At a recent Perth blogger meetup I ran into Kay, who raved in a nonchalant but cooly excited way about Italy Home Made, a little pasta bar on Charles St in North Perth.
I know the place pretty well, although in its former incantation… Poppies. Poppies is a cute little cafe tucked into a small group of shops, along Charles St in North Perth, a few streets before you get to Scarborough Beach Rd. We used to duck in there for late breakfasts and early lunches on the way back from the city on a Sunday afternoon or morning, and always managed to find a decent coffee and tasty meal.
Well Poppies is still there, but they have now extended the shop out to twice the size, and turned one half of the place into “Italy Home Made”. Basically a DIY pasta bar whose main angle is that all the pasta is made fresh on the premises daily.
So one afternoon last week I happened to be driving by and thought… I must just try this new place that Kay was raving about. Never one to turn down a good recommendation (until the day someone recommended Fasta Pasta to me that is), I decided to head in and check it out again.
So basically you choose the size of the pasta you want. Small, Medium, Large, Jumbo
The you choose the type of pasta you want. Fusili, Linguini, Fettucini, Spaghetti, etc
Then you choose what you want to have on it. I chose Atlantic, which was a creamy sauce mixed with smoked salmon and capers.
Then the dude goes away and collects all the bits he needs, drops the pasta into some water and puts the sauce and toppings into a pan, and then combines it together. Toasts some little bread rolls for you and puts some grated parmesan into a little cup.
It was pretty quiet when I went in, and I had my meal (which was a large, and there was a lot in there) in around 10 minutes, which is pretty good for food of that quality. The pasta was nice, the sauces complimented well, and the fillings were very tasty.
I’d still like to know who decided that smoked salmon and capers were the perfect combination for each other though. I’m imagining some big conference where all the foods get together and have some kind of speed dating face off to work out who should is right for one another… Salt and Pepper clearly hit it off, Olive oil and balsamic vinegar were drawn together by their differences, and poor little Anchovy sat alone in the corner, in a pile of his own salty tears.
But I digress…
Italy Home Made is a great cafe with top food that will serve you well for a quick lunch, easy dinner (they are open in the evenings til quite late and are BYO wine with no corkage), or “I can’t be stuffed cooking but don’t want some crappy fried chicken type meal” takeaway solution. Check em out.
Italy Home Made
Shop 1 & 2, 299 Charles St
North Perth
(08) 9328 6350
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Glad you liked it :)
They do a good coffee too!
Sounds good. We used to have something similar here called Sketches – I think its closed down now though.
Dude. Anchovy rocks. Try a pasta recipe with orichiette and brocolli and anchovy. Not fishy at all, just salty goodness.
I reckon at the conference, cheese just schmoozed his way around. “Hello ladies, you make me melt”.
Definetly planning on trying this, thanks(to you and Kay :D)!
Simone
Kay: Thanks again for the recommendation, although I think we’ll have to agree to disagree about the coffee. Last time I went it wasn’t that great, but then maybe they’ve improved that too. Although they’re still using the same beans and machine…
Sue: Anchovy does rock… although I couldn’t think of one thing off the top of my head that goes naturally with them, like say…peas and carrots. I’m totally with you about the cheese though… Bocconcini would tell everyone he’s great on top :)
Simone: Do yourself a favour ! While you’re there, have a coffee and let me know if it’s any good :)
It’ll be terrible, cos I don’t like coffee at all :p
Oh dear, I think I’m identifying way too much with the anchovy. However, they’re what make a supreme pizza a pizza supreme, right? Friendly anchovies. I think cheese is a big fat schmoozer for sure and it’s only fair that he go so well with onions. I think the salmon and capers line of thought goes – salmon live in the sea, the sea is salty, capers are salty… they must go together. I think I’m finished now!
Simone: Forget I said anything… clearly you need help :)
Dee: We all feel a bit like the anchovy sometimes…although im not sure if they do make a supreme pizza supreme. It’s been a topic of debate in the past as to what actually makes a supreme pizza so supreme… other than ‘everything we can find including olives’.
I like your fish/salt logic… but if that always held tue then we’d be mixing our fish sauce and salt together to make salty asian inspired concoctions.
Incidentally “asian” just means coriander, chilli, fish sauce and/or lime juice. Just like “italian” is anything with parmesan on top, or that can be said with an italian accent :)
D’oh, I thought anything with tomato in it was Italian… But I have Parmesan in the fridge and sometimes it goes on stuff that doesn’t contain tomato, you’re right. So the whole asian fusion thing – lime juice and parmesan? Pollo con salsa di pesci (yeah, I’m making my Italian up as I go)? I probably shouldn’t get creative. :-)
Sounds like a great place to check out. Was good meeting you two at the festival :)
Awwwe come’on Matt….. Where’s your next post? Don’t you know that heaps of us drop in here every day for our cyberlunch. The menu is old and the food is getting stale. A week since your last repast, the natives are getting hungry!! Duh!…..
Dee: You are so right on with the tomato thing…why didn’t I think of that. I’ll have to cook something with tomato’s in it tonight to celebrate Italy’s world cup victory.
Jean: Thanks for stopping by, was great to meet you at the festival too, look forward to seeing some more posts from you soon !
Ethel: I am aware that a few of you do drop by from time to time, but not enough of you take the big step from being a lurker to a commenter… So thanks for making the effort, If only to berate me for not posting enough. I’ll take whatever I can get… :)