A BIT like toilet paper scrunchers or folders, I find people either like prawn on their pizza or not.
The Herald owner is a prawn-on fella and in years gone past when all and sundry were putting the paper to bed in the wee small hours he’d order pizza with curly crustaceans on it.
Being there at the bitter end, I’d often email the paper to the printers, and then head to the office kitchen for a midnight snack, only to find that a slice of congealed seafood was the only food left.
But last week I think I may have finally been converted to prawn-on, when my lunch companion ordered the Gamberi pizza ($24) at Salted Board on Freo’s Cappuccino Strip.
The first thing that struck me about the Gamberi and my Four Stagioni ($24) pizza, was how fresh they looked when they arrived.
That’s not a word I’d normally use when describing pizza, but that’s exactly how they were: the crust was a golden pillow, enveloping fresh-as-a-baby veggies with the colour still in their cheeks.
The woodfired prawns on the Gamberi instantly had me questioning my shrimp fatwa, as they were deliciously and beautifully complemented by the cherry tomatoes, sauteed onions, basil pesto and mozzarella.
The base lived up to first impressions, being soft in the right spots and crunchy where needed, while the topping was generous without being too jumbled.
The Four Stagioni was similarly delicious, although it did seem to have suffered from a short-armed chef who could only get the four pieces of mild salami onto one side. It left us with the dilemma of who was going to be virtuous and reach for the bare patch.
Luckily the rest of the ingredients—ham, mushroom, artichoke, kalamata olives, eggplant and zucchini—were evenly dispersed.
Our only concession to the gluten haters was the beetroot salad ($22), a mix of diced purple niceness, tender chicken breast pieces, fresh baby spinach and walnuts; all given a healthy bath in delicious mayonnaise. It could easily have been a meal on its own.
In fact, all up this lunch could have easily fed four adults, and I had to loosen my strides to make sure the plates were empty (like many I was brainwashed about the poor kids in wherever from a young age).
I finished off with a coffee that was good without being remarkable ($4).
The owners of Salted Board did a rejig after their last venture on the strip failed to hit the jackpot. Although there was nothing wrong with that iteration, a top-quality pizza place is probably more fitting with the strip, and the all-important weekend customers are pretty much here for one thing.
I think Salted Board’s got a good future ahead.
by STEVE GRANT
Salted Board
Shop 5, 18/31 South Terrace,
Fremantle