The Missing Brontosaurus
“What number is it? Mr NQN asks and I had forgotten to write down the street number for La Piadina. I know that it’s somewhere in the hundreds. It’s not a glorious sunny day the Sunday that we visit La Piadina. The rain has settled in and we’re driving up and down Glenayr Avenue in Bondi Beach looking for what was described to us as “a little hole in the wall”. We drive up and down and up and down before I google it on my phone. Ahh 106. We drive past number 106 and there it is, it was there all the time but like Platform 9 3/4 at Kings cross station in Harry Potter we just didn’t see it. Subtly signposted and with a open glass and wooden frontage it’s a small restaurant and one that sells piadinas. “What are piadinas” you may ask? They’re flat, unleavened soft bread rounds that originally hail from Emilia-Romagna in Northern Italy. Reportedly the poet Pascoli described it in one of his poems as “Simple, holy bread of the poor” and “Nothing speaks more of Romagna than this bread of ours… it is a symbol that speaks of devotion to our land”. M’s friend Hans described it to us as “a flat bread that has been folded over”. “Do you mean a calzone?” “No not quite” he says. We were intrigued by the concept and this is the only place doing piadinas here in Sydney.
After eyeballing the wall menu and choosing three piadinas and a Chinotto, we order and take a seat at the high seats facing the street parade outside. People in Bondi Beach are skinny. I know Australia is supposed to be getting fatter but I think that if they just counted Bondi’s BMI we’d be the skinniest developed nation. The piadinas are also skinny. Similar to a quesadilla or a gozleme but with an drier texture, probably close to Mountain flat bread, it’s filled with a choice of delicious fillings with the meats all sliced to order and each piadina is made to order. The outside griddled side (traditionally cooked on a terracotta pot) has toasted brown spots. Everyone in there seems to know each other and there’s a very friendly vibe.
Chinotto $3.80
Tap water comes in recycles Grolsch beer bottles. My chinotto is refreshing and slightly bitter. Sitting next to me is a dinosaur figure wearing thongs and carrying a beach towel. So Bondi (the thongs and the towel, not the Dinosaur).
No 7: Pancetta, provolone, baby spinach, balsamic glaze $13
we start with the number 7 with pancetta, provolone, baby spinach and balsamic glaze. They come out on thick wooden boards with the logo branded on them. The piadina is cut into four parts and much like a quesadilla it’s dry grilled so that there’s no oil on the outside but it’s held together with the cheese. I overhear a girl at the next table saying that she has been told to stop eating pork products but the #7 is the only one she can’t give up. I love the sweetness from the balsamic glaze on this one too.
No 6: Speck. sweet gorgonzola and raddicchio $14
Mr NQN loves the speck, sweet gorgonzola and radicchio one which is filled a little more and is rich in flavour with the strong gorgonzola, speck and bitter radicchio balancing well together.
No 5: salami nduja, stracchino, spanish onion $13
Salami Nduja is another new one for us. It’s a spicy salami mainly produced in Calabria in the South of Italy and here it’s made by Quattro Stelle who only use pork from Berkshire free range pigs. I take a bite and know before Mr NQN has tried it that he’ll love it. The Salami Nduja is gorgeous and robustly spicy. The stracchino is very mild, especially against the salami and the Spanish onions provide a lovely counterpoint to the spicy salami.
Handbag holders provided
A hungry man aka Mr NQN would go for two of these but one would do me just fine. Perhaps this is the secret of the Bondi diet? A girl can hope can’t they?
So tell me Dear Reader, is your suburb full of “beautiful people”?
La Piadina
106 Glenayr Avenue, Bondi, NSW
Tel: +61 (02) 9300 0160
Open Tuesday to Friday 10am-10pm
Saturday to Sunday 9am-10pm
Cash Only
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56 Comments | Add your own
Oh gosh, I love the sound of the balsamic glaze, but then I also want the gorgonzola… just as well I don’t have to choose right now
Is my suburb in Canberra full of beautiful people? Um… somehow I think we’re just average
They provided handbag holders? How Bondi..
All the people around here are too real to be beautiful..
Looks divine; particularly no. 7!
My current hood being Stockholm, people are generally blonde and gorgeous – quite intimidating for a food lover actually..
Nice place and wonderful dishes…the 7 with provolone and pancetta looks so tempting. I need a Piadina near my house
Cheers,
Gera
Oh, I’m still laughing about the thought of my suburb being full of beautiful people! And, just so you don’t hit a brick wall in between platforms 7 and 8, the magical platform is 9 3/4
oooh they look so tasty!
haha no my suburb is certainly not full of beuatiful people
Never heard of piadinas, but they look mighty tasty. Is that a painting of you? LOL
Thankyou!!!! I have been looking for GOOD piadina in Sydney for sooooo long! It will always remind me of summer holidays in Rimini, in Romagna. Piadina with stracchino, prosciutto and rocket was my fave.
I wouldnt be able to give up the number 7 either. I like the pancetta, provolone and baby spinach with the glaze. Its the perfect lunch treat.
my suburb is filled with prus, trus, yummy mummys, their invisible husbands with fancy cars and glamorous private school girls with country road duffle bags. So the answer is a resounding yes
I feel quite out of place at times.
May have to leave said suburb and head to bondi to try a piadina! Trying to find a park would be almost enough to put me off though
oMG! I tried a Piadina for the first time at the comedy festival last year and I loved it! I tried to search for them and couldn’t find them anywhere! Ahh thanks for this! I’m definitely going to go and check it out next time I’m around.
The simplicity of the fillings sounds appealing and it certainly looks as though they use good quality ingredients.
is this an upmarket Gozleme place? looks like a nice find with tasty food.
Good morning Dear, yes, it’s a nice place. I can confirm that. We had dinner there with Hans.
Italian quesadillas! They look and sound delicious. I’m so going there.
that Piadina looks too thin for me, piadina is typical from Emilia Romagna (where I’m from) and we make it thicker…even if each town has its own variation.
Old memories…we usually have it at lunch in the summer at the beach or after a night clubbing!
oh yummm.
ive been visitng the ramsgate food markets (they’re so small) each saturday after kayaking to undo my hard work and get a fresh gozleme made by some sweet old ladies… but this appeals to me even more!
however something about bondi turns me off… i’ve barely had anything to do with the area and it might have something to do with all those skinny people!
Definately not too many ‘beautiful people’ around here. We live in what my husband calls ‘velour land’ – mothers walking around in velour track suits (or gym clothes)….now isn’t that a mean comment to start my day with?!
I get so depressed in the beautiful people suburbs! And I definitely think bondi, Coogee and Double Bay are some of them
I love love love piadinas. They are super easy to make at home too. It’s the ultimate toasted sandwich for me – not too much bread, loads of filling and melted cheese. How can you beat that?
Never heard of piadina till now! Looks and sounds really yuummmmm…
The piadinas do look like expensive gozleme – though I’d go there just for the handbag hangers!
And I’m glad I don’t live in a suburb of beautiful people, it would be so intimidating and inconvenient to try and compete
I would be the fat Texan bellowing, “Hey ya’ll! This quesdilla ain’t got no meat and cheese! Where’s the meat and cheese? I need MEAT hoss!”
I live around the corner and just LOVE the No. 7!!!
The piadinas look tasty! Definately have not heard of them before. Love the dinosaur and the artwork at the end, were those toy ants stuck onto it?
What a shame we have a busy weekend coming up as we would be heading here for certain!! Next week…..thanks for the post it looks like a nice little place!
I live in Bondi, so YES!
I need to get myself to that place ASAP! x
A lot of Melbourne’s cafes have being serving piadina’s for quite some time. Old news for us!
Oh wow I can’t believe they are in Australia! When I lived in Rimini 10 years ago I loved them. They were alot more uncomplicated though back then. It was either proscuitto or spinach, never mixed together. Maybe in about 10 more years they may show up in Perth. As for beautiful people I need my own blogg for that !! Bit of a mixed bag at Quinns Beach!
Piadina sounds really delicious…I love how it’s similar to quesadillas, but the fillings are so incredibly different (and delicious!
).
Like Claire I too ate these delicious treats in Riccione (next door to Rimini). Even more delicious when fed to you by an italian soccer player! Dietary staples here (this town, not my house) are footy franks, chips and coke so as you can guess the beautiful people quotient is low.
Yum!! If only Bondi wasn’t so far out of the way for me, I’d be going there a lot!!
As for my suburb…no way – not many beautiful people around here! (I’m not gonna mention the suburb, just in case!! But I will say it’s in Sydney’s south west! Nothing more…)
Wow, such wonderfully rustic food! Totally the stuff I’m into.
I love the little details they put in, shows alot of effort.
I love handbag holders!
Oooh they look really tasty – I’d like to try making some of those.
I have very beautiful people in my suburb – people of every nationality, shape and size you can think of !!!
Gosh they look so delicious!
I live on the Gold Coast so it’s debateable as to whether it’s full of beautiful people or not. Most would like to think that they are.. I’m not sure I’d always agree!
Wow these look so tasty!
Lol – No, I’m not going to mention my suburb either suffice to say that I am surrounded by Bogans!!
Miniskirts and Ugg boots complimented by a ciggie between the teeth… how I want to move back to somewhere classier…
These look delicious, and possibly easy to recreate something similar?
My suburb is definitely not full of beautiful people!
It looks a little like Chapati – an Indian flatbread. I love the pic of the dinosaur and your handbag holder is really cool too!!
SO very appetising, maybe I’ll have a Piadina after the City to Surf haha ( Don’t get to bondi very often).
Beautiful people……..No, afraid not too may around here but I’m sure some are beautiful on the inside!
i can get on board with an italian quesadilla!
meanwhile, how did we ever manage before cell phones that could access the internet?
wow they even provide handbag holders?! thats is very considerate. the flatbreads look good! looks like a place worth visiitng n eating at!
These look great. I think I might try and poach the recipe for these at some point. I think these would be a real crowd pleaser.
Only in carb concious Bondi could they reduce the pizzas to a shadow of their former selves, snicker! They do look lovely though, I’d love to live in a suburb with heaps of interesting food places to investigate but alas I live in the burbs and it’s mostly fast food outlets.
I’ve never been in a restaurant where handbag holders were provided. I’ve seen little stools next to your chair for that purpose, but not the hanging holders. I like that idea.
Also like the idea of a piadina, although it certainly resembles a quesadilla….I imagine each country has it’s own and the piadina is Italy’s.
I’m stuck between #6 and #7. So I’m hoping someone will go halves with me!
I live near the beach in Florida and the bods are pretty good here too! The chubbier bods are probably at the mall!
There’s only one beautiful person in my suburb
Those Piadinas look so tasty…like the Gozlemes they sell at the cricket/AFL but less greasy! yum!
Mmmh, I LOVE Piadinas, and these look very lovely examples too. I’ve been told they’re relatively easy to make, but the cooking is hard without a pizza oven (or maybe a pizza stone?), terrible shame to have to keep going out to eat!
We’re a wee bit cold to have people wandering around showing off their skinniness, but Princes Square is where our beautiful people hang out (and where I go for a coffee and to watch them!)
I love the look of these piadinas! I’ve never seen these before, and now I’m very curious about the flatbread used. Looks delicious.
Piadina looks like quesadilla to me. Whatever they are, they look very tasty.
I think I’d be bit freaked out if I got close up to that green chap at the top and he moved. Yikes!
I wish I didn’t now know what piadinas were, because then I wouldn’t be wanting to eat one.
I live in Bondi and have been eating here for a while. It’s not a quesadilla or a gozleme (different dough)… and it’s not a pizza (pizzas are baked, have different dough). They use quality imported Italian cheeses and meats, but also use the meats from Quattro Stelle made here in Sydney (i recommend the speck).
As an Adelaide dweller I discovered Piadina’s at Bega on Hutt Street a few months ago. My favourite is the smoked salmon and rocket. The bread is so nice and thin that the flavours just soak through it…and makes me feel less guilty about eating bread!
I have lived across the street from La Piadina for the last year, but have never been in (except for a coffee while waiting for the bus) as really had no clue what they sold!
Will definately get over there asap but I think this discovery will thwart my intentions of becoming properly Bondi skinny…
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[...] by sydfoodie in Food. Tagged: bondi, dining, Food, italian, review. Leave a Comment NQN reviewed La Piadina earlier, which is what put me on to this place. Having finished my business up the road, I wandered [...]
[...] * La Piadina, Bondi & What is a Piadina? [...]
[...] nduja which spreads like pate or rillettes. This is a salami similar to the one I had at La Piadina made by Quattro Stelle and is the hard or piccante version without olive oil added to give it that [...]
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