Another birthday, another pizza

“What is life, it comes to me, without the occasional risk of pizza?”

Tim Federle

Particularly if it's a really good, really authentic pizza like this one - the prosciutto pizza on the menu at Tempo - Pizza pasta and gelato - in High St. Northcote.

It was our grandson's tenth birthday - where did those ten years go? He wanted pizza and so this particular spot was chosen. As it turns out my son - our grandson's father - knew the two sons of the owners of the restaurant/café as they had coached my grandson in soccer. One of them, Dom, was there to greet us and because we were early he spent quite a lot of time chatting to us about this and that - his parents, their history with the restaurant and Übereats (more later). It being a kids' party we were there at an early hour - 5.30, and so the restaurant was empty. By the time we left it was full and buzzing - and several of the other tables had been reserved. It turns out that Dom did not really talk his parents up enough, for I looked up their history on their website.

I think they came to Australia in the 50s, like so many Italians and opened up a gelateria in North Carlton in 1987. I assume that they both worked hard at various, possibly menial, jobs in the years in between, like most immigrants to any country. The gelateria was in North Carlton and was also called Temp and they are still famous for their gelati. Alas we were too full to try any as we left. They then had Pizza Andiamo in Degraves St. - one of Melbourne's most vibrant laneways, and later Pizza e Birra in equally trendy St. Kilda.

Then they sold up and went back to Italy to really really learn how to make pizza and get the coveted Associazione Vero Pizza Napoletana accreditation. This is an accreditation that is now recognised by the Italian government. There are very strict rules about how you make the pizza, but they do have the recipe on their site - with pictures. (it's under International Regulations). Anyway whatever the secret is - it is eventually cooked in the wood-fired pizza oven for a very short burst but at a very high temperature. And I have to say the dough was pretty delicious. Very puffy round the outside being the most notable feature I guess.

"Neapolitan Pizza originated in Naples, Italy and is prepared with simple and fresh ingredients and cooked for no more than 90 seconds in a wood oven at 400 degrees. It has the fewest ingredients and is the most complicated of pizza to make, the secret being the long dough fermentation period giving that moist stretchy chew with plenty of flavour." Tempo website

The other things that Dom thought were uniquely good, were the arancini and the potato gnocchi. And yes the arancini were truly delicious. I just had a taste from the share plate.

The gnocchi were nice too, though I confess I have tasted better - in Italy

They let us have our own birthday cake too - so all in all I would recommend this as a better place to eat pizza than your average pizzeria - and that includes places like Sofia in Camberwell. Mind you it's a bit faraway for us to go there frequently but if you live that way do go. Of course you shouldn't eat pizza all the time - it does have cheese (in this case fior de latte was used on all the pizzas), and there is bread but, admittedly depending on what you have on top, it can be a perfectly healthy meal.

“Pizza is like the entire food pyramid!” Madeline Oles

But back to Übereats. Whilst we were waiting for everyone to arrive and Dom was chatting to us - one of the Übereats couriers came in for a delivery, so we got to chatting about it. it seems that Übereats takes 30% of the price for the privilege of using them but even at that cut it is worth it for the café. Apparently on Christmas Eve there were, understandably, very few clients in the café. However, they did a massive trade in Übereats deliveries - sometimes of fifteen or so pizzas. So I guess people were having pizza parties at home. So this was all business that they would otherwise not have had. We have had pizza delivered in the past but I'm not a fan. For me you have to eat pizza as soon as it leaves the oven - even by the end of the pizza it doesn't taste as good. It goes soggy after a while.

"So whether you are craving a blood plum gelato, a freshly ground Vittoria organic coffee, a glass of Italian Chianti, a thin crust pizza served whilst the cheese is still bubbling straight from the wood fired oven, or just want to pop in to say hello and sample our gelato of the day, head to this boutique Pizzeria/Gelateria for a true, homely fix of Italian food and true honest family service." Tempo website

So yes that's adspeak but in this case it happens to be true. It's tiny, so you might have to book.

The gelati by the way are made with fruit and herbs from grandma's garden!