Eating Out: The Starfish Deli [Promenade Plaza Shop 1, Clyde St, Batemans Bay 2536]

From my observation this is probably the busiest restaurant in the entire town. No matter what time of day it is, the place is at least half filled and by lunch you have to wait to get a table. This restaurant ain't small either so we had to check out why this place was so busy. The answer......I'm not sure because quite honestly I probably wouldn't come back to this place. $20 woodfire pizza or $6 LARGE pizza from Eagleboys? Eagleboys thanks, more topping and better value for money as though the woodfire pizza tasted better but not enough for the taste.
We waited for about 30 mins to get a table for 12 for lunch. Their menu actually says the date on it so I guess it probably changes daily.

 Potato Wedges $9.2

Nothing special except that there was a lot of sour cream

 Tagliatelle $20.7

Yes the name is just Tagliatelle which I believe is the type of pasta, the sauce was pesto but it wasn't put into the name for some reason. Average tasting but pasta was cooked al dente. Not enough ingredients considering the price. 

 Indo Seafood $25.3 

Same problem once again, only a few pieces of seafood =[ However the mango worked quite well to add sweetness. On the menu it says this has a sambal dressing, I believe that the brown puddles are kechap manis or something similar. I saw they had many bottles of ABC Kechap manis in the kitchen. 

 Spaghetti Puttanesca $19.55

Why 55cents? Anyways this had a lot more ingredients than the Tagliatelle except the olives still had pips in them. Not impressed.

 Starfish Supremo $27.6 

Not too bad since there was more topping.

Tropical $18.4

I bet this cost under $4 to make. Although it was the first time I've seen entire slices of ham on a pizza, normally it's shredded.

I watched the pizza chefs make pizzas for 10-15 mins since we got the table right next to the pizza station. The pizza I saw made most was the Nutritious one. The oyster pizza seemed interesting. Might try it at home.

Food: 7/10 Pretty average pizza and pasta.

Service/Environment: 8.5/10 Clean, by the water and friendly staff. 

Value: 6/10 Pizzas are small and lack topping, also they are very thin based. The pasta serving is barely enough for one and extremely over priced.

Verdict? I don't get why this place is so busy. Much rather try other cafes in the town. 

Cooking: Pizza

Sorry for the lack of food posts lately. Mainly due to exams, school formal and being way too tired the day after.
Not going to blog about the food at school formal for 2 reasons. One I was feeling kinda sick and didn't each much of it and Two the food was plain shit. But you can't expect much if they're trying to make 400 servings of the same dish. Tasted a bit like airplane food, and that stuff makes me hurl.

Finally got round to doing some cooking yesterday. Made pizzas for dinner. Original plan was to buy pizzas from pizza hut but why not make your own, tastes way way way better and you know what is actually in your pizza.

Basic Pizza Dough Recipe
It says make 3 but I stretched it out really thin to make 4 instead.

Made two types of pizzas, prawn and smoked salmon. Made one at a time, so we could eat it and improve it for the next pizza. I find it's a really good way to master and make the best pizza.

Second try of garlic prawn pizza. 

Ingredients: Handful of cooked prawns (cut into pieces), spanish onion, olives, cheese, tomato paste, anchovies, one large clove of garlic roughly chopped.

Doesn't sound like a lot of  topping but thats how I believe pizzas should be like. Just enough topping to cover so you can actually taste each topping by itself and appreciated. Unfortunately dad doesn't agree with my philosophy.

Smoked Salmon Pizza

Ingredients: Strips of smoked salmon. Spanish Onion. Capers. Cheese.

Yes that is all thats on that pizza. Cheese has to go on the bottom otherwise the salmon gets covered. Tried to make stuffed crust but it didn't turn out too good. Found the salmon overcooked and onion was soo cooked to give that fresh crunch.

Second try of smoked salmon pizza

Same ingredients however put the pizza in the oven with just tomato paste spread on bottom with a little cheese sprinkled on top. When the pizza was pretty much cooked I took it out put the salmon, onion and capers on, baked it for a few minutes and served it. A lot better, the salmon was still a little overcooked, I think 20secs in the oven is enough. The onions were just right. Sooo yummy but full.

When it comes to pizzas

Less is more!

Cooking- Pizza

Since mum had the flour and yeast out to make hot cross buns, I decided to make pizza for lunch. It was good fun, kneading dough is somehow fun. I guess it's like playing with playdough. The topping was, tomato, pesto chicken, spanish onion, pineapple, corn, garlic and cheese.

Studded the entire pizza edge with corn in hope that the crust would taste better and less boring...wasn't as great as I thought it would be.

Finished product

I'm not a fan of heaps of topping and a pizza covered in cheese.

Pizza 1: Rolled out the dough, resulted in a thin crispy bottom.

Pizza 2: Used hands to push the dough to the size of the pan, resulted in a very fluffy bottom.

Both pizza's baked together and on pizza trays. 

(Sounds like a biology experiment, garrrrrr school)