Cafes can be found all over New Zealand and they all serve similar menus with their own twist. New Zealand cafe culture is HUGE. We take our coffee espresso very seriously and while restaurants are reserved for special occasions, people go to cafes for no real reason but to eat. The casual, informal style of dining appeals to our kiwi mentality.
This week, cooking at home with our CSA box, we’re having grilled haloumi, french toast, salad, burgers, quesadillas a pasta dish, a soup and even a smoothie. Very much inspired by a stock standard cafe board.
This week our CSA box included:
Vegetable
- Garlic (Self Certified Organic)
- Pumpkin (Certified Organic)
- Avocado (Certified Organic)
- Fancy Lettuce (Self Certified Organic)
- Fennel (Certified Organic)
- Broccoli (Conventional Sprays)
Fruit
- Pink Lady Apples (Conventional Sprays)
- Green Kiwifruit (Certified Organic)
- Mandarins (Conventional Sprays)
Add Ons
- 1 loaf Wild Wheat Ciabatta
- 2 litres pure Apple juice
- All Good Fair Trade Bananas
The most interesting thing in the box:
Fennel. I’ve cooked it a couple times and while I don’t usually like aniseed, I do like fennel. I like the idea of trying it raw this week.
Meal Plan Week 6
- Caesar salad with bacon bits, anchovy mayo, parmigiano-reggiano, fancy lettuce*, garlic croutons*, black olives, olive oil, soft-boiled eggs, Worcestershire sauce and black pepper.
- Cheeseburgers with avocado*, onion, served with pumpkin* and rosemary wedges
- Grilled Halloumi with avocado* and balsamic reduction on ciabatta* toast
- Fish quesadillas, apple* and fennel* slaw and sour cream served with lemon wedge
- Spiced pumpkin* soup with ciabatta* garlic toast
- French toast with banana* and bacon served with a thimble of Hakanoa Ginger Syrup
- Pepperoni Mac and cheese with roasted broccoli* and lemon zest
- Smoothie with coffee, banana* and yoghurt
CSA Link Party
I am part of a CSA box link party. A link party is a weekly or monthly round up of relevant blog links in one handy place. Anyone can submit their posts and if you are interested in CSA and what see what other people around the world are getting each week in their boxes, have a look at the What’s In The Box over at the blog In Her Chucks.
About CSA and OOOOBY
For those new to the concept, CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture. This concept allows onsumers buy subscriptions or shares for a set amount of time in return for a weekly box of locally grown produce. Produce can come from from local farms, micro-growers, yours and your neighbour’s backyards, community gardens and organic farms. You join either as a consumer or a grower or both. Some growers swap produce for shares and others deliver or pack so it can be a engaging, social way of sharing food.
CSA is relatively new here in New Zealand and there are only a handful of companies/groups offering it. Price was always going to be a factor for me and the cute name and good looking design of OOOOBY really appeals to me.
I am not affiliated with OOOOBY and we pay for our box and add-ons with our own hard earned money. This is a review, not an ad, but if you would like to join OOOOBY, contact me about their their refer-a-friend scheme. It takes supporters for these kinds of ideas to flourish and they have a ways to go yet. Find out more about the concept at their website www.ooooby.org.
Read my other posts about CSA here.
Bunny Eats Design 
This sounds very similar to the way I often eat. Maybe I am missing the NZ cafe culture?!
Possibly. What do New Yorkers usually eat? Or is it really too broad to define?
Really too broad to define. There’s a lot of upmarket bistros/gastropubs/modern American, but also a lot of everything else you can think of. When I think ‘classic New York’ I think of traditional Jewish food – bagels, smoked salmon (yum!), rye bread (indifferent), chopped liver and tunafish salad (ick. Too icky looking to even eat).
lol. I’d give all the icky stuff a whirl. I’d love to come and eat in NY for a week or two.
All of that looks SO good, especially that Wheat Ciabatta! Your spiced pumpkin soup sounds awesome. Have you ever made pumpkin pancakes?
Pumpkin pancakes!? Never heard of it. I will look it up now. Unless you have a recipe you can share?
I must have ordered the ciabatta twice last week (in my enthusiasm) but I’m sure we can finish 2 loaves during cafe food week 🙂
I do! It is actually a Martha Stewart recipe ;D Here it is:
1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
2 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon each cinnamon, ground ginger, and salt
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
pinch of ground cloves
1 cup milk
6 tablespoons pureed pumpkin
2 tablespoons melted butter
1 egg
Whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger, salt, and cloves. In a separate bowl, stir together the milk, the pumpkin, the butter, and the egg. Fold the mixture into the dry ingredients. Melt some butter in a skillet over medium heat; pour 1/4 cup batter for each pancake. Cook pancakes about 3 minutes per side; serve with butter and syrup.
Thanks! I happen to have all those ingredients already.
I love fennel, we usually slice it thickly and grill it; the grilling caramelizes the sugars and brings out the sweetness. Then we slice it onto salads or as a side with lemon juice and garlic. Yum. I’ve also grated it into slaws which is a very nice addition. One of my favourite Italian places does it sliced very thinly, raw and pairs it with a mango purée, it is indeed quite lovely.
Wow Eva, all those sound wonderful.
I like the idea of a CSA but haven’t joined one yet…I plan to look into it more seriously as soon as my hubby and I are empty nesters…next week! Your photos are lovely and I especially like the bunny ones on yesterdays post!
Thanks Linda. What will you do with all that empty next time? I bet you have plenty of projects 🙂
Your meal ideas always make me drool…
Come and add this link to this week’s CSA Link party…http://inherchucks.com/2012/08/08/whats-in-the-box-38/. Looking forward to seeing you there 🙂
I’m there 🙂
hi genie i’d love to get my hands on one of those boxes x so wonderful, go nz !
Hi Paul, not sure if there are any companies that offer this service but it’s worth a little research! It’s nice having a delivery of fresh stuff every week.
Fennel is my favourite – do this. Slice it real thin, drizzle over extra virgin olive oil, balsamic vinegar, rock salt and black pepper. So. Amazing.
Maybe with my lunch tomorrow! We had apple and fennel slaw with fish burritos for dinner last night (decided burritos were better than quesadillas), but still have half the fennel left.