has anyone on the forum made a wood fire pizza oven from normal bricks? Or do the bricks just flake and peel after time?

[Tod Gilding]

Bugger I was up that way last week and settled for snitty at the Brunswick hds Pub

[P Bill]

If I buy more than 12 pizzas, do I get a set of strings?

[Kim]

Sorry to kill the party folks but after digging through the compliment of compactus units crowding level 5 of the ANZLF rules and regulations building that cover letters "L" - "P", it is quite clear that under Regulation 129228-426; division 328, sub section 784, part 'e', revision 976n~23a, that regardless of how good Nick's pizzas may be, he cannot possibly be made an ANZLF preferred vendor of pizza unless he openly declares his recipe 'and' techniques for making the perfect base, via a clearly compiled Markus Schmidt style of picture tutorial, posted in the tutorial section of this forum and accompanied by concise explanatory text....Its all there in black and white.

One again folks sorry to be such a stippler but rules are rules, and besides due to logistics many of us would find it very difficult to drop in to Nick's on the east coast to scab a freebie..

Cheers

Kim

[nnickusa]

I humbly accept the previous compliments, and will say for a certainty that it was a pleasure to meet Bruce and his wife, and despite my best efforts, they insisted on paying the going rate...just a pity I didn't have the "tourist" board out that day.....

Greg also insisted on paying full price, again despite my efforts to the contrary....

I am grateful to 1: have met such nice people thru the forum, and 2. to hear them say such nice things regarding my pizza. Alan, I hope yours get better....remember--2 day old dough is da bomb.....

Tod, I must admit that I am crushed. Bruns is a nice pub for a weekend afternoon, but not a place I'd recommend to eat. (350m from my front door, it is)

Nick. Mate, you'll likely have to travel. pizza doesn't travel so well.....

Kim, not that I support he NRA in the USA, but to quote Charlton HEston......."from my cold dead hands....."

I am always happy to meet and see any members of the forum who happen to be up this way...I've had a bitof a run lately. Greg, Bruce and Frans, all in a week. All lovely gentlemen...

Fire bricks. Regular bricks are NOT meant for pizza ovens, they won't last. Stone is good, but not brick...

Bill, if you buy more than 12 pizzas, you might just get a guitar....(one of mine, so not too much to crow about)

Thanks again, to Bruce for visiting and for the thread. I look forward to meeting you and your wife(who's name I admit escapes me completely--ratshit with names, I'm afraid)again.....

[needsmorecowbel]

Thanks for the info Nick,
My family has always joked about making a woodfired oven out of the 500 or so bricks we have outside. Guess it is actually that...a Joke. It looks like you can't really do it properly for anything less than $500-$700bucks...Including the mortar, bricks, insulation and base...

Stu

[scripsit]

Nick

While you are here, and sorry to derail the thread but...

I've got a Webber Q, and we've got a pizza stone lying around that we've never used (we've got a technique using the oven in the kitchen, with dough my wife mixes from scratch, but it takes about 20 minutes to cook).

Is there a quicker way of getting a pizza done?

Kym

[nnickusa]

No. It takes as long as it takes. mine cook at about 300 Celsius. they take 15-20 minutes.

The reason those conveyor ovens cook so quickly is that they heat from the top and bottom, like a toaster oven. they don't bake. and they don't cook a pizza properly.

A good pizza takes as long as it takes.

[Kim]

Kim, not that I support he NRA in the USA, but to quote Charlton HEston......."from my cold dead hands....." .

Jeez fancy 'that'. A pizzeria restaurateur being protective about his base recipe...

I do understand Nick. I spent much of my youth roaming Fremantle, WA's main port city. The population of that town today remains heavily represented by folks of Italian heritage. But that was the case even more so in my early teens. The flooding aromas of that town at pre-dinner time whilst waiting for the 152 to come and take me back to suburban ockerville and its air so full of chops and three over cooked veggies where simply amazing. It was there, just in front of that bus stop that I first tried pizza, real pizza and the experience simply reconfirmed what I had know for years. That Italian cooking is the greatest food on earth.

For someone who grew up in a traditional aussie family I had been fortunate during my pre grey baggy days to have lived in terrace house located in the back streets of North Fremantle. The place was adjacent the main rail line to Perth, and the noise and soot from passing locos ensured these narrow 'long hall to the back door' places were even affordable for the 'bloody degos' (a term used in our family with fondness and respect). The shared walls on either side of our home housed young Italian families. These people spoke little to no English at all. But they smiled with sincerity, laughed together a lot, and were kind hearted enough to periodically hand a pick of strange looking veggies or herbs over the fence to confuse the crap out of my mother.

Between the effects of her botanical curiosity and those irresistible afternoon aromas of Sicilian cooking permeating through limestone, an attempt to establish a dialogue of sorts had been triggered in my mother. So with plenty of hand gesturing, pencil drawings, smiles, noddings, laughing, pointing and an additional "ah" on the end of every other word, my Mum before too long was knocking up all sorts of weird and truly wonderful things which most Aussies of the time would never dream of eating. Amazing meatballs, rich sugo with artichoke heat, cannelloni, minestrone, roast chicken to die for, stuffed squid, dry grilled eggplant with fresh herbs and olive oil and stuffed capsicums etc, etc, etc.

My father being a keen fisherman would pass any extra fish over the fence and all sorts of 'stuff' would come back over, even stuff which they had been given by their extended familes then living and working in the since devoured by suburbia market gardens south of Freo. Some great things were shared, food of time and passion that you simply could not buy in AU at the time. Like 'proper' olive oil, home made and cellared cacciatora sausage and salami, wood ash and salt cured olives and of course glass goons of red vino...and loaves of bread..really crusty bread, beautiful streeetchy cheeewy stuff you can only be raised with a biga in the cool, time, and lots of pushing..you know what I mean, "half'a for yoo, halfa for mi, couple'a dayz, Beeuw-di-full mate!"

I understand entirely how much work goes in to developing something others find so special and the base 'is' the foundation for it all. So both the flour and the arms need to be strong and old flour is much, much, better than new

I'm hungry..

Cheers

Kim

[needsmorecowbel]

Everytime I look at this thread my stomach rumbles...

[nnickusa]

Kim,
Growing up, my Mum made "Spag Bol." It wasn't until many years later that I discovered what true Bolognese really is. In fact, I don't make it at the shop, as Aussies wouldn't know it for what it is..

I make an Australianised version, which, while good, isn't a true Bolognese.... *sigh*

I ended up moving to Italy for a number of years in the early 80's and rented a flat in the landlord's house--sort of granny flat....

My room mate and I also ended up sharing SUnday dinner with the family frequently. THAT was an eye-opening experience....never spent 4 hourts on one meal before that.

The beauty of Italian food is that it it prepared using the best ingredients one can find and only cooking it "just" enough, and no more. Fresh and clean and wonderful....

Here are a couple of my pizzas frsh out of the oven....

[P Bill]

Kim,
Growing up, my Mum made "Spag Bol." It wasn't until many years later that I discovered what true Bolognese really is. In fact, I don't make it at the shop, as Aussies wouldn't know it for what it is..

I make an Australianised version, which, while good, isn't a true Bolognese.... *sigh*

I ended up moving to Italy for a number of years in the early 80's and rented a flat in the landlord's house--sort of granny flat....

My room mate and I also ended up sharing SUnday dinner with the family frequently. THAT was an eye-opening experience....never spent 4 hourts on one meal before that.

The beauty of Italian food is that it it prepared using the best ingredients one can find and only cooking it "just" enough, and no more. Fresh and clean and wonderful....

Here are a couple of my pizzas frsh out of the oven....

mmmmh...must buy 12 pizzas! No matter what the topping my favorite part is over cooked cheese on the edge.

[Bruce McC]

Come on Localele, as a moderator can't you use your influence to presuade Kim
to support this nomination? It is obvious that there is tremendous support from
the rank and file

[Kim]

Yum.... Prosciutto, artichoke and olive, classic and the base looks fabulous Nick...do you deliver to WA??

Cheers

Kim

[nnickusa]

Kim, that is my Antipasto pizza, and also has salami. My small goods are made locally by an Italian Paisano, and they ARE BLOODY BEAUTIFUL. It's almost a shame to cook them, but they just make a new palatte when baked in a really hot oven.

And I only deliver on Wednesdays, in months that have the letter Q in them, to WA.....

Seriously, I don't deliver. Ever. If people can't be bothered to get off thier asses to come get a good pizza, too bad.....

The idea that everything you want can turn up at your doorstep instantly really p's me off. I am NOT Dominos or Pizza Hut, and Pizza the way it was meant to be is not from any place like that.

The thing about Italian food is that Italians will have just as much invested in a slice of pizza as a $200 meal in a restaurant. They really love thier food, and I love the idea that food doesn't have to be complicated or drowned in sauce, or cooked(ala meat and 3 veg) beyond recognition....

[P Bill]

Wow Nick! You are passionate about food, I'm on my way. It might take a month or so but I'm coming.

[Tod Gilding]

Book us in Bill I'm Coming as well ...If Nick is half as passionate about his guitars I think I will buy one

[nnickusa]

I'll be here.

I tell those of my customers who are interested that you really have to just be honest about what you do. In my case it's food. I make and serve the same dishes I make at home for my family. I won't try to cook with ingredients that I don't like(eggplant comes to mind) because I really can't bring myself to serve something that I wouldn't eat myself.

After that, I would love to see, meet and greet anyone that's up this way.....

Also, despite previous comments, willing to help out any way I can regarding what you guys are up to in the kitchen, so to speak...

HAH, Tod, you might want to have a look at the guitars first. I'm happy with them so far and they are improving, but I'm still quite the amateur....

[Kim]

And I only deliver on Wednesdays, in months that have the letter Q in them, to WA.....

Roll on first Wednesday in Quly...can't wait

[Kim]

Come on Localele, as a moderator can't you use your influence to presuade Kim
to support this nomination? It is obvious that there is tremendous support from
the rank and file

Yeah, yeah, the pizza looks great, and I'm sure it tastes delicious also Bruce..But the big question remains, wot's the tap tone like???

Cheers

Kim