Tofu Tuesday: Evening light
Tofu sitting pretty at about 8.30pm last night. The light was surprisingly lovely. Click here to see more editions of Tofu Tuesday.
Author: Bunny Eats Design
Monday Bundy: Needle & I Design
Local creative crafter Lauren Butler is responsible for Needle & I whose blog I have followed for some time. She is also an avid foodie, a great home cook and LOVES to photograph food. Please check out her blog here or her Instagram here. Here are a few pics of some bunny-related Needle & I designs. Her range of cushions, garlands, mobiles and bedding use high quality natural fabrics like linens, cottons, silks, and boiled wools and are available at stockists such as Father Rabbit and Nature Baby. Click here to see more editions of Monday Bunday.
Year of Firsts tag
The Koala and I have just come home from a long weekend at a sweet house by the beach celebrating my sister and her boyfriend’s birthdays. It was wonderful to hang out with them and a group of their best friends. Being married and with a tight group of my own friends, I don’t meet new faces often. I’m an introvert but it’s great to get out of your comfort zone. New experiences encourage growth. Over the long weekend, Elise over at The Confetti Room proposed a Year of Firsts tag, where bloggers write a list of 20-30 firsts they want to experience this year and blog about them. I was lucky to sit next to Elise at the recent #brunchclub Auckland event and within 10 minutes of meeting, we discovered we went to the same primary school in Rotorua. It’s funny to wonder if our paths may crossed over 20 years ago. Serendipitous! I am all about bucket lists and new challenges. Especially food related ones. Two years ago, I started the link up party Our Growing Edge to challenge fellow bloggers to …
Our Growing Edge – February Intro
We all have bucket lists. Whether they’re written down somewhere or kept in our heads and hearts. Our Growing Edge is the part of us that is still learning and experimenting. It’s the part that you regularly grow and improve, be it from real passion or a conscious effort. This monthly event aims to connect and inspire us to try new things and to compile a monthly snapshot of what food bloggers are getting up to. The February link up for Our Growing Edge is live. This month is hosted is hosted by Kim from Love Live Life by Kim. Kim is a Psychology student based in London with an inspiring blog hoping to achieve a better lifestyle and body by eating clean and exercising. With her love for food and passion for photography she hopes to create inspirational articles. The majority of her recipes are gluten and lactose-free, easy to make, and healthy (with the occasional cheat-meal). To join, click on the submission button below: …and just in case you missed it, check out the round up by Christine and Kathy …
Tofu Tuesday: Watermelon
Rabbits eating watermelon is kind of a thing and after seeing my friends’ guinea pigs demolish watermelon, I thought I’d better give Tofu his first taste of watermelon over the Christmas and New Year period. Since then, Tofu gets a piece every time we have watermelon in the house. Nothing quite like a chilled slice of melon on a hot summer’s day. Aww yiss. Click here to see more editions of Tofu Tuesday.
Monday Bunday: The White Rabbit
Monday Bunday went on holiday last week, I don’t know if anyone noticed but today I present a double whammy Monday Bunday rolled into a restaurant review. I recently joined the NZ-based bloggers group #brunchclub. Here, bloggers can network, share tips and advice on all things blog related and of course, meet regularly for brunch. On Saturday, I attended my very first#brunchclub meetup. I was super excited not only to meet local bloggers (some who I have followed for a while) but also because it was at a newish cafe/bar/restaurant called The White Rabbit. This week’s Monday Bunday is a review this visit. History of the space The White Rabbit is in downtown Auckland on the corner of Customs Street and Gore Street, where the slightly dingy pub Rose & Crown and later Britomart Brewery used to be. The building, originally known as Hotel Britomart was established in 1864, just a year before Lewis Carroll published Alice in Wonderland. Painted white and fitted out in Scandinavian inspired light fittings, the space is light, bright and very white. …
Sawadee Kaaaaa – Zomato Meetup
I have three food-related events on this week. On Sunday there was The Auckland Seafood Festival and on Tuesday I indulged in a night of tasty Thai food, kitschy cocktails, and foodie conversation. I have one more event up my sleeve this week. More on that later. My fellow reviewers, bloggers and the lovely ladies from Zomato converged on Sawadee, a Thai restaurant at the K’ Rd end of Ponsonby Road, across from the sunken buildings at Western Park. It’s been around for about 20 years so I was embarrassed to admit that while I love Thai food, I had never been to Sawadee before. Sawadee is much larger than you might expect from the street. The decor is inviting, well lit and flowers and electric candles set the scene. Sawadee’s special summer cocktail menu is all retro tiki-bar. I tried the Crying Tiger (brandy, Cointreau and lemon juice, rimmed with sugar). I picked this because it seemed like the sensible choice out of the very flamboyant list of cocktails. It was perfect. Not too sweet, no crazy colours or …
Favourite Seafood Recipes
Summer in New Zealand is all about gorging on simply prepared seafood. This summer has been particularly seafood filled. Here is a collection of five my favourite seafood recipes. Just click on the images to view the recipes. Enjoy! 1. Steamed Garlic Prawns Super easy recipe for Steamed Garlic Prawns, a very popular dish at Kingsland’s Canton Cafe. Includes a handy guide to prawn sizing in New Zealand. 2. Pan Fried Flounder The most popular recipe on my blog by miles, this buttery golden pan fried flounder makes use of a whole flounder. You’ll need a flounder (or two) butter, more butter, flour, salt and pepper. 3. Raw Fish Salad I fell in love with Ika Mata (raw fish salad) in Rarotonga. Here’s my version of it using fresh tuna fillets, though you can also use any firm white fish. 4. Oysters Kilpatrick Oysters Kilpatrick are an easy crowd pleaser. Oystes, bacon, tasty sauce and cheese. What could go wrong? 5. All-in-one Seafood Stew I test out Adie McClelland’s all-in-one seafood stew from her …
Snacks for the win!
Forget what you thought you knew about bulk food bins, this stuff is is gourmet. Over the summer, I got to sample a few Alison’s Pantry goodies which I shared with anyone who would eat them with me. Funny enough, it’s not so hard to find friends to sample sweet and savoury tidbits. I even roped in a few strangers. Equally at home in your snack drawer or on platters for entertaining over summer. Thanks to Alison’s Pantry, one of you will win a prize pack containing eight different platter products including both sweet and savoury options (Valued at $120). Due to logistics, this prize is only open to New Zealand locals and actual products may vary from samples pictured. To enter, fill in the form at the bottom of this post, including a skill question. Alison’s Pantry offer a bulk food range in New Zealand supermarkets. Great if you just want raw ingredients without the fancy packaging. Endorsed by Dame Alison Holst, the “Mother of New Zealand Cooking”, the range can be found in in …
Tofu Tuesday: Pellet Bowl
Rabbits are generally quiet creatures, but if you’ve ever lived with a house rabbit, you’ll know there’s nothing quite as loud (or annoying) as a rabbit hullabaloo up at 2am in the morning. Rabbits are crepuscular, which means they are most active at dawn and dusk, though midnight can be a good time for a bit of theatre. Thankfully, it doesn’t happen too often. If Tofu is being noisy in our bedroom at night, we either scoop him up and put him outside our bedroom, or sometimes putting him on the bed makes him settle. Sometimes. Click here to see more editions of Tofu Tuesday.
Auckland Seafood Festival 2015 – food porn and review
My seafood gobbling friends and I descended on the Auckland Seafood Festival at midday today with hunger in our bellies and a readiness to partake. Being the middle of Auckland Anniversary weekend, the city was BUSY. There was plenty of atmosphere and things to do. There still are. The layout of the venue at Halsey Wharf was quite different this year and the areas felt a little less marked out. No restaurant alley this year, but it was easy to navigate. There was plenty of seating, though the limited shade was snapped up quickly. The lines were short all except for the line for the Oceanz’s crayfish (from $25 for half) which was so long (about 40 bellies deep) we didn’t bother. My favourite dish was one from NSIA a school for hospo students. Pulpo in honey and balsamic, gazpacho caviar, Spanish olive soil, capsicum sofrito ($8). Pulpo is spanish for octopus and this dish was filled with bite size octopi. Quite an adventurous and sophisticated dish, it really paid off. We also tried their …
Auckland Seafood Festival 2015 is almost here!
Auckland Seafood Festival is on this long weekend and I am way too excited. While I have firm favourite seafoods that I eat during the year (salmon, prawn, squid, mussels), at the festival I prefer to eat foods that I have less often. I have a pretty adventurous palate, there’s nothing Auckland Seafood Festival could offer me that I wouldn’t try. This year I’m looking forward to: Scampi Clams Whitebait Kina Octopus …plus anything I haven’t tried before. My list might be a little ambitious, but I have The Koala and two friends coming along with me this year and they all know that I like to share 🙂 What seafoods do you always eat and are there seafoods you haven’t tried (but want to)? Menu If you’re anything like me, you might like to have a little read about what to expect. The menu for each vendor can be found here. Oysters Just a little note, as wonderful as oysters are, most varieties of oyster are not in season. Frozen thawed oysters can be lacklustre, so buyer beware. (Thanks for the tip Easy Food Hacks.) Cashless …
Tofu Tuesday: Cornsilk
The height of summer means sweet corn season and Tofu the bunny goes bonkers for corn silk. Lucky no one wants to fight him for the silk, or there’d be trouble. Click here to see more editions of Tofu Tuesday.
Monday Bunday: Rabbit With Mask – Exclusive Interview
The Koala recently pointed me to a Chinese artist named Shae Syu whose portfolio titled Rabbit With Mask recently met a cult following on the web. Shae is an artist from Taiwan who draws and paints amazing rabbit related pieces. Here is a small selection of her works. You can see these and more over on her portfolio here or on her Facebook page here. I caught up with Shae over the summer to ask her some pressing questions. Who is your favourite artist? Beatrix Potter. What inspires your work? I like the creativity of “The Tale of Peter Rabbit”. Beatrix Potter has made the rabbit very interesting and real, making the reader feel warm and happy, also her style is very unique and there is a lot for me to learn from her. What is your art/design training? I have been interested in painting (and drawing) since I was little. Before high school, I started by drawing things that I like, mostly animals and people. I studied art and design in high school, …
Bacon Jam
The Koala and I spent Christmas in Christchurch. Our first meal off the plane was at Terra Viva Cafe with The Koala’s parents. When I saw Hot smoked salmon and bacon jam salad on their menu, I didn’t look any further. I didn’t have to. Nothing could beat that combo for me. The salad was both tasty and light, the perfect meal for a “just got off the plane and I’m going to have an epic dinner later”. You can read my review and photos over here. Since then, I’ve been dreaming about bacon jam. “But Genie, what the hell is bacon jam?” I hear you cry. Well, bacon jam is bacon (of course) cooked down with onion, garlic and sweet gummy goodness until it is caramelised and crazy good. I had to make it. I had a browse at some recipes and decided on this one from Dinner With Julie. I’ve simplified an already simple recipe. Seriously, if you are a fan of bacon, you need this in your life. This recipe will make your house smell …
Our Growing Edge January 2015 – Intro
I hope you have all suitably recovered from the summer holidays (those of you in the southern hemisphere). I’ve been back at work now for a week and a half. We’re still on skeleton staff, but work is picking up both in freelance and at my day job. I can feel in my bones that 2015 is going to be a big one. I know many of you have resolutions (because I’ve read them). For yourself and for your blog. Whether it’s to find happiness, motivation, health, fitness or adventure we’re all dreaming and setting goals. For those who have just started reading, I’d love to introduce Our Growing Edge to you. Our Growing Edge is the part of us that is still learning and experimenting. It’s the part that you regularly grow and improve, be it from real passion or a conscious effort. This monthly event aims to connect and inspire us to try new things and to compile a monthly snapshot of what food bloggers are getting up to. This month is hosted by Francesca …
Tofu Tuesday: Shady Nook
RWAF NZ Hopper Group is a rabbit welfare group in New Zealand. Yesterday on Facebook, the RWAF Hopper Group of New Zealand posted a pic of a rabbit enjoying a shady nook. A shady nook is the cool spot that bunnies seek out during hot summer days. Rabbits prefer the cold to the heat and are very good at finding the best spots. Tofu the bunny spends his days roaming in our garden. It can get hot out but there are plenty of spots for him to find shade. Tofu used to have an intricate grotto inside a bush in our garden. He had several tunnels in that bush so that he could enter it from different points. Here are couple of photos from 2012 and 2013 of Tofu and his lush grotto: Since he has become blind, the grotto is now overgrown and this summer, he prefers to hang out in the desolate junk pile that has accumulated under our deck. I keep meaning to clear out the junk, as it looks pretty …
Monday Bunday: Bobo Pot Mat
This pot mat is made of MDF and features a close up of a bunny face. If you don’t want to use it as a trivet, you could always use it as a platter as pictured. Designed by Elisabeth Dunker at Fine Little Day. Get it here. Elisabeth is from Sweden and has a background in graphic design, illustration, interior styling and TV photography. She enjoys second hand shopping, whimsy and collecting and curating her finds. Check out her Instagram over here. Click here to see more editions of Monday Bunday.
Wanderlust Tag
Wanderlust is a strong desire for or impulse to wander or travel and explore the world When you yearn to do something, it feels like everyone else around you is doing it and you’re the only one who is not. I am itching to travel. I’m sure I’m not the only one but when I listen to my friends’ travel stories, I get insane bouts of jealousy. This post is not going to soothe this itch. No sir. It is littered with some of my favourite travel snapshots. Revisiting travel photos is great, you get a second life from your travels, but man, it sure makes me want to pack up my bags and go. Wanderlust Tag is a series of travel-related questions for those with wanderlust… Jules from The Kiwi Diaries recently played Wanderlust Tag. Jules is one of my favourite bloggers in the world. She is from Argentina but now lives in Auckland, New Zealand. She is a graphic designer, traveler and foodie. Kindred spirits! If you decide to play Wanderlust Tag, please make a note in the comments below …
Tofu Tuesday: The Great New Zealand Cookbook
Tofu the bunny has a flick through The Great New Zealand Cookbook that I received for Christmas. The Great New Zealand Cookbook is a huge compendium of New Zealand’s biggest names in food. So many awesome recipes and a few new faces too. The bunny stops at the carrot cake recipe. No surprises there. Click here to see more editions of Tofu Tuesday.
Bunny Eats Design 