All posts filed under: Culinary Adventures

Gong Hei Faht Choy!

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Happy Chinese New Year to you! This year is the year of the horse. The Koala is actually a horse so I suppose this is his year. We’re heading to my parents house for a celebratory feast, though I’m sure every Chinese restaurant the world over will be packed this weekend so if you’d like to take up the chance for a Chinese feast, make sure you book ahead. With a new month comes a new edition of Our Growing Edge. Thank you to all the bloggers who submitted to last month’s event. It’s always a delight seeing what others are pushing themselves with each month and sharing tips, failures and inspirations. Check this space for the round up by Louise at Crumbs and Corkscrews. The host for February is Kindra from California Cavegirl Kindra. Kindra eats and cooks as clean as possible, following a mostly Paleo, grain-free, gluten-free, raw dairy, locavore mission. I’m always looking out for local food producers and celebrating local eating is good for every community. Our Growing Edge is a …

Auckland Seafood Feastival is upon us

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The Auckland Seafood Feastival is on this weekend. It’s long weekend here in Auckland and you can dine on kai moana (Māori for seafood) on Saturday, Sunday or Monday. Every year I gaze upon the crayfish but never partake. I think this year will be my year! Find out more or purchase tickets here: www.aucklandseafoodfestival.co.nz Some of my photos from previous festivals.      

The Burger Cookbook

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Steve Priest is a burger-loving, Auckland-based graphic designer who has recently embarked on the journey to write, design, photograph and publish a cookbook. Steve has an impressive work history including working with food-related design and motion graphic projects in both New Zealand and Australia. Projects such as NZ’s Hottest Home Baker, The Foodstore, Montieth’s Wild Food Challenge, Food Truckers and Sky Sports Grill. When I found out about Steve’s new project The Burger Cookbook, I felt pangs of envy and excitement. To design (and maybe even write) a cookbook is on my bucket list. I have a long way to go, but Steve is on his way. To get Steve to his goal of publishing his burger cookbook, he has started a Kickstarter project to raise the funds needed to get this off the ground. For those who have not used Kickstarter before, Kickstarter is a platform for projects to get crowd-funded backing. There are different tiers of pledges each with different rewards such recipe cards, cookbooks, special acknowledgements and even an opportunity to taste Steve’s …

Make Onigiri

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This post is part of Our Growing Edge, a monthly blogging event to encourage us to try new food related things. Louise from Crumbs and Corkscrews is the host for this month’s event. If you have a blog and you are eating or cooking something new this month, click below to join. Yesterday, I re-watched the movie Spirited Away at Silo Cinema. Silo Cinema is a free, weekly open-air-cinema in downtown Auckland at Silo Park. Right on the water’s edge looking across the harbour bridge, with the moon in view, movies are projected onto a big unused silo. Aucklanders bring blankets, snacks, tipple, friends or family for a cheap night out. Magic. I’m a huge fan of Hayao Miyazaki/Studio Ghibli (pronounced jee-blee or ji-bu-ri). His animations are rich in imagination, characters, colour and often sumptuous food scenes. Watching Spirited Away  reminded me once again why I put onigiri on my foodie bucket list. Onigiri or rice balls are portable, cheap, filling and can be thought of as Japanese soul food. Unlike sushi, which are made by highly trained sushi chefs, rice …

Shared meals and late nights

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With a new month, comes a new round up of Our Growing Edge. Hailing from Melbourne, Australia, December’s host is Leah from Sharing The Food We Love. While there is never a theme for the event, it was a delight to see many dishes inspired by French cuisine. I guess French cooking is way, way up on bucket lists. The submission list was small but deliciously formed. Read the round up here. More/Less I’m sure I wasn’t the only busy person last month and I hope you all had safe a delicious holiday season. The Koala and I are home after a holiday out in the countryside at on a friend’s farm. Friends old and new, delicious shared meals three times a day and plenty of laughing, chewing the fat and imbibing with friends, some of which we hadn’t seen in years. I had an epiphany. I don’t enjoy cooking at home for groups (it stresses me out), but cooking on holiday is fun. It’s spontaneous and low key. Everyone pitches in a bit of this …

Duck Liver, Cognac and Sage Pâté

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This post is part of Our Growing Edge, a monthly blogging event to encourage us to try new food related things. Leah from Sharing The Food We Love is the host for this month’s event. If you have a blog and you are eating or cooking something new this month, click below to join. ‘Gnac Merry Christmas and happy holidays everyone! It’s a great season for eating and drinking. Let’s begin with a little shout out to Cognac. The Koala and I have been enjoying Cognac since winter. At 40% alc/vol it’s a serious tipple but goes down smooth as silk. I also love how low maintenance it is. Just pour and enjoy. No ice, no mixer, no fluff and cheaper than I would have guessed. With Cognac in the house, I wanted to do something else with it this month and perusing my foodie bucket list, I found just the thing. Years ago, I was a little obsessed with liver after I read about the super rat science experiment: “A group of scientists that have been …

Happy December!

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Happy December! December always seems to be a month of decadent food and plenty of drink. This week I have woken up with a hangover three mornings in a row, so today was thinking that I wouldn’t be drinking again for a little while. I thought I  wouldn’t be buying any booze at the market…that is until I saw the Wild Side Cider that I featured on Monday Bunday this week! A sucker for cute labels and especially one that I featured this week, I decided to get a bottle “for research purposes”. I hope you all have more willpower than I. A new month means a new Our Growing Edge Event. Last month’s Our Growing Edge roundup will be posted by Becky at My Utensil Crock and December’s event will be hosted by Leah from Sharing The Food We Love. Join us!  

Duck fat two ways

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I refuse to believe every “new fact” I read about food because facts change as science and attitudes change. You can shop around for the truth you want to hear. Once you find it, you can hold onto it tightly. Blind to other truths. So today I read that duck fat is considered by some as a healthy fat. Healthier than butter, closer to olive oil. Oh GOOD. Because I bought a jar of duck fat just last week. One version of the truth is good enough for me. A new fat I’ve never cooked with duck fat before, so in the spirit of research here’s two simple recipes that might inspire you to cook with duck fat. Duck fat can be found in glass jars in the oil section or in plastic tubs in the meat section of your supermarket or at fancy food shops. You can even make your own duck fat as a by product of cooking duck like this. Duck Fat & Sage Roast Potatoes Sage is easy to grow and …

Deep Fried Duck and wanky dumplings

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Please excuse me. I am fresh from an evening of fine booze and delicious, oh so delicious food. Quote of the night: When did we become so wanky?  Seriously. Between the “That’s not jam, that’s couli.” or trying to identify the six flavours of the Fisher & Paykel experience — which by the way, I tasted barley, marjoram, maple syrup, black garlic, coriander and black olive — it was sure as hell wanky but so much fun. I saw a few “World famous in New Zealand” food bloggers and food personalities walking about too. Taste of Auckland is like Disneyland for foodies. My friends Coco and Livvy, two fine foodies came with me on opening night (again) and we shared a bunch of dishes (again). I could visit Taste of Auckland every day (mentally, not economically). I’d go back or seconds, thirds even. The weather was divine, sunny, even warm at times and the 5.30pm to 9.30pm session a good amount of time to eat and drink your way through various restaurants, vineyards, liqueurs and food producers. …

Lovely little plates of yum

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Taste of Auckland is tomorrow! If I possessed a foodie calendar, Taste of Auckland would be the highlight of it. I have blogged about here and here and it’s a chance to enjoy lovely little plates of yum by many of Auckland’s best chefs. Taste is a global franchise and next year there will be eighteen Taste events worldwide. It is possible I am a little bias. I haven’t missed a Taste event yet. With that track record, they must be doing something very, VERY right. Call me an earnest fangirl. As part of Bunny Eats Design’s 3rd year anniversary celebrations I was delighted to give away 2 double passes to Taste of Auckland next week. But if you missed out, GA tickets are $25 but don’t forget to allocate some spending money too. Expect to spend between $30 and $60 depending on how much you like to eat and drink. The Menu Click to enlarge     I recommend 3 to 4 dishes per person, depending on how many free samples you try (and how much you drink). Take a foodie …

Our Growing Edge October Round-up

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Alice over at Nom Nom Cat has posted up the round-up for Our Growing Edge October. View it here to see what foodies have been pushing themselves with last month. This month’s event will be hosted by Becky from My Utensil Crock. If you have a blog and think you might be trying eating or cooking something new this month, click below to join.

King Salmon

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“The only reason I travel, is for an excuse to eat more than usual”.  – A Homemade Life, Molly Wizenberg It is hard for me to pass up any chance to eat salmon. I am a salmon eating MACHINE. We saw signs for glacial water fed salmon and I was licking my chops in anticipation. When we passed by the Mt Cook Alpine Salmon shop early on Monday morning, we had to stop. No matter that we hadn’t had breakfast yet. On the edge of Lake Pukaki, mesmerised by the view of Mt Cook, The Koala and I enjoyed fresh salmon sashimi for breakfast. The Koala noted how firm and dense the salmon was and a little research into the farm pleased me very much. This isn’t just any farmed salmon. It is quite possibly the best farmed salmon money can buy. Why Mt Cook Alpine Salmon is so awesome: Eco-sustainably farmed Pure fast-flowing glacier and snow fed water from the Southern Alps of New Zealand. 1,969 feet above sea level, it is the world’s highest …

Mackenzie Country

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The Koala and I went to a wedding at Lake Hawea in the South Island of New Zealand. A great excuse for a little road trip on the other end of the country, we also visited Lakes Tekapo, Pukaki and Wanaka. The area is stunning, rich with photo ops and export quality food production. This is a countryside of milk and honey, lamb, wool, venison and very, very good salmon. The middle of the South Island around the Southern Alps is known as Mackenzie Country. The area has a colourful history and you can read a short summary about James Mackenzie and his sheep stealing escapades here. Driving through Mackenzie Country, it was hard not to fall in love with the alpine pasture and tussock, turquoise lakes, snow-capped mountains and millions of sheep. I squealed every time I saw a particularly adorable lamb. Being spring, there were more sweet faced lambs than you could shake a stick at. We stopped to converse with the livestock and while the sheep were vocal, they did not express …

Hannibal Buress got me into pickle juice

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The Koala and I laugh about pickle juice. Probably too much. To find out why, watch this bit from funny man Hannibal Buress. It’s gold. The Koala is addicted to pickles so we also have an abundance of pickle juice in this house. We usually throw it out. Cooking with pickle juice wouldn’t be part of my radar but the seed was sown. Hannibal Buress made me experiment with pickle juice. I hope he likes this recipe! It ain’t swordfish but the salmon market is pretty stable. 😉 Note: recipe may vary as pickle juice is a man-made product and comes in all manners of strengths. I found ours  mild  with a little sweetness and delicately flavoured the fish. I felt that could have done with a little more oomph but The Koala thought the flavour was just right. I served this with pumpkin mash and some rainbow silverbeet (rainbow chard) for colour. There’s something fun about a widly colourful all-natural plate of food. But if you want to be a bit more subdued, rice …

First visit to the butchery and 20 Hour Slow Cooked Pork Belly

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This post is part of Our Growing Edge, a monthly blogging event to encourage us to try new food related things. Alice from Nom Nom Cat is the host for month’s event. If you have a blog and have cooked, eaten or experienced a new food this month, come and join this event.  We have been shopping smarter and started a new routine that will hopefully stick. Supermarket: once a month Produce delivery: twice a month Asian grocer: twice a month Free range butcher: once or twice a month Specialty food shop: once a month This results in a shopping trip once a week but the best quality items for the best prices. Westmere Butchery I’ve been meaning to visit Westmere Butchery for ever. Highly recommended by my meat eating friends, they specialise in free range, free farmed and organic meats and their prices are reasonable. They also make award winning sausages on premises.  Years ago, a friend brought beef and scallop sausages to a BBQ. That sausage made quite an impression on me apparently. Fat scallops dotted throughout …

Our Growing Edge September Round Up

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Feast your eyes on the goodies over on Sweets and Brains. Thank you to our host Marnelli and to all those that joined Our Growing Edge. The dishes cooked and eaten look mouthwatering. A great range of baked goods, exotic recipes from blogger’s own cuisines, tasty healthy options and decadence. I look upon the round up like a delicious pot luck extravaganza.Can you imagine tasting all those in one sitting? A a girl can dream… Comfort foods and go-to recipes are fine, we all have them. Expanding your repertoire to extend to a larger variety of dishes, go-to recipes and even special occasion recipes are interesting and fun. There is something lovely about food cooked by foodies that push out of their own comfort zones. These dishes have all been coveted and marked worth attempting and failing for. Trying something new can be a bit scary but if you try new things every month, it becomes a normal part of your life. Failure is bound to happen but learning how to salvage something is a great skill …

Make Aioli

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This post is part of Our Growing Edge, a monthly blogging event to encourage us to try new food related things. Marnelli from Sweets & Brains is the host for month’s event. If you have a blog and have cooked, eaten or experienced a new food this month, come and join this event.  The science of cooking both frightens and fascinated me. I cook by taste, touch and feel. A bit of this, a bit of that and dinner magically appears. When science is involved, I have to throw intuition out the window and follow a recipe. It doesn’t sit well with me. I’ve failed and conquered hollandaise sauce and decided to tackle item number 70 on my foodie bucket list: make aioli. Both hollandaise and aioli are emulsions which means they are a mixture of two or more liquids that normally do not mix. Egg yolk and a good beating quickly fixes this. Some vigorous whisking is required for this recipe and requires your full attention for a short time. You could make use of a spare …

GIVEAWAY 5: TASTE OF AUCKLAND – DOUBLE PASSES

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Today’s giveaway is open to NZ residents only. The highlight of my foodie calendar has got to be Taste of Auckland in November. I have blogged about here and here and it’s a chance for every day people to have a taste of very lovely plates of food by many of Auckland’s best chefs. Pictured in the montage above are some of the dishes I’ve had the pleasure of trying at past editions of Taste. Taste is now in it’s 5th year, you can look forward to delicious offerings from: The Commons Fish Depot Everybody’s Izakaya Toto’ The Grove Bracu Baduzzi ….plus food and wine producers and much, much more. I am happy to announce as part of Bunny Eats Design’s 3rd year anniversary celebrations, two lucky readers will win a double pass each to Taste of Auckland courtesy of the festival. Prize can be redeemed at any session. Taste of Auckland 14-17 November 2013 Victoria Park, Auckland city http://www.tasteofauckland.co.nz To enter, please fill in the form below including a prize question. THE SMALL PRINT …

GIVEAWAY 3: THE HONESTY BOX

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Today’s giveaway is open to residents of Auckland, NZ only as delivery can only be to a central city address. I’ve reviewed a bunch of produce boxes in Auckland this year and my favourite of the bunch is a small company called The Honesty Box. Now it’s your turn to test them out, on the house 🙂 I am happy to announce as part of Bunny Eats Design’s 3rd year anniversary celebrations, two lucky readers will receive a box of goodies each from The Honesty Box. Johnny from The Honesty Box has kindly offered up two great prizes. The F&V Small for home (as pictured in my reviews The Honesty Box here, here and here). About a 50/50 split of fruit and vegetables. Great for couples, a small family, small flats and apartments. Excellent value with the best quality seasonal produce. Corporate Classic to a central city office of your choosing. The most popular size – perfect for small to mid-sized offices, or as a mid-week top up. 28 pieces of top quality, fresh fruit. The Classic suits offices …